Learn French: Leurs chaussettes sont kaki ou plutôt orange ? - Are their socks khaki or rather orange?

Leurs chaussettes sont kaki ou plutôt orange ?

Are their socks khaki or rather orange?

Breakdown of Leurs chaussettes sont kaki ou plutôt orange ?

être

to be

leur

their (singular and plural forms: leur, leurs)

plutôt

rather

Questions & Answers about Leurs chaussettes sont kaki ou plutôt orange ?

Why doesn't orange have an s at the end to match the plural chaussettes?

Colors derived from nouns—like fruits, flowers, or precious stones—are usually invariable in French. Because orange comes from the name of the fruit, it doesn't agree in gender or number with the noun it describes, so it never takes an s.

Is kaki invariable for the same reason?

Yes! Kaki is the name of a fruit (a persimmon) and originally comes from a foreign word meaning "dust." Just like orange or marron, it acts as a noun-derived color, meaning it stays exactly the same in the plural.

Why is it Leurs with an s, when "they" (the owners) are just one group of people?

In French, the possessive adjective always agrees with the thing being owned, not the owner. Even though "their" refers to a group of people, the s on Leurs is there purely because the item owned (chaussettes) is plural. If they shared a single sock, it would be leur chaussette.

How does plutôt work in this sentence?

Here, plutôt means "rather" or "instead," offering a correction or an alternative to the first color. You will also frequently see plutôt used to mean "quite" or "fairly" in other contexts, such as C'est plutôt joli (It's quite pretty).