![]() How To Describe A Dark Complexion Person in French? Un/e nègre, blackos – offensive terms – please don’t use these but it may be useful to understand them.Renoi, kebla – verlan slang – commonly used as well.For the Caribbeans: use nationalities: guadeloupéen/ne, martiniquais/e, haïtien/ne, dominicain/e, jamaïcain/e, cubain/e….For African-Americans: un noir américain, une noire américaine, un afro-américain, une afro-américaine.For Africans: une personne d’origine africaine, d’origine sub-saharienne.Une personne à la peau noire, de teint noir – a person with a very dark complexion.Let’s see how to talk about a black person in French. With all this being said… How To Say A Black Person in French? As in any language, the terms you use or read change through time : a term that is derogatory nowadays may have been the common term used in the early 20th century.įurthermore, French terms used in France may not apply to French spoken in other countries. As with everything, it can be derogatory or not, it depends on the way it is said and by who.Īs I said, this is a touchy subject. You’d use terms like “un groupe éthnique”, “les origines”.Ī common expression in French is: “tu as des origines ?”… This means ‘I suspect your parents are not originally from France but I’m not sure where they’re from – or I don’t want to take a guess’. So what terms do we use when we want to talk about people? We tend to use national origin or ethnicity rather than skin color. Actually, as far as I know, there’s no politically correct terms to talk about “whites” in French! It has become really taboo.įor example, newspapers don’t use the term “whites / les blancs” to talk about white people in France. It’s not common in France to refer to a group of people by their skin color (as opposed to their national origin).Īnd in French, you wouldn’t use the word “une race”. I’d like to start by saying that the French perspective on race is quite different from the North American perspective. Again I need to use keywords in titles so you can find this article on the web… More Details & Audio Samples How To Talk About Races In French? Bronzée – tanned from the sun (as in it would revert to a lighter complexion if not exposed to the sun)įind many useful lists of French adjectives to describe people and things as well as clear explanations of how to use adjectives in French – with many examples – in my French audiobook.Basanée – naturally tanned and darker complexion. ![]() ![]() Hâlée – naturally tanned (one shade up).Olive – I know this one is strange because you may think green! But it refers to a ripe Olive here I guess, so brown….Avoir une peau de roux/ rousse – to have a skin typical of redheads.The French color adjectives will be in the feminine since they describe the skin which with feminine in French. Let’s start by using the different French adjectives you may use to describe the color of skin. La xénophobie – xenophobia – hostility towards what is foreign, especially foreigners.For example, in French, a dog breed is “une race de chien”. Note that it is still the term we use with animals. A term that is no longer used to describe people. Things are slowly changing even though far right extremists are also alarmingly getting more votes. Many people are not openly racists, but have very strong racist tendencies. Unfortunately, racism is France is still pretty strong. The pronunciation of most of these color names can prove to be really tricky if you don’t have the audio handy.How To Talk About Races In French? Racism in France Additionally, for a plural feminine noun, ‘noir’ receives both an ‘e’ and an ‘s’ and becomes ‘noires’. For example, for a feminine noun, ‘noir’ becomes ‘noire’. While in English color names keep their forms regardless of the noun’s gender, French colors must agree with the gender and number of the noun they are determining. Simple as that.īut once again, French learners are not as lucky as English learners. So what is ‘noir’? Well, ‘noir’ is French for ‘black’. There is ‘Pinot Noir’, ‘film noir’, ‘neo-noir’ movies, and even ‘noir furniture’. This is exactly why colors are such a vital part of our everyday vocabulary. But what if the world would lose its color? Would the sky have the same calming effect without its blue? Would we still yearn to spend an afternoon in the wonderful sea of green trees lying at the foothills of a mountain? Would we still drool at the sight of colorless food? Lucky we have Netflix and David Attenborough to remind us that the spectacular is around us and not in our imagination. We sometimes forget how splendid the world we live in is. That’s why it’s important to learn the colors in French before (almost) anything else. Roses are indeed red, but violets are actually violet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |