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Sombre or foncé? Dark rooms, dark clothes and colour agreement

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Use sombre for a dim room and foncé for a dark shade. Compare colour and light, learn bleu foncé agreement and test four practical examples.

In short

Sombre describes a dim place or a gloomy tone: une pièce sombre, une histoire sombre. Foncé describes a dark colour: des rideaux foncés, un sac bleu foncé. Sombre also works for dark colours, so the meanings overlap there.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

A bright French sitting room with dark navy curtains and generous sunlight through a large window.
Des rideaux fonc’s can belong to a bright room. Illustration: Atelier

Light, shade and agreement

1 · Little light → sombre

Use sombre for a room, corridor or other place with little light. Its opposite here is lumineux.

Le couloir est sombre : la lampe est éteinte.The corridor is dark: the lamp is off.

Cette pièce est plus sombre que la cuisine.This room is darker than the kitchen.

2 · Dark shade → foncé

Use foncé for the depth of a colour. Clair gives the opposite shade.

Je préfère le bleu foncé au bleu clair.I prefer dark blue to light blue.

Elle choisit une veste foncée.She chooses a dark-coloured jacket.

3 · Foncé alone agrees

Write foncé, foncée, foncés or foncées to match the noun.

un manteau foncé / une veste foncéea dark coat / a dark jacket

des rideaux foncés / des chemises foncéesdark curtains / dark shirts

4 · A compound colour stays unchanged

In bleu foncé, both words form one shade name. Keep the whole colour phrase unchanged after a feminine or plural noun.

une chemise bleu foncéa dark-blue shirt

des chemises bleu foncédark-blue shirts

5 · Sombre also describes colour and tone

Des couleurs sombres means dark colours. With a story, sombre can mean bleak or gloomy.

Il porte souvent des couleurs sombres.He often wears dark colours.

Ce roman raconte une histoire sombre.This novel tells a bleak story.

Look at the shade

Le salon est lumineux, même avec ses rideaux foncés : le soleil entre par la grande fenêtre.

The living room is bright, even with its dark curtains: sunlight comes through the large window.

A dark shade and plenty of light can appear together. Compare this with a white room whose lights are off.

Question 1No account needed
The corridor has no window and its lamp is off. Complete the description.Le couloir est ___.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

sombre. Sombre describes the lack of light in the corridor.

Question 2No account needed
Complete the adjective meaning “dark-coloured”.Elle porte des chemises ___.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

foncées. Used alone, foncé agrees with feminine plural chemises.

Question 3No account needed
Choose the correct compound colour.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

des chemises bleu foncé. The compound colour bleu foncé stays unchanged, even with plural feminine nouns.

Question 4No account needed
Which sentence describes a bright room with dark-coloured walls?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

La pièce est lumineuse malgré ses murs foncés.. Lumineuse describes the light; foncés describes the wall colour.

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