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Comment peut-on décrire la couleur de Bart Simpson, ou Ernie de Sesame Street?

  1. Bart Simpson est jaune et Ernie est orange.
  2. Bart est de la couleur jaune et Ernie est de la couleur orange.
  3. Bart a la peau jaune et Ernie a la peau orange.

Ou... est-ce qu'il y a une autre manière de les décrire?

Merci d'avoir lu, et merci à l'avance pour vos réponses.

EDIT: apologise for the lack of clarity in my question - my French is as yet quite limited so I will ask in English. If you were to describe the overall colour of a cartoon character, what is the preferable way to say it? In the English language, one can say, "He is purple" and that has no additional connotation - the fellow is purple, but I would probably say, "He has purple skin" if he is humanoid. If one is green,and we say, "He is green" it could mean a number of different things: he is sick, he is envious, he is young. It still could mean skin colour but it might be unclear.

I guess I wondered as well - in French, avoir is used for cold, heat, years, right/wrong...

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    Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
    – Community Bot
    Commented Dec 12, 2021 at 1:51
  • I apologise for the lack of clarity in my question - my French is as yet quite limited so I will ask in English. If you were to describe the overall colour of a cartoon character, what is the preferable way to say it? In the English language, one can say, "He is purple" and that has no additional connotation - the fellow is purple, but I would probably say, "He has purple skin" if he is humanoid. If one is green, it could mean a number of different things: he is sick, he is envious, he is young. It still could mean skin colour but it might be unclear.
    – Display Name
    Commented Dec 12, 2021 at 14:51

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It's pretty much the same thing in French, 1 and 3 are perfectly fine. I guess specifying that you're talking about the skin is always a nice addition, especially when the color has other meanings, but often the context is enough.

Keep in mind that 2 makes me feel like they're from the color, like a category, as if, for example, they were playing a sport and Bart was in the yellow team. I don't think any native speaker would use that construction. You would use "Bart est de couleur jaune" if you're talking about his color.

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    in case of sport's team, I would rather use Bart joue en jaune or Bernie a un maillot orange and of course this explictly doesn't refer to skin color.
    – Archemar
    Commented Dec 13, 2021 at 8:13
  • Yes, it does sound like from the color but it also sounds weird. Bart fait partie des jaunes. is more likely right?
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 13, 2021 at 16:18
  • @Lambie Yes it definitely sounds weird, both your version and Archemar's are correct. It's not easy to find an example where an element comes from a color where we wouldn't feel like simply rewording it. Perhaps I could even write: "I don't think any native speaker would use that construction [in any context]", but I didn't want to exclude one rare case where it could work.
    – Simon
    Commented Dec 13, 2021 at 21:29
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    @Lambie In general (i.e. outside the context of a team dressed in yellow), I would avoid fait partie des jaunes. In addition to being offensive if suspected to relate to Asian people, in France, faire partie des jaunes might still be understood as being a traitor in the context of worker union and more recently, les jaunes was sometimes used to name the gilets jaunes.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 13, 2021 at 21:56

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