Is it acceptable to use "le couleur" in any situation? [closed]

Question

Is it acceptable to use "le couleur" in any situation except for when referring to a certain Canadian pop band?

---

I own a fountain pen ink called Noodler's Le Couleur Royale. This is what is written on the box. However also on the box there is written LaCoR0. To make things even more irritating, when I googled "le couleur" I got served with a pop band named as such that I didn't know even existed.

On Noodler's website the ink is listed as La Couleur Royale.

I am at a loss. Couleur is feminine, thus "la" is the appropriate article, however the colour is blue so I assumed that Noodler's made an intentional misspell of the article (le bleu is the correct formulation as far as I know), however the website has the grammatically correct article. About the band I don't know, overall it's very confusing.

Answer 1

Is it acceptable to use "le couleur" in any situation except for when referring to a certain Canadian pop band?

Even though this was most likely a typo and there is no doubt that the gender of couleur is indeed feminine today, this is not the end of the story:

Remarque Couleur est masculin dans ces locutions elliptiques, le couleur de feu, le couleur de rose, de chair, de citron, etc... Ce ruban est d'un beau couleur de feu (Ac. 1835, 1878). (TLFi)

Il est masculin dans ces locutions elliptiques, Le couleur de feu, le couleur de rose, de chair, de citron, etc., Ce qui a la couleur du feu, de la rose, etc. Ce ruban est d’un beau couleur de feu. (Ac.7)

Littré provides examples, such as La Fontaine ("Le plumage tire sur le couleur de rose vers la racine") and Molière ("Je vous trouve les lèvres d'un couleur de feu surprenant"). LBU § 459 H, says it's rare after the 17th, but Apollinaire still manages to use it in Le Musicien de Saint-Merry "[...] et ce couleur de fraise sur les joues". So the answer is you may find it in classical French literature and you may want to imitate this. Beyond quirkiness there is knowledge.

Answer 2

French here. This could be a joke / pun between:

• La couleur = the color

• "Le" couleur = quelque chose qui coule = something that "flows"

More precisely : "Couler" is a very common verb meaning "to flow", "to pour" (and also "to sink"). You can, in French, create nouns of people/things that do this action by adding the suffix -eur. Example:

• sonner (=to ring) : "le sonneur" (de cloches) (=the man who rings bells in churches, at the time it was non-automatic)

• manger (=to eat) : "le mangeur" : this one is very frequent : "- Tu as encore faim ? - Oh, oui, je suis un gros mangeur !"

• développer : "le développeur" : someone who develops something (similar in English: software developer)

And now:

• couleur : quelque chose/quelqu'un qui coule = someone/something that flows/pours.

So the fountain pen ink is actually something that flows, so it's "le couleur"!

(It is nearly never used as a word in a conversation, but it is technically correct. It perfectly works as the pun with la couleur / le couleur.)

Answer 3

This is a typo.

"Couleur" is feminine. Nobody would write or say "le couleur" unless either:

• they are not that fluent in French (that's the kind of mistake even French children don't make: you have to come from another language)
• they are trying to sound quirky (like that Canadian band may be)
• they made a typo

In your context what makes the most sense is a typo.

Answer 4

I think the confusion comes from this image where it looks a lot like there's a "Le" instead of a "La".

Either it's a mistake, or the font is really weird and the "a" looks too much like an "e". I would say it's a "typo" (if that can be said for handwriting) by someone who doesn't speak French, or not fluently at least (since the brand is based in the US).

And to be clear, no it's not acceptable to say "Le couleur", it's clearly a mistake.

Answer 5

In this case, it's an error of some kind.

But even with poems aside, "Le Couleur Royale" could be correct. If "Couleur Royale" is the proper noun of some masculine thing, then "Le" is the correct definite article for it.

For instance, I initially thought the question related to a pen (masculine "stylo"), instead of the ink (feminine "encre"). If the name of the pen was "Couleur Royale" or "Le Couleur Royale" then this would be correct.

Answer 6

It is not an error. The pen is masculine «le stylo» and «Le Couleur royale» simply means «le stylo appelé “Couleur royale”» and that explains also the feminine gender of the adjective «royale».

It is very common in French to use the gender of a missing noun for the adjective. For example, in Brest there is a bistro called «Le gueule de bois» meaning «Le (bistro appelé) gueule de bois». Similarly when you order a «café noisette» as «noisette» you will say «un noisette», meaning «un café noisette».