It's like in the US we divide the rainbow into "ROYGBIV" (red orange yellow green blue indigo violet), which was quite different from how I learned it in grade school in another country. But in both situations there are still a variety of other color names in common usage.*
So it's the same there. Maybe "brown" (brun?) is common, but it just wouldn't be used as a broad grouping. Thanks for clarifying.
* After learning the rainbow in one language/culture, we then learned about the spectrum in science class. Only after that did I learn the US divisions, ROYGBIV seemed as arbitrary as any other division. I guess there's many ways to do this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_color#Spectral_color_...
> we then learned about the spectrum in science class
As an ex-PhD in physics, that part always makes me wince. "Color" as a physical concept does not exist, but we still try to say that "blue" is around 400 nm and "red" 700 or so.
In reality "color" is a concept of our mind that is a complicated averaging/interpolation of the brain based on the response of cones in our eye. While the majority of people has more or less the same reaction, it can vary wildly.
This is also the reason why culturally some colours are more or less important.
> Maybe "brown" (brun?) is common
Your comment made me remember a time I was with my children and some of their friends (they were 3 or 4 yo) and they were discussing about colors, including the soil. While "sly" was "blue", the soil was all kinds of things, including a new color "soily" :)
It's like in the US we divide the rainbow into "ROYGBIV" (red orange yellow green blue indigo violet), which was quite different from how I learned it in grade school in another country. But in both situations there are still a variety of other color names in common usage.*
So it's the same there. Maybe "brown" (brun?) is common, but it just wouldn't be used as a broad grouping. Thanks for clarifying.
* After learning the rainbow in one language/culture, we then learned about the spectrum in science class. Only after that did I learn the US divisions, ROYGBIV seemed as arbitrary as any other division. I guess there's many ways to do this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_color#Spectral_color_...