Café and Marrón

Question

I was doing an online exercise on colors in Spanish and one sentence had the word "café"in it. I checked your dictionary and saw that "café" means coffee. So I got really confused because the sentence said: El edificio es café. The first thing that came to my mind was that "café" means brown. But I know marrón also means brown. Do both words mean "brown"?Can we use both to say "brown"?I was also chatting with a Spanish woman from the south of Spain and she said she's never heard of the word "café" in a sentence like this.It didn't make any sense to her.Thanks in advance for answering.

Answer 1

I've always heard café in Mexico.

Answer 2

Hi Tanya - welcome ot the Forum, if you talk to your friend from the south of Spain - I think she would better understand it if you said 'de color café'.

Answer 3

I think that marrón is the general term and café is a particular brown.

There are other marrones related to food, like canela or chocolate

You also have marrón pajizo, marrón claro, marrón militar.... and a trained eye can surely ennumerate some more (Not my case)

Answer 4

Hello, I am from México and yes, both are the same, only that marrón is lighter and, at least here, we use more "café".