Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They must agree in gender and number with nouns (e.g.: des choses importantes). Most adjectives come after the noun. However, many common adjectives precede the noun. To use French adjectives correctly you need to know: a) the most common adjectives; b) how to form masculine, feminine and plural adjectives; c) how to show agreement with nouns; and d) where to place the adjective.
French adjectives are either masculine or feminine (depending on the kind of noun they modify). The most common way to form a feminine adjective is to add an "-e" to a masculine adjective, e.g.: haut/haute, lent/lente, grand/grande. Note that for some forms, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine, e.g.: pauvre, facile, proche, habile.
Other common changes are:
Still, many frequent adjectives involve less predictable changes. Some of the most common ones you should know are presented in the following table:
There is one small group of masculine adjectives that change form when the next word begins with a vowel sound, e.g.:
The most common way to make an adjective plural is simply to add "-s" to it. For example, gentil > gentils, pauvre > pauvres.
However, masculine adjectives that end in -au usually take -x in the plural, e.g.: beaux and nouveaux.
Colour adjectives agree in gender and number, just like other adjectives, e.g.: une voiture bleue, des chemises blanches. The two main exceptions to this are:
Since adjectives describe nouns, they share features with them. As you know, nouns can be masculine (e.g.: un livre) or feminine (une chose) and they can also be singular or plural. The form an adjective takes reflects this. For example, if you use the adjective important to describe the feminine plural noun choses, it must show both feminine and plural agreement, e.g.: des choses importantes (where the "e" indicates feminine and the "s" indicates plural).
In the examples we have just seen, the adjective and noun are side by side. However this is not always the case. Often enough, the adjective and noun may be separated by a word, e.g.: Ma mère est américaine or by several words, e.g.: La personne qui travaille avec ma mère est canadienne. Regardless of the distance that separates a noun and its adjective, they must agree in gender and number.
The vast majority of French adjectives come after the noun, e.g.:
However, a number of highly frequent (and relatively short) adjectives are used before the noun. The most frequent of these are bon, beau, meilleur, jeune, petit, long. For example,
A small number of adjectives change meaning, depending on whether they precede or follow a noun, e.g.:
ancien = "former" or "very old", e.g.:
brave = "simple" or "courageous", e.g.:
certain = "sort of" or "sure", e.g.:
grand = "great" or "tall", e.g.:
pauvre = "unfortunate" or "poor", e.g.:
propre = "own" or "clean", e.g.:
Q: Why is it une belle maison and NOT un beau maison?
In French, we try to indicate words that go together by having them "match" in some way. Grammatical gender marking is the way French indicates that an adjective goes with a noun. For example, the word maison is feminine, so we would write une belle maison since belle is the feminine form. In this example, the adjective comes before the noun, but most adjective in fact come after. Regardless, the adjective still reflects the gender category of the noun, e.g.: une histoire intéressante, un garçon intelligent.
Q: Why is it un livre intéressant and NOT un intéressant livre?
Most adjectives (e.g.: important, gentil) follow the noun in French (e.g.: C'est un film intéressant, un travail difficile, un touriste anglais). This is of course different from what occurs in English where all adjectives precede nouns (e.g.: an interesting movie).
Q: Why is it les belles maisons NOT les belle maison?
Determiners (les), adjectives (belles) and nouns (maisons) must agree in terms of number (i.e.: singular or plural). If the noun is in the plural, e.g. maisons, the adjective and determiner must reflect this by ending in -s: les belles maisons.
Q: Why is it mon livre préféré and NOT mon préféré livre?
Q: Why is it les quatre prochains jours and NOT les prochains quatre jours?
French differs from English in terms of this structure. In English, the word "next" comes before numbers; in French, the word prochain comes after numbers.
Fill in the blank with the correct form of the italicized adjective:
Choose the correct translation:
Choose the correct form of the adjective:
Choose the correct form (gender agreement) :
Write the adjective in the correct position:
Provide the masculine form of the following adjectives:
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