Les adjectifs en françaisADJECTIVES IN FRENCH

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?An adjective is a word that modifies a noun by describing it in some way: •Shape•Color•Size•Nationality

French adjectives are different from English

adjectives in two ways:

1. Adjectives in French reflect the nouns they describe in gender and number. 2. In French, unlike in English, they usually follow the noun they modify.

Un garçon content Une fille contente

Des garçons contents Des filles contentes

1. French adjectives change to agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify, which means there can be up to four forms of each adjective:

Adjective: joli (pretty)

Masculine singular joli Feminine singular jolie

Masculine plural jolis Feminine plural jolies

The regular adjectives add -e to the base masculine form if it ends in consonant to form the feminine:

Un garçon brun Une fille brune

More than one? Add an -s to form the plural:

Des garçons bruns Des filles brunes

2. In English, adjectives are always found in front of the noun. However, most French adjectives follow the noun they modify:

un livre vert - green book un professeur intelligent - smart teacher

But there are some French adjectives that precede the noun. a) Specialized adjectives called articles--le, la, l’, les, un, une, des, d’--always precede the noun they modify. b) BANGS

   un beau garçon - handsome boy   un petit verre - small glass

B – Beauty-beau / bel / belle / beaux / belles

A – Age-nouveau / nouvel / nouvelle / nouveaux / nouvelles

N – Numbers-premier / première

G - Greatness/Goodness-mauvais / mauvaise

S – Size-gros / grosse

BANGS: RULE FOR WRITING ADJECTIVES

• French adjectives change if they are feminine or plural. But they can sometimes change if they are masculine too!

• There can be up to four forms of each adjective!

• Most French adjectives add ‘E’ for feminine and ‘S’ for plural.

Irregular French Adjectives

There are several French adjectives which have irregular feminine and plural forms, as well as a special form when they are placed in front of a masculine noun that begins with a vowel or a mute H:

Singular PluralAdjective   Masc. Vowel  / H    Fem. Masc. Fem.

beautiful beau bel belle beaux belles

new nouveau nouvel nouvelle nouveaux nouvelles

crazy fou fol folle fous folles

soft mou mol molle mous molles

old vieux vieil vieille vieux vieilles

Here are some rules to help you with irregular adjectives?

Adjectives whose singular masculine form end in -ien need to double the -n before adding –e to make it feminine.

Le garçon canadien La fille canadienneFor adjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -eux change the -x to -s and then add -e to form the feminine singular:

Le garçon heureux La fille heureuse

Adjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -éadd an unaccented -e to form the singular feminine:

Le garçon réservé La fille réservée

Adjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -il doublethe -l and add -e to form the feminine:

Le garçon gentil La fille gentille

If more than one adjective modifies a noun, you may connect them with et:

Une jeune fille heureuse et sympathique

Un jeune homme patient et poli

Je Suis Super! 

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•Most important items are labeled.

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