3.2 Adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. The major differences between adjectives in French and English are agreement and placement. In English, an adjective usually comes before the noun it modifies and it does not change. In French, an adjective is usually placed after the noun it modifies and must agree in gender and number with the noun.

Vocabulary

Use the table below to review the vocabulary words that are examples of common adjectives. Listen to the French pronunciations using the following audio recording.

Formation

In French, adjectives agree in both number (singular or plural) and gender (masculine or feminine) with the noun or pronoun they modify. For regular adjectives, the masculine form is the base form to which endings are added.

General Rules

Generally, the feminine adjective is formed by adding an e and the plural adjective is formed by adding s:

If the masculine singular ends in e: do not change feminine, add an s for plural:

If the masculine singular adjective ends in an s, add an e for feminine and s for feminine plural, but do not add an s for masculine plural:

Two other common changes occur with adjectives ending in f and x. If the masculine singular adjective ends in f, then it changes to ve in the feminine:

If the masculine singular adjective ends in x, then it changes to se in the feminine (but remains x in the masculine plural):

Placement

In French, most adjectives come after the noun, unlike in English where the adjective precedes the noun:

However, some adjectives are placed before the noun:

The following are adjectives commonly placed before the noun:

Exercice 1 : Gender and Number in Adjectives

Follow the General Rules on adjective formation outlined above.  For each term below, provide the correct form for the four different types of form: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural and feminine plural.

1. grand (big)
2. rouge (red)
3. sportif (athletic)
4. strict (strict)
5. amusant (funny)
6. nerveux (nervous)
7. content (happy)
8. calme (calm)

Exercice 2 : Adjective Agreement

Each of the following pairs or groups of friends have a lot in common. Use the adjective given  to complete the accompanying sentence; make sure the adjective agrees in gender and number with the people it describes.

Exercise 3 : People

Name people who fit each of the descriptions. Don’t forget to look up any words you don’t recognize.

1. un acteur amusant
2. une actrice sérieuse
3. un homme paresseux
4. un chanteur intelligent
5. une femme ennuyeuse
6. un film intéressant
7. un grand pays
8. une voiture sportive
9. un bon acteur
10. une mauvaise actrice
11. un acteur canadien
12. une jeune chanteuse
13. une belle femme
14. un beau film
15. un petit pays
16. une grosse voiture

This section includes content derived from Francais Interactif, originally released under CC-BY, Liberté, originally released under CC BY-NC-SA, and Tex’s French Grammar, originally released under CC BY 3.0.