Adjectives

Adjectifs

One of the eight parts of speech, adjectives are a type of modifier; that is, they modify or describe nouns in a certain way, letting you know the size, shape, weight, color, nationality, or any of a myriad other possible qualities of nouns.

Adjectives serve the same purpose in French and English, but they are very different in two other respects.

1. Gender and Number

English adjectives have a single form, but in French, they can have up to 4* forms, according to the gender and number of the nouns they modify:

masculine singular		masculine plural
feminine singular		feminine plural

Masculine singular is the default form, to which the feminine and/or plural endings are added. For regular adjectives, these endings are e for feminine and s for plural.

Par exemple…

petit (small)

le petit verre		les petits verres
la petite tasse		les petites tasses

When the default form of the adjective ends in s, the masculine singular and plural forms are the same.

Par exemple…

surpris (surprised)

Il est surpris.		Ils sont surpris.
Elle est surprise.		Elles sont surprises.

When the default form of the adjective ends in e, the masculine and feminine forms are the same.

Par exemple…

calme (calme)

un homme calme		des hommes calmes
une femme calme		des femmes calmes

*There are a few adjectives that have 5 forms. These will be addressed in a future lesson, along with irregular feminine and plural forms.

2. Placement

While English adjectives are always placed in front of the nouns they describe, most French adjectives follow nouns:

Par exemple…

le stylo bleu		the blue pen
une histoire intéressante		an interesting story

There are however a few dozen French adjectives that precede nouns. Most of these can be memorized with the simple acronym BAGS:

Beauty	une belle fille un joli appartement	a beautiful girl a nice apartment
Age	un jeune homme une vieille dame	a young man an old woman
Good and bad	une bonne idée un mauvais restaurant	a good idea a bad restaurant
Size	un grand livre une petite maison	a big book a small house

Exceptions to this rule as well as adjectives that change meaning depending on their placement will be addressed in future lessons.