Using adjectives

Agreement of adjectives

In French, adjectives agree with the noun, which means that they are masculine, feminine, singular or plural to match the noun.

Regular adjectives

A lot of adjectives follow this pattern:

Adjectives that end in –u, -i, -é follow this pattern, but although the spelling changes, they don’t sound any different when you say them:

Adjectives that already end in –e (with no accent) have no different feminine form:

Adjectives that already end in –s have no different masculine plural form:

Adjectives that end in –er follow this pattern:

Adjectives that end in –eux follow this pattern:

Some adjectives double the last letter before adding an –e for the feminine form:

Irregular adjectives

Many common adjectives are irregular and you need to learn each one separately:

(Vieil, nouvel and bel are used before masculine nouns that begin with a vowel.)

A few adjectives do not change at all:

Position of adjectives

Adjectives normally follow the noun:

• J’ai vu un film très intéressant à la télé.
• Regarde cette jupe noire.

Some common adjectives go before the noun. The most common ones are grand, petit, bon, mauvais, beau, jeune, vieux, joli, gros, premier.

C’est un petit garçon.Il prend le premier train pour Paris.

N.B. All colours and adjectives describing nationality follow the noun.