French Adjectives - Gender and Plural Form
GENDER: In French adjectives have masculine, feminine and plural forms and agree in gender and number with the noun they accompany. The feminine form is formed by adding a silent e to the masculine form, except if the masculine already ends in e. French adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.
Masculine: un crayon noir - a black pencil
Feminine: une table noire - a black table
Masculine: un exemple facile - an easy example
Feminine: une question facile - an easy question
POSITION: The normal position of most adjectives in French is after noun. Many common adjectives, however, precede the noun they refer to:
autre - other
beau - beautiful, fine, handsome
bon - good
court - short
gentil - nice
grand - large, big, great
gros - big, fat
jeune - young
joli - pretty
long - long
mauvais - bad
nouveau - new
petit - little, small
tel - such
vieux - old
une petite chambre agréable - a nice little room
une jolie robe verte - a pretty green dress
When two adjectives refer to the same noun, each keeps its regular position.
Irregular Feminine of Adjectives
1. Most adjectives ending in x in the masculine singular change x to se in the feminine:
délicieux - délicieuse - delicious
fameux - fameuse - famous
jaloux - jalouse - jealous
2. Adjectives ending in f in the masculine singular change f to ve in the feminine:
actif - active - active
bref - brève - brief
neuf - neuve - new
3. Most adjectives ending in el, eil, on, ien, s, t in the masculine singular double the consonant and add e in the feminine:
individuel - individuelle - individual
pareil - pareille - like, such
bon - bonne - good
italien - italienne - Italian
bas - basse - low
sot - sotte - stupid
Exceptions:
français - française - French
gris - grise - gray
prêt - prête - ready
idiot - idiote - idiotic, stupid
4. Adjectives ending in c in the masculine singular change c to che or que in the feminine:
blanc - blanche - white
public - publique - public
5. Adjectives ending in g in the masculine singular change g to gue in the feminine:
long - longue - long
6. Adjectives ending in er in the masculine singular change er to ère in the feminine:
cher - chère dear, expensive
étranger - étrangère foreign
7. Adjectives ending in et in the masculine singular change et to ète in the feminine:
complet - complète complete
secret - secrète secret
8. Adjectives ending in eur in the masculine singular change eur to euse in the feminine:
flatteur - flatteuse flattering
menteur - menteuse lying
Exceptions:
meilleur - meilleure better
supérieur - supérieur superior
The following irregular feminine adjective forms do not come under any of the above classifications:
doux - douce mild, soft, sweet
faux - fausse false, counterfeit
frais - fraîche frech, cool
favori - favorite favorite
roux - rousse reddish
PLURAL FORM: To make an adjective plural, add -s to the singular form. Adjectives ending in s or x in the masculine singular, remain unchanged in the plural.
| Singular |
Plural |
| un exemple facile - an easy example |
des exemples faciles - easy examples |
| une table noire - a black table |
des tables noires - black tables |
| un gros bâtiment - a big building |
des gros bâtiments - big buildings |
Irregular Plural of Adjectives
Adjectives ending in au, eau form the plural by adding x to the singular form:
beau - beaux - beautiful, handsome
nouveau - nouveaux - new
Adjectives ending in al form the plural by changing al to aux
oral - oraux oral
spécial - spéciaux special
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