French Tutorial

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

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

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.

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