Adjectives - agreement and position

Adjectives - agreement and position

Agreement

In French, adjectives need to agree/match with the nouns in NUMBER and GENDER.

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct form of the adjective.

Le chien est

• intelligent

• intelligente

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct form of the adjective.

Mes parents sont

• marrant

• marrants

• marrantes

• marrante

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct form of the adjective.

Juliette est

• patient

• patiente

• patients

• patientes

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct form of the adjective.

C'est une conversation

• intéressant

• intéressante

• intéressants

• intéressantes

Some Adjectives do not follow this regular pattern.

- Adjectives ending in -eur or -eux usually change to -euse in the feminine. e.g. Un frère travailleur → une sœur travailleuse

- Adjectives which already end in -e don’t add another -e in the feminine. e.g. Un frère calme  → une sœur calme

- A few adjectives stay the same whether they are masculine or feminine, singular or plural: sympa, super, cool

See the doc "W4 L3" and booknotes for some other patterns.

Position

1. after the noun

In English, adjectives always come before the noun they describe:

A pleasant castle, a modern kitchen, nice friends

In French, adjectives usually come after the noun.

Un château agréable, une cuisine moderne, des amis sympa.

Position

2. Before the noun

Some adjectives break the rule and come before the noun.

Adjectives that refer to some specific qualities must precede the noun they describe instead of following it. The qualities they describe can be summarised by the acronym BAGS

B

• B for beauty:

• beau/belle/bel (before a masc. noun starting with a vowel) (beautiful, handsome)

• joli/jolie(pretty)

A

• A for age:

• jeune (young)

• vieux/vieille/vieil (before a masc. noun starting with a vowel) (old)

• nouveau/nouvelle/nouvel (before a masc. noun starting with a vowel) (new)

G

• G for goodness:

• bon/bonne (good)

• meilleur/meilleure (better)

• mauvais/mauvaise (bad)

• gentil/gentille (kind)

S

• S for size:

• petit/petite (small)

• grand/grande (big)

• haut/haute (high)

• gros/grosse (fat)

Multiple Choice

Rewrite:

e.g. un chat/jeune = un jeune chat

un lit/grand

• un lit grand

• un grand lit

Multiple Choice

Rewrite:

une chaise/petit

• une chaise petit

• une chaise petite

• une petite chaise

• une petit chaise

Position

3. changed meaning depending on the position

Some French adjectives change their meaning depending on their position in the sentence.

• La maison n’est pas propre. = The house is not clean.

  C’est ma propre chambre. = This is my own room.