Adjectives

I found the following advice and information on French adjectives at GCSE.com, a British website aimed at helping British students tackle an examination called a GCSE. Some pages on this British website are useful to Middle School students, while other pages contain information on the French language more suited to the High School student. I have referred to and linked to only those pages of particular relevance to Middle School students. These are some very general guidelines. Refer to your class notes for more detailed information.

French Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe things, such as people, places and feelings.

Masculine and feminine

You may need to change the spelling of adjectives depending on whether the thing that you're describing is masculine or feminine.

Feminine words usually need an -e added:
e.g. il est grand - he is tall
or elle est grande - she is tall

Do not add an -e if the word already ends with one:
e.g. jaune - yellow, mince - slim.

All the words for colours can be used as adjectives.

Singular & Plural Adjectives

Adjective spellings also change according to whether you are describing one thing (singular) or more (plural). Usually we just add an -s:

e.g. ils sont grands - they are tall (masculine)
elles sont grandes - they are tall (feminine)

If the adjective ends in an -x or an -s, do not change the plural spelling for masculine plural.

e.g. le chateau est merveilleux - the castle is wonderful Les chiens sont merveilleux - the dogs are wonderful
le ciel est gris - the sky is grey Les lapins sont gris - the rabbits are grey

Adjectives ending in -al (masculine singular) change to -aux (masculine plural)
e.g. principal > principaux

Irregular Adjectives

Some adjectives are irregular. In these cases, you cannot simply add an -e to make the word into a feminine adjective. You must actually change the spelling of the word:

beau > belle
blanc > blanche
bon > bonne
gros > grosse
long > longue
vieux > vieille
nouveau > nouvelle

Adjectives ending in -eux are formed with -euse in the feminine form:

joyeux > joyeuse
heureux > heureuse

Position of Adjectives

Many adjectives follow the noun:
e.g. une ville industrielle - an industrial town

Colours always follow the noun:

e.g. un chat noir - a black cat

However, some very common adjectives are used before the noun:
une grande maison - a large house
un petit chat - a small cat
une jolie ville - a pretty town

Here is a list of some of the adjectives that come before the noun:
jeune - young
grand - big
long - long
méchant - naughty
joli - nice / pretty
pauvre - poor
haut - high
petit - small
court - short
gros - fat
mauvais - bad
bon - good
beau - beautiful

Adjectives Summary

GCSE French

Adjectives describe things, so allow more accurate (and interesting!) communication.

The spelling of adjectives changes depending on the gender of the thing being described. Normally an extra -e is added for feminine words.

Irregular adjectives are a pain - they have entirely different spellings for masculine and feminine words.

Adjectives ending -eux change to -euse in feminine form.

Adjectives used with plurals usually just gain an -s at the end. However, those that end in -al change to -aux.

Most adjectives follow the noun - consult your notes for those that come in front!

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