Adjectives in FrenchLes adjectifs en français

Floyd CollegeSheila McCoy

Adjectives in French are mirrors: they reflect the nouns theydescribe, or modify in gender and number. In French, unlike in English, they usually follow the noun they modify. Specialized adjectives called articles--le, la, l’, les, un, une, des, d’--always precede the noun they modify, however. So…

Un garçon content Une fille contente

Des garçons contents Des filles contentes

The regular adjectives add -e to the base masculine form if it ends in consonant to form the feminine:

Un garçon brun Une fille brune

They add -s to the singular to form the plural:

Des garçons bruns Des filles brunes

There are numerous irregular adjective forms in French as well.

Adjectives whose singular masculine form end in -ien double the -n before adding -e:

Le garçon canadien La fille canadienneAdjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -eux change the -x to -s and then add -e to form the feminine singular:

Le garçon heureux La fille heureuse

Adjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -éadd an unaccented -e to form the singular feminine:

Le garçon réservé La fille réservée

Adjectives whose singular masculine form ends in -il doublethe -l and add -e to form the feminine:

Le garçon gentil La fille gentille

Although most descriptive adjectives follow the noun thatthey modify,some have come more usually to precede the noun:

bon(bonne), mauvais, grand, petit,joli, jeune, vrai

Un bon garçon Une bonne fille

Most shifts in position simply change emphasis, not meaning but some changes in meaning accompany certain shifts in position:

Un grand garçon Un garçon grand ( a great boy) (a tall boy)

If an adjective changes meaning according to its positionin relation to the noun, it usually has its more literal meaningwhen after the noun and its more figurative meaning ifbefore the noun:

Un homme pauvre A poor man (financially)=

Un pauvre homme = A poor man (pitiful)

Une amie ancienne = An ancient friend

Une ancienne amie = A former friend

The adjective petit is a bit more complicated :

Un petit ami Une petite amie

(a boyfriend) (a girlfriend)

Un ami petit(a small friend)

Une amie petite(a small friend)

Then with things :

Un petit ordinateur Une petite bicyclette(a little computer) (a little bicycle)

Sometimes if adjectives precede the nouns they modify,they cause other changes:

Des > de or d’ before a plural adjective in front of the noun:

Des filles petites De petites filles

De bons livres D’ autres choses

If more than one adjective modifies a noun, you may connect them with et:

Une jeune fille heureuse et sympathique

Un jeune homme patient et poli

Remember the most important aspect of adjectivesis that they must equal their noun in gender and number:

Nxy= Adj

xy

N= noun Adj= adjective

X=masculine or feminine Y= singular or plural

If you were in the Louvre, where would you be?

What would you be doing?

Http://www.paris.org/Musees/Louvre/info.html

(for answer visit url below)