Adjectives

French grammar pages :

French adjectives: forms and usage 

Adjectives in French agree in number and gender with the noun they qualify.

While several common adjectives come before the noun, the majority of adjectives, including all less frequent adjectives, follow the noun.

Page index	Adjective forms	Adjective positions
Order of adjectives	Comparison of adjectives	Modification of adjectives

1.  Adjective forms 

The table below lists the main families of adjectives in French; while there are certain exceptions that need to be learned individually, the groups below illustrate how to decline most French adjectives in their different forms. Nonetheless, given the number of exceptions, it is advisable to check a new adjective you learn, using a good dictionary.

Types of adjective:	Examples
	Masc sing	Fem sing	Masc plural	Fem plural	Meaning
The general rule	grand cher fini noir	grande chère finie noire	grands chers finis noirs	grandes chères finies noires	big dear finished black
Several short adjectives ending in vowel+ consonant	bas bon gros nul las	basse bonne grosse nulle lasse	bas bons gros nuls las	basses bonnes grosses nulles lasses	low good, fat worth​less tired
Adjectives ending in -g	long	longue	longs	longues	long
Many adjectives ending in -e	sage, efficace	sage efficace	sages efficaces	sages, efficaces	wise efficient
Short adjectives ending in c	blanc sec	blanche sèche	blancs secs	blanches sèches	white dry
Adjectives ending in -f	actif nocif	active nocive	actifs nocifs	actives nocives	active poison
adjectives ending in -el or -eil ,	réel, pareil	réelle pareille	réels, pareils	réelles, pareilles	real similar
adjectives ending in -er	léger premier	légère première	légers premiers	légères premières	light first
a­djectives ending in -eux  or -oux	joyeux, heureux, poreux jaloux	joyeuse, heureuse poreuse jalouse	joyeux, heureux, poreux jaloux	joyeuses, heureuses poreuses jalouses	joyful happy porous jealous
adjectives ending in -teur	porteur	porteuse	porteurs	porteuses	load -bearing
adjectives ending in -al	général génial	générale géniale	généraux géniaux	générales géniales	general brilliant
The most common completely irregular adjectives	beau / bel	belles	beaux	belles	beautiful
	nouveau / nouvel	nouvelle	nouveaux	nouvelles	new
	vieux / vieil	vieille	vieux	vieilles	old
	frais	fraîche	frais	fraîches	fresh
	doux	douce	doux	douces	gentle
	faux	fausse	faux	fausses	wrong

Click here for demonstrative adjectives

2.  Adjective position in French 

2.1.  Adjectives that come before the noun:

beau, cher, gros, grand,
mauvais, méchant, meilleur, bon
joli, petit, vilain, jeune, bref,
nouveaux, vieux, gentil, haut,
autre, premier.

However any of these nouns can occasionally be placed after the noun if context or a grouping of adjectives requires it.

2.2   Adjectives that sometimes come before the noun,

 depending on context
 long, court, double

2.3. A few adjectives vary their position according to different meanings:

• The adjective "ancien" normally comes before the noun when it means "former", and after it when it means "ancient".  
• The adjective "certain" normally comes before the noun when it means "particular", and after it when it means "sure".
• The adjective "même" normally comes before the noun when it means "same", and after it when it means "very same".
• The adjective "pauvre" normally comes before the noun when it means "unfortunate", and after it when it means "not rich".
• The adjective "propre" comes before the noun when it means "own", and after it when it means "clean".
• The adjective "seul" comes before the noun when it means "single, or just one", and after it when it means "lonely".

2.4. Other adjectives follow the noun. These include adjectives of colour and of nationality

Examples:

  Une belle jeune dame très intélligente.

A beautiful and very intelligent young lady .

 Il y avait une longue file de voitures.

There was a long queue of cars.

 Une journée longue et difficile.

A long and difficult day.

 Un ancien président de la Société d'histoire ancienne.  

A former president of the Ancient History Society

 Il a commencé le matin et terminé le jour même..  

He started in the morning and finished the very same day

 Un dictionnaire bilingue populaire.  

A popular bilingual dictionary

 Un cadre métallique flexible.  

A flexible metal frame

 C'est mon propre chat, et il couche dans un panier propre..  

It's my own cat, and he sleeps in a clean basket

3.  Adjective order 

Generally speaking, adjective order in French and adjective order in English follow similar principles. The closer an adjective comes to a noun in English, the closer it will come in French.

Thus, in a simple world where all adjectives in English came before the noun, and all French adjectives came after the noun, the order of adjectives in French would be the mirror image of the order of the equivalent adjectives in an English sentence .

Sadly the world is not as simple as this, and as we have seen adjectives in French often come before the noun. Yet the principle remains valid. When  organising three or four adjectives round a noun in French, try and keep the same relationship of proximity as in English, even though some of the adjectives may go before the noun and others after it.

In both English and French the general rule is that the adjectives closest to a noun express its most fundamental qualities. In some cases, this is more evident in French than in English. For example, in French one could say, of a car...
   C'est une voiture allemande bleue  or  C'est une voiture bleue allemande In the first expression the speaker probably implies a German car (i.e. made in Germany) that happens to be blue... , or possibly though less probably a German-registered car of any make.
In the second, we have a blue car that happens to be German, probably a car with German plates rather than a German make of vehicle.

Note that when two adjectives A & B are linked by "et ", they have an equal value in terms of required proximity, so can often be placed either in the order AB or in the order BA.

Certain adjectives expressing value-judgement (e.g. misérable), surprise (e.g.incroyable) or appreciation (e.g.

magnifique

) can be brought forward for purposes of emphasis.

Examples

- Une expérience chimique inutile et dangereuse..

A dangerous and useless chemical experiment .

 De belles tomates espagnoles rouges et fraîches.

Some beautiful fresh red Spanish tomatoes.

 Une journée longue et difficile. / Une journée difficile et longue.

A long and difficult day.

 Une vieille voiture américaine magnifique  or

  Une magnifique vieille voiture américaine.

A magnificent old American automobile.
In the second case, magnifique  is brought to the front for purposes of emphasis 

4.  Comparison of adjectives 

Comparative forms and superlative forms of adjectives in French are not difficult to master; however the small difference between the comparative form and the superlative form can sometimes cause confusion.
   Other than in a few exceptional cases, the comparative form of an adjective in French is formed by adding plus in front of the adjective.
    The superlative form is made by adding le plus (or la plus or les plus, acccording to context) .
Adjectives that normally precede the noun are often placed after it when used in the superlative form with le plus.

Normal	Comparative	Superlative
grand	plus grand	le plus grand (etc.)
facile	plus facile	le plus facile (etc)

Examples:

- Une tâche difficile, une tâche plus difficile, la tâche la plus difficile..

A difficult job, a more difficult job, the most difficult job .

 Un grand homme, un plus grand homme, le plus grand homme (l'homme le plus grand).

A big man, a bigger man, the biggest man.

 Les femmes les plus âgées devraient partir avant les autres..

The oldest women should leave before the others.

La première est plus compliquée que la seconde, mais la troisième est la plus compliquée de toutes.

The first is more complicated than the second, but the third is the most complicated of all.

Exceptions:
Three common adjectives have exceptional comparative and superlative forms

Normal	Comparative	Superlative
bon	meilleur	le meilleur (etc.)
mauvais	pire	le pire (etc.)
moins	moindre	le moindre (etc.)

5.  Modification of adjectives

Linguists distinguish two different types of adjective; qualitative adjectives, and classifying adjectives. Qualitative adjectives describe a quality, for example beau, grand, intéressant. Classifying adjectives categorise the noun they modify; for example français, quotidien, chimique, principal.  Classifying adjectives have an absolute value, and cannot normally be modified.

Qualitative adjectives can be modified by adverbs of degree or manner.
The most common of these are the adverbs or adverb phrases of degree très (very), assez (rather, quite), plutôt (rather),  peu (little, not very) ,  trop (too), and trop peu (not...enough), de plus en plus (increasingly), de moins en moins (decreasingly).
Exceptionally, adjectives can be modified by a noun of degree: un peu.
Many other adverbs, themselves derived from adjectives, can be used to modify adjectives. Examples: généralement (generally), habituellement (usually), constamment (constantly), extrèmement (extremely), particulièrement (particularly), hautement (highly), sérieusement (seriously) and many more.

However French does not use adverbs to modify nouns as easily as English does. For example, a large number of present participles in English can be made into adverbs to modify nouns; frustratingly, lovingly, worryingly, disgustingly, boringly, shockingly, etc....  French does not have many participial adverbs of this sort, so other forms of expression are needed. See example 5 below

Examples:

1. - Ce livre est très intéressant, mais trop peu connu.

    This book is very interesting, but not well enough known .

2.  Il est de plus en plus exigeant et de moins en moins agréable

    He's more and more (increasingly) demanding and less and less pleasant.

3.  C'est une jeune femme hautement qualifiée et particulièrement intélligente.

    She's a highly qualified and particularly intelligent young lady.

4.  Je trouve que c'est un peu compliqué tout cela.

    I find all that a bit complicated.

5  C'est inquiétant combien ses prévisions sont justes !

    His predictions are worryingly accurate !