Lesson 6: Adjectives — agreement and position

Part 1: The two big differences from English

English adjectives are dead simple. Small dog, small dogs, big house, big houses — one form, always before the noun. French does the opposite on both counts:

1. French adjectives agree with the noun in gender (masc. / fem.) and number (sg. / pl.). One adjective, four possible forms.

2. French adjectives mostly go AFTER the noun. La maison blanche — "the house white". Only a small set of very common adjectives goes before — the BAGS group, below.

Both shifts feel weird at first. Both become automatic with drilling.

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Part 2: The agreement rules — four forms

The default pattern:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	grand	grands
Feminine	grande	grandes

The base rule:

Feminine = + e. Plural = + s. Feminine plural = + es.

Pronunciation — the main trap:

• grand → "grahn" (silent d)
• grande → "grahnd" (the e wakes the d up!)
• grands → "grahn" (silent s — sounds like masculine singular)
• grandes → "grahnd" (sounds like feminine singular)

Listen for gender, not number. Un grand chat and des grands chats sound identical — only the article tells you it's plural. But grand (masc.) and grande (fem.) sound clearly different — the final consonant comes alive in the feminine.

That silent-e-wakes-the-consonant pattern is your best friend: petit "puh-TEE" → petite "puh-TEET". vert "vehr" → verte "VEHRT". gris "gree" → grise "GREEZ".

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Part 3: When -e changes nothing

If a masculine adjective already ends in a silent -e (no accent), the feminine looks and sounds identical: jeune / jeune, rouge / rouge, jaune / jaune, triste / triste, sympathique / sympathique. The plural just adds a silent -s: jeunes, rouges.

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Part 4: Irregular feminine forms — the productive patterns

These endings repeat across many adjectives. Learn the pattern, not each word.

Masc. ending	Feminine ending	Example
-eux	-euse	heureux → heureuse (happy)
-eur	-euse	menteur → menteuse (lying)
-f	-ve	sportif → sportive, neuf → neuve
-er	-ère	cher → chère, premier → première
-on / -en / -el / -et	doubles the consonant + e	bon → bonne, italien → italienne, naturel → naturelle, muet → muette
-c	-che or -que	blanc → blanche, public → publique
-x (other)	-sse	faux → fausse, roux → rousse

Fully irregular — memorize as pairs:

Masc.	Fem.	Meaning
beau	belle	beautiful
nouveau	nouvelle	new
vieux	vieille	old
blanc	blanche	white
frais	fraîche	fresh
long	longue	long
gentil	gentille	nice, kind
doux	douce	soft, gentle

English-speaker shortcut: the -eux → -euse pattern is huge — it covers most "-ous" English cognates: fameux/fameuse (famous), curieux/curieuse (curious), sérieux/sérieuse (serious), furieux/furieuse (furious). Lock that pattern in early and you've covered dozens of words.

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Part 5: Plural — the traps

Default: + s. But:

If masculine ends in…	Plural is…	Example
-s, -x, -z	unchanged	un gros chat → des gros chats
-eau	+ x	beau → beaux, nouveau → nouveaux
-al	→ -aux	national → nationaux, normal → normaux

Feminine plurals always just take regular -s: belles, nationales, grosses.

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Part 6: Position — adjective AFTER the noun (the default)

Default rule: the adjective comes after the noun.

• une voiture rouge — a red car (lit. "a car red")
• un homme intelligent — an intelligent man
• des chats noirs — black cats
• une femme française — a French woman

This is the opposite of English — not "red car" but "car red". Burn it in by saying it out loud; the rhythm is what you need to internalize. After-position is used for all colors, nationalities, shapes, and most descriptive adjectives.

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Part 7: BAGS adjectives — BEFORE the noun

A small but extremely high-frequency group sits before the noun. The English mnemonic is BAGS:

Letter	Meaning	Adjectives
B — Beauty	beauty / appearance	beau, joli
A — Age	age / newness	jeune, vieux, nouveau
G — Goodness	evaluation	bon, mauvais, gentil
S — Size	size	grand, petit, gros, long

Examples:

• une belle maison — a beautiful house
• un jeune homme — a young man
• un bon film — a good movie
• une petite table — a small table
• un grand livre — a big book

Trap! Position can change meaning. Un grand homme (before) = "a great man". Un homme grand (after) = "a tall man". Un ancien professeur (before) = "a former teacher". Un professeur ancien (after) = "an old teacher". For now, just stick to the BAGS-before / everything-else-after split — you'll meet the meaning-shift cases in later lessons.

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Part 8: beau / nouveau / vieux — the fifth form

These three have a special form before a masculine noun starting with a vowel or silent h, to avoid two vowels colliding (same instinct as English a apple → an apple).

M. before consonant	M. before vowel	Fem.	M. plural	F. plural
beau	bel	belle	beaux	belles
nouveau	nouvel	nouvelle	nouveaux	nouvelles
vieux	vieil	vieille	vieux	vieilles

• un beau garçon / un bel homme / un bel arbre
• un nouvel ami / un vieil hôtel

The feminine already ends in a consonant, so no problem there: une belle amie.

bel, nouvel, vieil sound identical to belle, nouvelle, vieille. The fifth form is just "use the feminine pronunciation, but keep the noun masculine".

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Part 9: Article des → de before a BAGS adjective

When a BAGS adjective sits before a plural noun, the indefinite article des shortens to de:

• des amis → de bons amis (good friends)
• des films → de grands films (big movies)
• des maisons → de belles maisons (beautiful houses)

If the adjective comes after the noun, des stays:

• des films intéressants (interesting movies)
• des yeux bleus (blue eyes)

In casual spoken French you'll often hear des bons amis — the rule is slipping. But in writing and careful speech, stick with de bons amis.

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