Basic Instruction for French Adjectives


by Ling Tong - Date: 2008-10-12 - Word Count: 479 Share This!

Just as in English, adjectives are used in the French language to describe nouns. However, French adjectives are different both in the way the spelling changes according to the gender of the noun and their placement in a sentence.  In French, the adjectives not only have to agree with the gender of the noun, they also have to agree with the number. If you are describing a plural noun, then the adjective has to be plural as well.  For the most part, adjectives in French end with the letter the feminine gender and all of them add make the adjective plural.

 

Most adjectives have a different spelling depending on the gender. Examples of this include:

 

- White blanc (masculine), blanche (feminine)

 

- Beautiful beau (masculine), belle (feminine)

 

- New nouveau (masculine), nouvelle (feminine)

 

- Soft fou (masculine), folle (feminine)

 

Usually, though, you simply add the masculine form of the adjective to make the feminine.

 

To use adjectives correctly in French, you have to know whether the noun you are describing is masculine or feminine. The article in front of the noun will tell you this. is used with masculine nouns and is used with feminine nouns. If the plural form of the noun is used the article will be and even though it is plural and you have to make the adjective plural, you still have to use the correct gender.

 

Look at these examples of how the adjectives are used:

 

- The green box ?La boite verte. Box is considered a feminine noun and takes the feminine form of the adjective. The plural form, the green boxes, would be boites vertes?

 

- The grey truck as camion gris. Truck is a masculine word and takes the masculine form of the adjective. The plural form, the grey trucks, would be camion gris? The word already ends

in so you don't need to add another one.

 

When forming the plural of adjectives that end in you add the letter The adjective fou would then become foux in the plural form. The feminine form, folle, would take an to form the plural making it folles. The same rule applies to adjectives that end in such as in deal The plural form is deaux?

 

The placement of adjectives in sentences in the French language is also important. They usually follow the noun instead of coming in front of it. However, there are cases where the adjective does precede the noun and in some cases this does require a change in how the word is spelled. If the noun being described begins with a vowel then you have to change the spelling of the adjective. An example of this is in the use of the word To say a handsome boy, you can say un beau garcon, but to say a handsome man, you have to say un bel home because the French word for man starts with h.


Related Tags: french, numbers, adjectives, nouns


For more information on French adjectives, French numbers and French nouns visit http://French.Speak7.com .

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: