French Adjectives Agreement Guide

1. Grammaire : Les adjectifs

2. An adjective is a describing word, e.g. tall, small, young. Adjectives are used to describe nouns. When we use adjectives, we are giving more information about the noun. The small girl. La petitefille.

3. Remember all nouns in French are masculine, feminine, singular or plural! It is really important to make sure that the adjective you are using to describe a noun agrees with the noun!

4. The basic rule of agreement for regular adjectives If a noun is masculine, the adjective must also be masculine. le garçon– le petit garçon

5. If a noun is feminine, the adjective must also be feminine. la fille – la petite fille

6. If the noun is plural, the adjective must also be plural. les petites filles (fem pl) les petitsgarçons (masc pl)

7. How do irregular adjectives change?

8. 1. If an adjective already ends in -e, then there is no change in the masculine or feminine. le jeunegarçon la jeunefille

9. 2. If an adjective ends in -er, it changes to -èrein the feminine: You have met this already when writing letters! Cher Luc Chère Sylvia

10. 3. If an adjective ends in -if, then it changes to -ive:

11. 4. If an adjective ends in -eux, it changes to -euse:

12. Even though jaloux does not end in -eux, it has a similar change: jaloux – jalouse

13. 5. Some adjectives double their last letter and add –e in the feminine:

14. 6. Some adjectives change completely. These have to be learned off by heart.

15. 6. Finally, there are some that do not change. These use the same spelling in both the masculine and the feminine, singular and plural! marron – J’ai les yeux marron noisette – J’ai les yeux noisette