Bonjour! Today we will discuss French adjectives (les

 Bonjour! Today we will discuss French adjectives (les adjectifs). Last week we learned, that there are two categories of nouns in French: masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Nouns in each category can be singular or plural. In English, the adjective stays the same with every word: we say a beautiful girl, a beautiful painting, the beautiful cars, the beautiful books. In French, the word for «beautiful» would be different in each case: une belle fille, un beau tableau, les belles voitures, les beaux livres. Do not be intimidated by this variety. There are only a few simple rules to follow. • In most cases, the adjective in French comes AFTER the word that it is describing. This is a great change from English. In English, we would say «a thin girl», in French, you would say «a girl thin»: une fille (girl) maigre (thin). • However, you noticed, that when I translated the word «beautiful», I put it before the noun. This is because there is a group of exceptions (L)! They are easy to remember using the acronym BAGS: Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size. They will be mentioned at the end of the handout with other excpetions. • The way an adjective looks depends on the word that it is describing! For example, let's take the adjective «blue». In French it is «bleu». However, this is the form of the adjective for singular, masculine nouns or pronouns! How would we say «blue cheese»? The word for cheese is «fromage». We can tell it masculine: fromage. So «blue cheese» = fromage bleu. If we were to say «blue lemonade», things would change. Lemonade = limonade. This word is feminine (limonade). If an adjective is decribing a feminine word, you must add an «e» to the end! So, «blue lemonade» = «limonade bleue» You need to memorize this chart! Not only does it show exceptions, but it contains many words that are useful to describe vocabulary that we will learn later. The adjectives in red are the BAGS adjectives! They are the ones that are placed before the nouns that they are describing. The other adjectives go after the noun. Turn the page to see the chart and a few more rules. Translation Masculine Feminine Masculine Plural Bons Mauvais Vieux Jeunes Grands Petits Beaux Gros Jolis Courts Longs Hauts Brefs
Nouveaux Frais Blancs Feminine Plural Bonnes Mauvaises Vieilles Jeunes Grande Petites Belles Grosses Jolies Courtes Longues Hautes Brève
Nouvelles Fraîches Blanches Good Bon Bonne Bad Mauvais Mauvaise Old Vieux Vieille Young Jeune Jeune Big Grand Grande Small Petit Petite Beautiful Beau Belle Fat Gros Grosse Pretty Joli Jolie Short Court Courte Long Long Longue Tall Haut Haute Brève
Brief Bref New Nouveau Nouvelle Fresh Frais Fraîche White Blanc Blanche There are also rules on how to change an adjective from masculine to feminine (adjectives will be given to you in masculine form anywhere – in any type of dictionary) So, if an a masculine adjective ends in… «eux à «euse» (heureux à heureuse) Translation:
«if» à «ive» (sportif à sportive) Translation:
«er» à «ère» (amer à amère) Translation:
«el» à «elle» (émotionnel à émotionnelle) Translation:
«on» à «onne» (mignon à mignonne) Translation:
“et” à “ette”/ “ète” (net à nette, concret à concrète)
To make an adjective plural, you add an “s”, unless it already ends in an “s”.
However, there are exceptions.
•
Adjectives that end in “al” will change to “aux” to become plural. The
feminine plural form will be “ales”.
Here is a link to a song that will help you memorize these rules:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKMEIul5sac
Here are the lyrics to the song:
If it ends in a consonant, add an «e»,
If it ends in an «e», just let it be.
«eux» to «euse»,
«if» to «ive» .
Right about here
It gets plurally complex!
«al» to «aux» ,
Feminine plural is «ales» .
Don’t forget «er» to «ère».
And there is also a list
We do by memory
Three more left: we saw double!
«el» to «elle»
«on» to «onne»
«et» to «ette»