French Adjectives (Les Adjectifs)French adjectives agree with gender and number of the noun they describe. Adjectives normally follow the noun they describe although there are several short adjectives that tend to come before the noun (petit, grand, beau, etc).

Learning the French grammar becomes much easier if we understand two very important elements of the language – Articles and Adjectives. Articles tell us if a noun is specific, general, masculine, feminine, singular or plural. Adjectives describe nouns and vary according to gender and number of the noun.

1. French Articles – Les Articles

French nouns are either masculine or feminine. In contrast to English, every French noun has a grammatical gender – hence we need to choose the correct article.

*Article

*Definite Article mean “the” in English.

Le The (masculine singular) Luh

La The (feminine singular) Lah

L’ (Plurial, before a vowel) L

Les The (plural) Lay

Examples:

Le livre – The book – Luh leivbr

La maison – The house – Lah may-zohn

L’école – The school – Lay-kohl.

*Indefinite Articles

Indefinite articles generally mean “a”, “an” or “some”.

French English Pronunciation

Un A / An (masculine) Uhn

Une A / An (feminine) Oun

Des Some (plural) Day

Examples:

Un livre – A book – Uhn leivbr

Une voiture – A car – Oun vwah-toor

Des amis – Some friends – Day zah-mee.

2. French Adjectives – Les Adjectifs

*Adjectives nouns (e.g. size, quality or condition).

In French adjectives generally agree with the noun in gender

For example :

Petit / Petite – Small – Puh-tee / Puh-teet

Grand / Grande – Big / Tall – Grahn / Grahnd

Beau / Belle – Beautiful / Handsome – Boh / Bell

Bon / Bonne – Good – Bohn / Bun

Nouveau / Nouvelle – New – Noo-voh / Noo-vell

Some adjectives tend to come before the noun (some common examples are petit, grand, beau, etc). Many others tend to come after the noun.

Un petit chien – A small dog – Uhn puh-tee shyen

Une grande maison – A big house – Uhn grahnd may-zohn

Une belle robe – A beautiful dress – Uhn bell rohb

*Final Tip

When you learn French vocabulary, don’t just learn the noun – learn the article + noun + adjective. This way you will know the gender of the noun and be able to use your French grammar more naturally.

Example:

Une belle maison – A beautiful house – Uhn bell may-zohn