FLC: Lesson 4 - Adjectives and Plural You too can learn French !




Created by Jacques Léon
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Lesson 4 - Adjectives and Plural
1. Adjectives
In the second lesson we saw that in French nouns have a gender : they can be
either masculine or feminine. Some of them can be both and the feminine form is
derived from the masculine by appending a " e ". We also learned how the plural
affects the nouns, i.e. by appending a " s ", in most of the times. To sum up,
we can say that the gender and the number (singular or plural) affect the nouns
termination, by appending either a " e " or a " s " (or sometimes something more
complex).
There is an other kind of words in French which change in accordance to the
gender and the number : the adjectives. Adjectives change according to the
gender and the number of the noun which they qualify. The rules which we drew up
for the nouns are applicable to the adjectives :
Adjectives Concordance Rules
Rule 1 - Concordance with the gender When the noun which an adjective
qualifies is feminine, an " e " is appended to the adjective, if it does not
already end with an " e ".
Rule 2 - Concordance with the number When an adjective refers to a noun in the
plurial form or more than 1 noun, a " s " is appended to it, if it does not
end with a " s ", a" z " or a " x ".
Rule 3 - The rules 1 and 2 are cumulative, i.e. if an adjective qualifies a
feminine and plurial noun, it takes an " e " and a " s " at the end.
Rule 4 - Masculine is stronger ! When an adjective refers to a group of
masculine and feminine nouns, only the masculine concordance rule applies.
This rule is also known as " the masculine wins over the feminine ", which is
the more macho French grammar rule !
Note : In most cases, the adjectives follow the noun or the group of nouns they
refer. However, this remark is not rigid and you can actually put an adjective
before the noun it qualifies but be careful, by doing this, you may change the
meaning ! (idiomatic form).
Examples :
un homme petit (a small man) / un petit homme (a kid)
une femme bonne (a good woman) / une bonne femme (a woman with a pejorative
meaning)
une voiture sale (a dirty car) / une sale voiture (a awful car)
Some adjectives are placed before the noun they qualify rather than after.
Examples :
grand (big, large) : we say " une grande voiture " (a big car) rather than "
une voiture grande "
beau (nice) : we say " un beau graçon " (a nice boy) rather than " un graçon
beau "
Note that, in these examples, both forms are grammatically correct but French
speaking people prefer the first one.
Examples of adjective concordance rules
Original sentence : Il conduit un camion bleu (He drives a blue truck).
Let's apply the fourth rules we mentioned above :
Rule 1 - concordance with the gender: Il conduit une voiture bleue
Rule 2 - concordance with the number : Il conduit des camions bleus
Rule 3 - accumulation of rules 1 and 2: Il conduit des voitures bleues
Rule 4 - " masculine wins over feminine " : Il conduit un camion et une
voiture bleus
2. Some adjectives
big or tall
masculine singular : grand
feminine singular : grande
masculine plural: grands
feminine plural: grandes
small
masculine singular : petit
feminine singular : petite
masculine plural: petits
feminine plural: petites
nice
masculine singular : beau
feminine singular : belle
masculine plural: beaux
feminine plural: belles
ugly
masculine singular : laid
feminine singular : laide
masculine plural: laids
feminine plural: laides
good
masculine singular : bon
feminine singular : bonne
masculine plural: bons
feminine plural: bonnes
bad
masculine singular : mauvais
feminine singular : mauvaise
masculine plural: mauvais
feminine plural: mauvaises
high
masculine singular : haut
feminine singular : haute
masculine plural: hauts
feminine plural: hautes
low
masculine singular : bas
feminine singular : basse
masculine plural: bas
feminine plural: basses
heavy
masculine singular : lourd
feminine singular : lourde
masculine plural: lourds
feminine plural: lourdes
light
masculine singular : léger
feminine singular : légère
masculine plural: légers
feminine plural: légères
clean
masculine singular : propre
feminine singular : propre
masculine plural: propres
feminine plural: propres
dirty
masculine singular : sale
feminine singular : sale
masculine plural: sales
feminine plural: sales
long
masculine singular : long
feminine singular : longue
masculine plural: longs
feminine plural: longues
short
masculine singular : court
feminine singular : courte
masculine plural: courts
feminine plural: courtes
From this list, you can derive the following additional concordance rules which
apply most of the time :
when the masculine singular form of the adjectif ends with a e, the feminine
form is identical to the masculine one (e.g. sale / sale)
when the masculine singular form of the adjectif ends with a n, the feminine
form is derived by appending a e and by doubling the ending n (e.g. bon /
bonne)
when the masculine singular form of the adjectif ends with a er, the feminine
form end by ère (e.g. léger / légère)
when the masculine singular form of the adjectif ends with a eau or au, the
plural form is composed by appending a x and the feminine form is built by
replacing eau or au by elle (e.g. beau / belle / beaux)
3. Our first sentences
Very simple sentences can be built using a subject, an adjective and the verb
être (to be) such as :
La maison est grande (The house is big).
La voiture bleue est chère (The blue car is expensive).
Tu es grand (You are tall).
Elle est belle (She is nice).
Les garçons et les filles sont grands (The boys and the girls are tall) - Note
that in this example the "macho" rule applies because the adjective grand is
only in concordance with the noun garçons.
Nous sommes intelligents (We are smart).
Note that the concordance rules apply to the adjective according to the gender
and the number of the subject. I advise you to buid such sentences using the few
words you have already learnt. It's a good exercise which make you practice the
feminine and plurial forms of the adjectives as well as the present tense
conjugation of the verb être. Have a good time.
4. More Numbers
11 - onze (onz)
12 - douze
13 - treize [trèz']
14 - quatorze
15 - quinze
16 - seize [sèz']
17 - dix-sept
18 - dix-huit [dizuit']
19 - dix-neuf
20 - vingt [vin]
21 - vingt et un [vinté un]
22 - vingt-deux [vint deu]
23 - vingt-trois [vint troi]
30 - trente
31 - trente et un
32 - trente-deux
40 - quarante
41 - quarante et un
42 - quarante-deux
50 - cinquante
51 - cinquante et un
52 - cinquante-deux
60 - soixante [soissant']
61 - soixante et un [soissanté un]
62 - soixante-deux
70 - soixante-dix (septante [pronounce the p] in Belgium and Switzerland)
71 - soixante-et onze (septante un in Belgium and Switzerland) 72 -
soixante-douze
73 - soixante-treize
74 - soixante-quatorze
75 - soixante-quinze
76 - soixante-seize
77 - soixante-dix sept
78 - soixante-dix huit
79 - soixante-dix neuf
80 - quatre-vingt (octante in Switzerland)
81 - quatre-vingt-un (octante un in Switzerland)
90 - quatre-vingt-dix (nonante in Switzerland) >
91 - quatre-vingt-onze (nonante un in Switzerland)
92 - quatre-vingt-douze (nonante trois in Switzerland)
93 - quatre-vingt-treize
94 - quatre-vingt-quatorze
95 - quatre-vingt-quinze
96 - quatre-vingt-seize
97 - quatre-vingt-dix-sept
98 - quatre-vingt-dix-huit
99 - quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
100 - cent [ssen]
200 - deux cents
1.000 - mille [meel']
10.000 - dix mille



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