Adjective Agreement: Gender and Number

1. The Golden Rule of French Adjectives: L'accord

The most important rule for French adjectives is l'accord (agreement). It means the adjective must always match the gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the noun it describes.

To get a first look at this principle explained in Arabic, let's watch a short video.

As the video explained, the adjective changes its ending to "agree" with the noun. Let's formalize this.

2. The General Rules for Agreement

For most adjectives, the rules are straightforward and build upon the masculine singular form. The BBC Bitesize page below provides a great summary.

To summarize the general rules:

• To make an adjective feminine: Add an -e to the masculine singular form.

  • vert (green) -> verte
  • Il a un livre vert. (He has a green book.)
  • Elle a une voiture verte. (She has a green car.)

• To make an adjective plural: Add an -s to the singular form (both masculine and feminine).

  • vert -> verts
  • verte -> vertes
  • Il a des livres verts. (He has green books.)
  • Elle a des voitures vertes. (She has green cars.)

What if the masculine form already ends in -e?
In this case, it doesn't change for the feminine singular.

• un homme riche (a rich man) -> une femme riche (a rich woman)
• un problème facile (an easy problem) -> une question facile (an easy question)

3. Common Adjective Patterns

Many adjectives follow specific patterns based on their masculine endings. These are important to learn as they are very common.

Let's look at the main patterns, which are also detailed in the BBC article you just reviewed.

• Doubling the final consonant:

  • -en -> -enne (e.g., ancien -> ancienne)
  • -el -> -elle (e.g., traditionnel -> traditionnelle)
  • -on -> -onne (e.g., bon -> bonne)

• Changing the ending:

  • -f -> -ve (e.g., actif -> active)
  • -x -> -se (e.g., heureux -> heureuse)
  • -er -> -ère (e.g., cher -> chère)

Here's a short video that goes over some of these changes, paying special attention to how pronunciation is affected.

4. Irregular Adjectives

Some of the most common adjectives in French are irregular. You need to memorize their forms. The image below shows some frequent examples.

Here are the most important irregular adjectives to learn. The table from the BBC Bitesize article is an excellent reference for this.

Key irregulars include:

• beau (handsome) -> belle (beautiful)
• nouveau (new) -> nouvelle
• vieux (old) -> vieille
• blanc (white) -> blanche
• long (long) -> longue
• gentil (kind) -> gentille
• gros (fat, big) -> grosse

5. Special Cases

Two final rules are essential for speaking and writing correctly.

Rule 1: Agreement with Multiple Nouns

What if an adjective describes more than one noun?

• If all nouns are feminine, the adjective becomes feminine plural.
  • La table et la chaise sont **neuves**. (The table and the chair are new.)
• If there is at least one masculine noun in the group, the adjective becomes masculine plural. This is often called the "masculine wins" rule.
  • Le livre et la chaise sont **neufs**. (The book and the chair are new.)

Rule 2: Adjectives of Color

• Most color adjectives agree normally: bleu, noir, vert, rouge.
  • des voitures **bleues**
• However, colors that are also nouns (like fruits, flowers, or stones) are usually invariable (they don't change). The most common are orange and marron (brown).
  • des voitures **orange** (NOT oranges)
  • des pulls **marron** (NOT marrons)

6. Practice Time!

Let's put all these rules together. Complete the sentences below by writing the correct form of the adjective in parentheses.

1. Cet enfant mange trop de plats (sucré) ________________.
2. Cette année, les pluies ont été (abondant) ________________.
3. Que cette femme est (nerveux) ________________ !
4. J'aimerais bien acheter ces pantalons, mais ils sont trop (grand) ________________ pour moi.
5. Ces deux fillettes sont vraiment très (gentil) ________________.
6. Ces fleurs (blanc) ________________ seront à livrer demain.
7. Une pomme et une poire (vert) ________________.
8. Un couteau et une fourchette (gris) ________________.

Conclusion

Fantastic work today! Mastering adjective agreement is a huge step toward sounding natural and being understood correctly in French.

Key Takeaways:

• The golden rule is agreement: adjectives must match the gender and number of the noun.
• The general pattern is to add -e for feminine and -s for plural.
• Many adjectives follow specific patterns based on their endings (e.g., -f -> -ve, -x -> -se).
• A few very common adjectives like beau, nouveau, and vieux are irregular and must be memorized.
• When an adjective describes a mixed-gender group of nouns, it becomes masculine plural.
• Colors like orange and marron are invariable.

Now that you know how to form adjectives correctly, our next lesson will address a new question: where do you put them? We will learn how to place common adjectives correctly in a sentence, as some go before the noun and some go after.

À bientôt