Using Adjectives in French

What Is an Adjective?

Adjectives are a category of words that are used to describe things. They provide more information about a noun.

For example, if we take an English noun, such as “the coat,” we can add an adjective, such as a colour, to describe our coat. So we might say, “the red coat,” to distinguish it from “the blue coat.” “Red” and “blue” are both examples of adjectives.

Where Do Adjectives Go in a French Sentence?

Notice that in English we place the adjective before the noun. But in French, the adjective is usually after the noun, so “the red coat” would be ‘le manteau rouge.’

However, there are some important and very common adjectives that break this general rule and are placed before the noun, just like in English.

Adjectives that come before the noun in French are often called B.A.G.S. adjectives to help us remember which they are.

B.A.G.S. adjectives relate to Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size:

Beauty	beau (beautiful, attractive, handsome), joli (pretty)
Age	nouveau (new), vieux (old)
Goodness	bon (good), mauvais (bad)
Size	grand (big), petit (small)

What Do We Mean by Agreement?

Adjectives may also change in French according to the gender and number of a noun, so there might be masculine and feminine versions of adjectives, and masculine and feminine plural versions as well!

Let’s break this down, starting with the regular adjectives.

What Are Regular Adjectives?

Regular adjectives follow some simple rules when they are used with nouns. If the noun is feminine, we add an ‘-e.’ If the noun is masculine and plural, we add ‘-s.’ And if the noun is feminine and plural, then we add ‘-es.’

Let’s look at some examples, using ‘le manteau,’ which is a masculine noun, and ‘la veste’, “jacket”, which is feminine.

Masculine	Feminine
le manteau noir the black coat	la veste noire the black jacket
le manteau bleu the blue coat	la veste bleue the blue jacket
le manteau vert the green coat	la veste verte the green jacket

Masculine Plural	Feminine Plural
les manteaux noirs the black coats	les vestes noires the black jackets
les manteaux bleus the blue coats	les vestes bleues the blue jackets
les manteaux verts the green coats	les vestes vertes the green jackets

Adjectives ending ‘-e’

If the adjective already ends in an ‘-e,’ like rouge, then the adjective is the same for both masculine and feminine versions. We still add an ‘-s’ for the plural.

Masculine	Feminine
le manteau rouge the red coat	la veste rouge the red jacket
le manteau jaune the yellow coat	la veste jaune the yellow jacket
le manteau rose the pink coat	la veste rose the pink jacket

Masculine Plural	Feminine Plural
les manteaux rouges the red coats	les vestes rouges the red jackets
les manteaux jaunes the yellow coats	les vestes jaunes the yellow jackets
les manteaux roses the pink coats	les vestes roses the pink jackets

What Are Irregular Adjectives?

Some adjectives have irregular feminine forms, which are not predictable and therefore have to be learned on a case by case basis.

In our list of colours, for example, “white” is an irregular adjective in French. Instead of simply adding an ‘-e,’ we must add ‘-he.’

Let’s have a look at the full table:

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	le manteau blanc the white coat	la veste blanche the white jacket
Plural	les manteaux blancs the white coats	les vestes blanches the white jackets

Some of the BAGS adjectives that we met above have irregular feminine forms.

Let’s take a look at these:

Masculine	Feminine
beau (bel) beautiful	belle beautiful
bon good	bonne good
nouveau (nouvel) new	nouvelle new
vieux (vieil) old	vieille old

You’ll see that there are the words bel, nouvel and vieil in the masculine column. These are used when the adjective is used in front of a noun that starts with a vowel. This is to make the pronunciation easier.

They can also have irregular plural forms as well, so let’s take a look at the full variations:

Masc. Sing.	Masc. Pl.	Fem. Sing.	Fem. Pl.
beau (bel)	beaux	belle	belles
bon	bons	bonne	bonnes
nouveau (nouvel)	nouveaux	nouvelle	nouvelles
vieux (vieil)	vieux	vieille	vieilles

What Are Invariable Adjectives?

Some adjectives don’t change at all. For example, marron (brown):

Masc.	Fem.	Pl.
le manteau marron the brown coat	la veste marron the brown jacket	les vestes marron the brown jackets

For colours that are named after objects, this is especially common.

Some examples include:

argent	silver
cerise	cherry
chocolat	chocolate (coloured)
emeraude	emerald green
or	gold(en)
orange	orange
rubis	ruby red
turquoise	turquoise