Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns. Adjectives are commonly used to describe shape, size, color, appearance, etc. The placement of adjectives in French is usually different from English, except for some notable exceptions. Also, French adjectives can have up to four forms: singular masculine, plural masculine, singular feminine, and plural feminine.
Forming Adjectives
Gender
Most adjectives have a different form depending on whether they modify a masculine or a feminine word. For a lot of adjectives, the feminine form is formed by adding an ‘e’ to the masculine form. However, if the adjective already ends in ‘e’ in the masculine, it will be the same in the feminine.
| Step 1 | Step 2 |
| petit is a regular masculine singular adjective | Add an ‘e’ and it becomes the feminine singular form. petite |
As previously mentioned, if an adjective already ends in ‘e’, the feminine singular form will stay the same. Some examples of this are: libre, autre, jeune
Plurals
For most adjectives, the plural is formed simply by adding an ‘s’ to the singular form. So to form the masculine plural you would add an ‘s’ to the masculine singular. For the feminine plural, you would add an ‘s’ to the feminine singular. If a singular adjective already ends in ‘s’, it keeps that same form for the plural. This also goes for adjectives that end in ‘x’.
| Step 1 | Step 2 |
| Take the singular form of the adjective. petit (masculine form) petite (feminine form) | Add an ‘s’ and it becomes the plural form. petits petites |
Remember, if the singular form already ends in ‘s’ or ‘x’, the plural stays the same. A couple of examples would be: vieux / vieux & mauvais / mauvais
Irregular Forms of Adjectives
| Masculine to Feminine Singular | Examples |
| -eux becomes -euse -eur becomes -euse -el becomes -elle -il becomes -ille -er becomes -ère -et becomes -ète -ien becomes -ienne -if becomes -ive -ou becomes -olle | heureux, heureuse trompeur, trompeuse personnel, personnelle gentil, gentille fier, fière complet, complète parisien, parisienne sportif, sportive fou, folle |