Language/French/Grammar/Masculine-and-feminine-forms-of-adjectives-—-A-change-in-written,-but-not-spoken

Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change in written, but not spoken, French

General Rule

The general rule is that an -e is added to the masculine form of adjectives to produce the feminine form.

Specific Rules

In cases where the masculine form ends in one of the following vowels or consonants, there is a change in the written form but not in the spoken form:

Adjectives ending in -u

In the case of aigu, ambigu, contigu, a diaresis (ë) is added to the feminine -e in written French to indicate that the -u sound is maintained in spoken French (aigue would be pronounced rather like English 'egg' otherwise; compare long/longue).

	French		English
	Masculine	Feminine
-u	absolu	absolue	absolute
	aigu	aiguë	high (sound)
	ambigu	ambiguë	ambiguous
	contigu	contiguë	contiguous

Adjectives ending in -é and -er 

In these cases, where the final r is pronounced in the masculine, a grave accent is added to the first written e.

	French		English
	Masculine	Feminine
-é	fermé	fermée	closed
-er	fier	fière	proud
	cher	chère	expensive
	amer	amère	bitter

Adjectives ending in -i, -c, -ct, -r, -al, -el and -ul

In these cases, it is -le which is added and not just -e.

	French		English
	Masculine	Feminine
-i	hardi	hardie	bold
NB: Exception:	favori	favorite	favourite
-c	public	publique	public
	turc	turque	Turkish
NB: c is maintained in:	grec	grecque	Greek
-ct	direct	directe	direct
-r	sûr	sûre	certain
	pur	pure	pure
-al	national	nationale	national
-el	général	générale	general
	hivernal	hivernale	winter
	final	finale	final
	personnel	personnelle	personal
	professionnel	professionnelle	professional
	passionnel	passionnelle	emotive
-ul	cruel	cruelle	cruel
	nul	nulle	no-

-l is pronounced in the masculine.

In these cases the -l is pronounced in the masculine.

French		English
Masculine	Feminine
espagnol	espagnole	Spanish
puéril	puérile	childish
civil	civile	civil

The final -il is pronounced as indicated

By contrast in the following adjectives the final -il is pronounced as indicated:

French		English
Masculine	Feminine
gentil [-i]	gentille [-ij]	kind
pareil [-ej]	pareille [-ej]	similar
vermeil [-ej]	vermeille [-ej]	bright red

Related Lessons

• Plural forms of adjectives — The normal case
• Conjugation group 1 — verbs whose infinitive ends in —er
• Conventions for writing cardinal numbers in figures
• Marked use of tu
• Choosing between il est and c'est
• Well Better Worse
• Use of the definite article with parts of the body
• « d'autres » VS « des autres »
• Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of “être”
• How to Use Be
• Auxiliaries
• Plural of Nouns
• "C'est" or "Ce sont"
• Use of the definite article with quantities