Language/French/Grammar/Adjectives-modifying-the-noun

Adjectives Modifying the Noun in French Grammar

Adjectives are an essential part of French grammar and are used to modify or describe a noun. In this lesson, we will explore how adjectives are used to modify the noun in French.

Agreement of Adjectives

In French, adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. This means that if the noun is masculine singular, the adjective must be masculine singular, and so on. For example:

• Un livre intéressant. (An interesting book.)
• Une maison blanche. (A white house.)
• Des enfants joyeux. (Happy children.)

Placement of Adjectives

In French, adjectives usually come after the noun they modify. However, some adjectives, such as those that indicate color or nationality, come before the noun. For example:

• Un grand homme. (A tall man.)
• Une belle fleur. (A beautiful flower.)
• Une voiture rouge. (A red car.)
• Un livre français. (A French book.)

BANGS Adjectives

BANGS is an acronym that stands for Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size. Adjectives that fall into these categories usually come before the noun in French. For example:

• Un beau garçon. (A handsome boy.)
• Une vieille maison. (An old house.)
• Deux petits chats. (Two small cats.)
• Une mauvaise idée. (A bad idea.)
• Une grande ville. (A big city.)

Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparative adjectives are used to compare two things, while superlative adjectives are used to compare three or more things. In French, comparative adjectives are formed by adding "plus" before the adjective and "que" after it. Superlative adjectives are formed by adding "le/la/les plus" before the adjective. For example:

• Il est plus grand que moi. (He is taller than me.)
• C'est la plus belle ville que j'ai jamais vue. (It's the most beautiful city I have ever seen.)

Conclusion

Adjectives are an important part of French grammar and are used to modify or describe a noun. By understanding the agreement of adjectives, the placement of adjectives, BANGS adjectives, and comparatives and superlatives, you can improve your French language skills and communicate more effectively with native speakers.

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Related Lessons

• Subject verb agreement — Verb “être”
• Common quantifiers
• Position of object pronouns with infinitives
• Use of the definite article with parts of the body
• Beau VS Bel
• Use of en
• Subject–Verb Agreement
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Adjectives which normally follow the noun
• Formation of adverbs with the ending –ment