Language/French/Grammar/Adjective-agreement-with-nouns

Adjective Agreement with Nouns in French Grammar

Adjectives in French 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 if the noun is feminine plural, the adjective must be feminine plural. In this lesson, we will explore how to ensure that adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in French.

Gender Agreement

The gender of the adjective must match the gender of the noun it modifies. If the noun is masculine, the adjective must be masculine, and if the noun is feminine, the adjective must be feminine. For example:

• Un livre intéressant (masculine singular). (An interesting book.)
• Une histoire intéressante (feminine singular). (An interesting story.)

Number Agreement

The number of the adjective must match the number of the noun it modifies. If the noun is singular, the adjective must be singular, and if the noun is plural, the adjective must be plural. For example:

• Des livres intéressants (masculine plural). (Interesting books.)
• Des histoires intéressantes (feminine plural). (Interesting stories.)

Adjectives Ending in -e

Some adjectives already have an -e at the end, which makes them feminine. For example:

• Petit (masculine singular) -> Petite (feminine singular)

In this case, the masculine form is the basic form, and the feminine form is formed by adding an -e. The plural form is formed by adding -s to the masculine form and -es to the feminine form. For example:

• Petits (masculine plural)
• Petites (feminine plural)

Adjectives Ending in -s or -x

Some adjectives already end in -s or -x in the masculine singular form. In this case, the masculine and feminine forms are the same. For example:

• Roux (masculine singular) -> Roux (masculine and feminine singular)
• Gris (masculine singular) -> Gris (masculine and feminine singular)

The plural form is formed by adding -s to both the masculine and feminine forms. For example:

• Roux (masculine and feminine plural)
• Gris (masculine and feminine plural)

Conclusion

Ensuring that adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender and number is an essential part of mastering French grammar. By understanding the rules for adjective agreement, 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

Other Lessons

• How to use “et” in cardinal numbers
• Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
• Definite article
• Subject–Verb Agreement
• Use of en with numerals and quantifiers
• Proper Nouns
• Measurements and comparisons in French — Numeral nouns and approximations
• « d'autres » VS « des autres »
• Use of il, ce, cela and ça as impersonal pronouns
• Common Mistakes