Language/French/Grammar/Adjectives-which-normally-follow-the-noun-but-can-also-precede,-without-significant-changes-in-meaning

Adjectives which normally follow the noun but can also precede, without significant changes in meaning

Most adjectives which normally follow the noun can occur before it as well, without a significant change in the meaning of the adjective. Such prepositioning is usually for stylistic effect: to vary sentence structure or avoid having two or more adjectives following the same noun. The position before the noun is favoured where the adjective in some way measures or quantifies the meaning of the noun:

French	English
un léger rhume	a slight cold
une charmante soirée	a delightful evening
une forte odeur	a strong smell
un misérable repas	a measly meal
une importante augmentation	a large increase

Other Lessons

• Simple arithmetic (le calcul)
• The partitive article "du", "de l'", "de la" and "des"
• Place adverbs
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English once twice
• Position of more than one object pronoun with faire etc. + infinitive
• Typical use of the definite article
• Conjugation group 1 — verbs whose infinitive ends in —er
• “en” when numbers are direct objects
• Feminine Form
• Plural of Nouns
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with collective noun subjects
• Omission of the article in noun constructions linked by de
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Dates
• Comparing neutral ce, cela, ça with personal il ils and elle elles