Language/French/Grammar/Adjectives-preceded-by-de

Adjectives preceded by de

When nouns are quantified by numbers, following adjectives may directly follow the noun or they may be preceded by de. The use with de is found in informal French. For a number of speakers there is a difference in meaning between the two.

When de is present, the implication is that there were more of the things described by the noun than the number indicates:

• Il y avait dix voyageurs de blessés

There were ten travellers injured (implies that there were more than ten involved, but the rest weren't injured)

• Il y avait dix voyageurs blessés

There were ten injured travellers (has no implication about whether there were other, non-injured travellers)

• J'ai une heure de libre aujourd'hui

I have an hour free today (implies that all the other hours in my day are busy)

• J'ai une heure libre aujourd'hui I have a free hour today (has no implication about whether my other hours are busy or not)

Note that the contrast in English is captured by whether the adjective precedes or follows the noun.

Related Lessons

• Use of the definite article with parts of the body
• il or ça alternating with clauses or infinitives as subjects
• Grammatical and real number
• Direct Object Pronoun
• Easy future
• Categories of Nouns in French
• Recognizing when an unstressed pronoun is a direct object
• Summary table of subject pronouns
• y and en in French where the English translation has no preposition
• The indirect object complement
• Omission of the article in participle + noun constructions linked by de
• Measurements and comparisons in French — Numeral nouns and approximations
• Relative Clause
• Omission of plural indefinite des after the preposition de
• Colour adjective compounds