Language/French/Grammar/Beau-VS-Bel

When to use "beau" and "bel" in French?

Bonjour, Good morning,

In today's lesson, you will learn the difference between the 2 adjectives "Bel" and "Beau".

Bel and Beau both mean "beautiful".

Rule

Here is the rule:

The adjective "Beau" (singular masculine) becomes "Bel" when the noun (singular masculine) to which it refers starts with a vowel or a silent "h".

Examples

Detailed example

The plural of beau stays unchanged while becoming plural: "les 'beaux' arts" or "l'Ecole des 'Beaux' Arts de Paris".

The plural of (beaux) stays unchanged when qualifying a plural noun here, 'arts'.

• "l'Ecole des 'Beaux' Arts de Paris".

But if art was singular, it's 'bel' that would has been used.

• "Quel 'bel' art !"

Other examples

• "Un bel oiseau" NOT "un beau oiseau".

A beautiful bird

• Le violon est un bel instrument

The violin is a beautiful instrument

• un bel enfant

a beautiful child

• un bel appartement

a beautiful apartment

• un bel exemple

a beautiful example

Examples with the noun starting with a silient "h"

• Un bel hortensia

A beautiful hydrangea

• un bel hôtel

A beautiful hotel

• un bel hippodrome.

A beautiful racecourse

Related Lessons

• il or ça alternating with noun phrase subjects
• Past participles used as adjectives with the verb "être"
• Relative Clause
• Adjectives agreeing with just one noun
• Conjugation group 3
• Sentence modifying adverbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Omission of plural indefinite des after the preposition de
• Subject verb agreement — Agreement with more than one subject
• Punctuation