Language/French/Grammar/Adjectives-agreeing-with-just-one-noun

Adjective agreement with nouns — Adjectives agreeing with just one noun

Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun whose meaning they modify. This is usually straightforward when there is just one noun:

• d'une voix hésitante

in a faltering voice

• ce fameux dimanche

that famous Sunday

• L'eau était froide

The water was cold

• Il lançait aux passants

He shot rapid and

• des regards rapides et insistants

insistent glances at the passers-by

NB: A plural noun might be modified by a string of singular adjectives, depending on the meaning: Les économies russe, bulgare et roumaine rencontrent de graves difficultés 'The Russian, Bulgarian and Romanian economies are (each) encountering serious difficulties'.

Related Lessons

• Gender of compound nouns
• Use of l'on
• Function of adverbs
• How to tell the time
• Adjectives which normally follow the noun
• Definite article
• Plurals of nouns ending in eu, au, eau
• Indirectly transitive in French but directly transitive in English
• Quand utiliser "et" ou "est" ?
• Past Participle
• Meaning of tout à l'heure
• Plural
• Plural of words in Al
• Collective nouns
• Verbs with prepositions