Language/French/Grammar/Beau-VS-Bel
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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". |
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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
Videos
beau ou bel
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