Adjectives and adverbs
Agreement, the few adjectives that go before the noun, and adverbs with -ment.
Learn
Adjectives and adverbs, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Make adjectives agree
An adjective matches its noun: add -e for feminine, -s for plural and -es for both. Un pull vert, une jupe verte, des pulls verts, des jupes vertes. An adjective that already ends in -e does not add another: un sac rouge, une robe rouge.
Learn the feminine patterns
Some endings change in the feminine: heureux gives heureuse, sportif gives sportive, cher gives chère and ancien gives ancienne. A few are irregular and are learnt as words: blanc, blanche; long, longue; gentil, gentille.
Learn the plural patterns
Most adjectives add a silent -s. Those ending in -s or -x stay the same (des chats gris, des enfants heureux), and -al becomes -aux in the masculine: des journaux locaux.
Put most adjectives after the noun
Colours, nationalities and most other adjectives follow the noun: une voiture rouge, un film français, un livre intéressant.
Put a small group of adjectives before the noun
A short, common group comes first: beau, joli, jeune, vieux, nouveau, bon, mauvais, grand, petit and gros. Un petit village, une jolie maison, un nouveau vélo. Some students remember them as BAGS: beauty, age, goodness and size.
Learn beau, nouveau and vieux
These three have a feminine of their own, and a special form before a masculine noun starting with a vowel: un beau jardin, une belle plage, un bel hôtel; un vieux château, une vieille ville, un vieil ami. Nouveau gives nouvelle and nouvel: un nouvel ordinateur.
Make adverbs with -ment
Many adverbs add -ment to the feminine adjective, where English adds -ly: lente gives lentement, heureuse gives heureusement. Adjectives ending in -ant and -ent give -amment and -emment, both said with an a sound: constamment, récemment.
Place adverbs, and use bien and mal
An adverb usually comes straight after the verb: je joue souvent au tennis, elle parle bien. Bien (well) and mal (badly) are the adverbs for bon and mauvais. In the perfect, a short adverb goes before the participle: j'ai bien dormi.
Adjectives and adverbs key terms
The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.
- Adjective
- A word that describes a noun and agrees with it: petit, petite, petits, petites.
- Agreement
- Matching an adjective's ending to its noun's gender and number: des filles sportives.
- Adverb
- A word that describes a verb, saying how, when, how often or where: vite, souvent, ici.
- -ment
- The ending that makes many adverbs, like the English -ly: facilement means easily.
- BAGS
- A memory aid for the adjectives that go before the noun, for beauty, age, goodness and size: un beau château.
- bon and bien
- Bon is good, an adjective that agrees, as in une bonne idée. Bien is well, an adverb that never changes, as in je chante bien.
- vieux
- Old, placed before the noun, with the feminine vieille and the form vieil before a vowel: un vieil homme.
- Invariable adjective
- An adjective that never changes, such as marron and orange: des chaussures marron.
Common mistakes in Adjectives and adverbs
The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.
Leaving off the agreement, as in ma sœur est petit.
Find the noun and match it: ma sœur est petite, mes parents sont gentils.
Putting a colour before the noun, as in un rouge pull.
Colours and most adjectives follow the noun: un pull rouge. Only the short group, such as petit and grand, comes first.
Adding a second -e, as in une maison rougee.
An adjective ending in -e keeps the same form in the feminine: rouge, jeune, facile. It still adds -s in the plural.
Using bon for well, as in il joue bon.
With a verb, use the adverb bien: il joue bien. Keep bon for nouns: un bon joueur.
Writing un beau ami or un vieux hôtel.
Before a masculine noun starting with a vowel or a silent h, use bel, vieil or nouvel: un bel ami, un vieil hôtel.
Practice
Try a Adjectives and adverbs question
A GCSE-style original question from this topic. Have a go before you open the working - deciding on an answer first is what makes the working stick.
Which form completes the sentence? C'est une ___ plage.
- beau
- bel
- beaux
- belle
Show the answer and the working
Answer: belle
Beau has its own feminine, belle, and goes before the noun: une belle plage, a beautiful beach.
- Plage is feminine.
- The feminine of beau is belle.
- Une belle plage.