In French, an adjective agrees with the noun it describes in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). It also has a usual position, which is after the noun for most adjectives and before it for a short list. Both points appear in nearly every description you write.
This lesson follows choosing articles in a short description, because the article, noun and adjective all need to match each other. It belongs to the module sentence foundations and agreement.
How does agreement work, step by step?
Start with the noun, because the noun decides everything.
- Find the noun and its gender. Une robe is feminine singular, so the adjective must be feminine singular.
- Make the adjective feminine if needed. Usually add -e: vert becomes verte, petit becomes petite.
- Make it plural if needed. Usually add -s: vertes, petites. If the singular already ends in -s or -x, it stays the same in the plural: un gros chat, des gros chats.
- Check for an irregular pattern. Common ones include beau / belle, nouveau / nouvelle, vieux / vieille, blanc / blanche, heureux / heureuse.
Where does the adjective go?
Most adjectives sit after the noun: un livre intéressant, une maison moderne, des chaussures blanches. Colours, shapes and nationalities always follow the noun.
A short group of common adjectives goes before the noun. A handy memory aid is the idea of beauty, age, goodness and size: beau, joli, jeune, vieux, nouveau, bon, mauvais, grand, petit, gros. Before a masculine noun that begins with a vowel, beau, nouveau and vieux change to bel, nouvel, vieil: un bel appartement.
Worked example
Fix the agreement and position in this sentence:
Ma sœur petit porte une rouge robe et des chaussures blanc.
Step 1, find the nouns. sœur (feminine singular), robe (feminine singular), chaussures (feminine plural).
Step 2, petit. It describes sœur, so it must be feminine. It is also one of the short common adjectives, so it goes before the noun: ma petite sœur.
Step 3, rouge. Colours follow the noun, and rouge already ends in -e, so it does not change: une robe rouge.
Step 4, blanc. It describes chaussures, which is feminine plural, so the adjective becomes blanches.
Corrected sentence: Ma petite sœur porte une robe rouge et des chaussures blanches.
The mistake to watch for
Learners often translate word by word from English and place every adjective before the noun.
Mistaken sentence: Elle a une verte jupe et des nouveau amis.
The adjective verte is a colour, so it follows the noun. nouveau does come before the noun, but it must be plural and, because amis starts with a vowel sound, the liaison also matters for pronunciation.
The correction is Elle a une jupe verte et de nouveaux amis. Notice that des usually becomes de when an adjective comes before a plural noun, which is common in written French. You do not need to memorise every exception, but you should be able to explain each choice you make.
Check yourself
Try these, then open each answer.
1. Write the correct form: “une (nouveau) maison”
Show answer
maison is feminine, and nouveau goes before the noun, so it becomes nouvelle: une nouvelle maison.
2. Add the adjective “blanc” correctly: “Les chaussettes ___”
Show answer
chaussettes is feminine plural, so blanches: Les chaussettes blanches.
3. Which sentence is correct? (a) Il habite dans un appartement beau. (b) Il habite dans un bel appartement.
Show answer
(b). beau goes before the noun, and before a vowel sound it becomes bel.
Where this leads next
Once nouns and adjectives agree, the verb has to agree with its subject too. Continue with tracking subject and verb agreement in a paragraph, and use the practice set when you want mixed questions.
In individual lessons a teacher can read your descriptions live and show which of these patterns your own sentences miss. This is a normal part of online one-to-one French tuition.