150 French Adjectives With Phrases – An Easy Guide

french adjectives - France - French flag

Fortunately, in today’s lesson, you will find some rules that will make it easier for you to understand how to place and use French adjectives.

In English, adjectives are easy to use. You put them before the nouns they describe, and you are done. So, you would say “a greenhouse” or “a blue bag.”

However, in French, the positions of adjectives vary. So, you would say “une maison verte” (lit: a house green) or “un sac bleu” (lit: a bag blue). If this is not enough to puzzle you, French adjectives will also vary depending on whether the noun they describe is feminine, masculine, singular, or plural.

It Goes Before the Noun If…

Remember this little acronym: B-A-N-G-S.

Beauty: Adjectives like beau – beautiful and joli (e) – pretty go before the noun as they are describing beauty.

Age: Adjectives like Vieux/Vieille – old and jeune – young go before the noun.

Numbers: Well, they go in front of the noun

Goodness: Adjectives that we use to say how bad or good something is, like mauvais(e) – bad and bon(ne) – good, will go before the noun.

Size: Adjectives like haut(e) high, gros(se) – fat and petit(e) – small are front-runners as well.

EXCEPTION: Grand(e) used before oneself means “great,” as in un grand homme (a great man), but after oneself means tall. So un homme grand is “a tall man.”

French Adjectives

 

An Easy Guide For French Adjectives With Examples

Feminine And Masculine

If you have learned a little French, then you will know the terrible feminine and masculine words, and you may even have heard of the same adjectives. French adjectives must correspond to the person speaking, so men are “grand” (tall), and women are “grande.” Add “e” to make it a female adjective.

It may sound quite simple, but the French also have masculine and feminine things! Over time, you will learn to recognize the gender of words. Sometimes there are rules, and sometimes you must know what is feminine and masculine.

Here are some examples of French adjectives (feminine and masculine) with nouns that you may already know:

  • Un bol rond – a round bowl
  • Une assiette ronde – a round plate
  • Une petite porte – a little door
  • Un petit mur – a little wall
  • Une télévision neuve – a new television
  • Un ordinateur neuf – a new computer

What Are The French Adjectives?

It is a list of the most common descriptive French words. If you add the letter “e” to the end of the word, it will become their feminine equivalent:

  • petit – small
  • grand – tall/big
  • mauvais – bad
  • bon – good
  • belle or beau – beautiful
  • froid – cold
  • gentil – kind
  • chaud – hot

For example, “petit” (small) will become “petite.” Likewise, when a word ends in a vowel, then a consonant, we must double the last letter before adding the ‘e.’ For example, bon/bonne, gentil/gentille.

Note: Some adjectives change entirely when they become feminine. For example, as you saw above, “beau” becomes “belle.”

Some French adjectives do not have the equivalent of the feminine. Many of these are French adjectives that already end with the letter ‘e.’ Here are some common examples of adjectives that stay the same for both genders:

  • confortable – comfortable
  • difficile – difficult
  • calme – calm
  • facile – easy
  • riche – rich
  • pauvre – poor
  • propre – clean
  • timide – shy
  • sympathique – kind
  • sale – dirty
  • sympa – kind/nice

Plural

Once you have mastered the masculine and feminine forms, you need to understand the French adjective agreement for plural nouns. Simply put, when we add an “s” to a noun to make it plural, we also need to add an “s” to the adjective.

  1. A big lake– Un grand lac

Two big lakes– Deux grands lacs 

  1. The pink shoe– La chaussure rose

The pink shoes– Les chaussures roses 

Of course, this is the French we are talking about, and things have never been as simple as people imagined! We have seen the feminine gender, we have seen the plural, and now we need to combine the two to create the feminine plural.

  • Les chaises hautes – High chair (meaning = both bar stools and baby high chairs)
  • Les tables basses – Low tables (meaning = coffee tables)

Here is a revision of when to use French adjective agreement with the word “petit”:

  • Le petit garçon (masculine singular) – the little boy (masculine singular)
  • La petite fille (feminine singular) – the little girl (feminine singular)
  • Les petits garçons (masculine plural) – the little boys (masculine plural)
  • Les petites filles (feminine plural) – the little girls (feminine plural)

When using plural feminine and masculine objects or talking about females and males, always the default is masculine (e.g., little children = les petits enfants).

Other Important And Common French Adjectives

list of adjectives in french bangs french adjectives
French Adjectives Masculine, Feminine Or CommonEnglish
bon – bonnegood or well
mignon – mignonnecute 
mauvais – mauvaisebad
joli – joliepretty
gentil – gentillenice
fort – fortestrong
drôlefunny
bizarreodd
effrayé – effrayéescared
fâché – fâchéeangry
cher – chèreexpensive
courageux – courageusebrave
désorienté – désorientéeconfused
difficiledifficult
ambitieux – ambitieuseambitious
épuisé – épuiséeexhausted
fatigué – fatiguéetired
gravetotally (slang)
gros – grossefat; heavy
justefair
librefree – available
meilleur – meilleurebetter
nouveau – nouvellenew
léger – légèrelight
mocheugly
navré – navréesorry
pareil – pareillethe same
pauvrepoor
pressé – presséein a hurry
facileeasy
prêt – prêteready
ravi – raviedelighted
sympanice
tranquillecalm
travailleur – travailleusehardworking
tristesad
videempty
vieux – vieilleold
méchant – méchantemean
inquiet – inquièteworried
haut – hautehigh
bas – basselow
beau – bellebeautiful
mincethin
doux – douceSoft
clair – claireclear
très beau – bellevery beautiful
dernier – dernièrelatest
seul – seuleonly
drôlefunny
 sérieux – sérieuse  serious

Adjectives For Daily Use: 26 Most Common French Adjectives

Masculine – Feminine 0r CommonEnglish
jeuneyoung
grand – grandebig
petit – petitelittle
heureux – heureusehappy
tristesad
méchant – méchantemean
poli – poliepolite
impoli – impolieimpolite
faibleweak
bon marchéinexpensive
gros – grossefat
horriblehorrible
formidablewonderful
intelligent – intelligentesmart
stupidestupid
intéressant – intéressanteinteresting
ennuyeux – ennuyeuseboring
richerich
raisonnableReasonable
strict – stricteStrict
malheureux – malheureuseUnhappy
célèbrefamous
populairePopular
émotif – émotiveEmotional
utileUseful
chaud – chaudeHot

Phrases In French Using French Adjectives

English PhrasesFrench Phrases
A delicious mealUn repas délicieux (masculine singular)
A delicious pieUne tarte délicieuse (feminine singular)
It is a good restaurantC’est un bon restaurant (masculine singular)
It is a good ideaC’est une bonne idée (feminine singular)
My boyfriend is AustralianMon copain est australien (masculine singular)
The old lady is hereLa vieille femme est ici (feminine singular)
He is a handsome guyC’est un bel homme (masculine singular)

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That’s it, and you now know the most common French adjectives. Practice will enable you to speak fluent French.

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