Adjective agreement in French

Read more about how to use Adjective agreement in French.
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Adjective agreement

Adjectives in French must “agree with” the noun they describe. That means they take a particular ending depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

a cold coffee

a cold lemonade

  • In general, we add an -e to the feminine singular form of the adjective, an -s to the masculine plural, and an -es to the feminine plural:

    ♂
    grand
    content
    compliqué
    ♀
    grande
    contente
    compliquée
    ♂♂
    grands
    contents
    compliqués
    ♀♀
    grandes
    contentes
    compliquées
  • Adjectives which already end in -e don't change in the feminine singular, and simply take an -s in the plural.

Théo is young. / Léa is young.

Théo and Léa are young.

  • Certain adjectives acquire a double consonant in the feminine form.

a Colombian movie → a Colombian song

a good coffee → a good salad

Exercise 1

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Le café est froid. → ♀La soupe est . 

♂ Le pain est . → ♀La crêpe est bonne. 

♂ Le plat est salé. → ♀♀Les frites sont . 

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Le café est froid. → ♀La soupe est [not done] froide 1. 

♂ Le pain est [not done] bon 2. → ♀La crêpe est bonne. 

♂ Le plat est salé. → ♀♀Les frites sont [not done] salées 3. 

1 froide :

La soupe est froide (The soup is cold). We add the ending -e so that the adjective agrees with the feminine singular noun la soupe (the soup).

2 bon :

Le pain est bon (The bread is good). We use the form bon with masculine singular nouns like le pain (the bread). 

3 salées :

Les frites sont salée (The fries are salty). We add an e to salé (salty) after a feminine plural noun like les frites (the fries).

Exercise 2

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Théo est content. → ♀Anna est . 

♂Jojo est triste. → ♀Nadia est . 

♂ Le salon est petit. → ♀♀Les chambres sont . 

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Théo est content. → ♀Anna est [not done] contente 1. 

♂Jojo est triste. → ♀Nadia est [not done] triste 2. 

♂ Le salon est petit. → ♀♀Les chambres sont [not done] petites 3. 

1 contente :

Anna est contente (Anna is happy). We add an -e to the end of the adjective content to agree with a woman's name like Anna.

2 triste :

Nadia est triste (Nadia is sad). Adjectives that already end in an -e, like triste (sad), do not change in the feminine. Another example: mon frère est jeune (my brother is young); ma sœur est jeune (my sister is young).

3 petites :

Les chambres sont petites (The bedrooms are small). We add the ending -e to the adjective petit so that it agrees with the feminine plural noun les chambres (the bedrooms). Another example: mes filles sont petites (my daughters are small).

Exercise 3

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Théo est français. → ♀Nadia est . 

♂Le film est italien. → ♀La chanson est . 

♂ Le jardin est grand. → ♀La maison est . 

Complete the adjectives by adding the correct endings.

♂ Théo est français. → ♀Nadia est [not done] française 1. 

♂Le film est italien. → ♀La chanson est [not done] italienne 2. 

♂ Le jardin est grand. → ♀La maison est [not done] grande 3. 

1 française :

Nadia est française (Nadia is French). We add an -e to the end of the adjective français (French) to agree with the woman's name Nadia.

2 italienne :

La chanson est italienne (The song is Italian). We add a second -n- in the feminine form of some adjectives like italien (Italian). Other examples: le vin est bon (the wine is good) → la tarte est bonne (the pie is good); Luis est colombien (Luis is Colombian) → Isabella est colombienne (Isabella is Colombian).

3 grande :

La maison est grande (The house is big). We add the ending -e to the adjective grand when referring to a feminine singular noun like la maison.

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