GCSE · French · AQA · Spec 8652 · Foundation

Adjective agreement — gender (F)

Say 'the house is big' in French, and it's the house that decides how you spell 'big'.

French · Adjectives

Who decides the ending?

Pick a noun, then pick a form of the adjective. Some phrases come back clean and some slip. Work out what the clean ones have in common.

Le garçon est grand.

The boy is tall.

noun + est

adjective

Start with La fille est and try both forms of grand. Then swap in La maison est. Finally, put calme with a feminine noun.

Clean. Le garçon is a masculine noun, so grand stays in its masculine form. Now switch the noun to La fille est and keep grand. What happens?

Built: Le garçon est grand.. Clean. Le garçon is a masculine noun, so grand stays in its masculine form. Now switch the noun to La fille est and keep grand. What happens?

Watch out: An adjective that already ends in -e never gets a second one: la fille est calme, not calmee.

French · Adjective endings

Which pattern does it follow?

So la fille est grande. But what about heureux, or sportif? Adding -e won't work for those: the masculine ending decides. Pick an adjective, then put it in the pattern its ending calls for.

Still to sort

Add -e (0)

The default, when the ending isn't a special one.

Where the line is: It's the fallback, not the rule for everything. Check the ending, and the irregular list, first.

Ends in -e: no change (0)

The masculine already ends in -e.

Where the line is: Only an -e that's already there counts. Never add a second one.

-x → -se (0)

The x goes and -se takes its place.

-el → -lle (0)

Double the l, then add -e.

Where the line is: Check the letters just before the l: this pattern needs exactly -el.

-en → -nne (0)

Double the n, then add -e.

Where the line is: Check the letters just before the n: this pattern needs exactly -en.

-f → -ve (0)

The f becomes a v, then add -e.

-er → -ère (0)

Add -e and put a grave accent on the e before the r.

Where the line is: The last two letters must be exactly -er. A word that ends in -eur doesn't count.

Listed irregular (0)

Learned as its own vocabulary item, not worked out from a pattern.

12 of 12 still to sort.

French · Reading

Let the ending tell you who's who

Inès describes her family

Ma famille est un peu bizarre !

La sœur de mon père est très sportive. Le fils de ma tante est toujours sérieux.

La voiture de mon grand-père est chère, et la prof de mon frère est nouvelle.

Question 1 of 4

Who is sporty: Dad or his sister? Select the word that proves it.

Tap the words in the passage that prove your answer.

French · Proofreading

Spot the agreement slip

Maya wrote this description of her friend Chloé. In one line, an adjective doesn't agree properly. Which line is it?

Maya's description — which line goes wrong?

French · Translation

Now you write it

1. My sister is serious. 2. The music is traditional. 3. My grandmother is very active. 4. The car is expensive. 5. The pizza is good. 6. My brother is happy.

Translate these six sentences into French. Each sentence gets 1 mark if the adjective has the right form, spelling and accent included. Nouns: la sœur, la musique, la grand-mère, la voiture, la pizza, le frère. Adjectives (masculine form): sérieux, traditionnel, actif, cher, bon, heureux. [6 marks]

0 words · your answer stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

The noun decides whether an adjective changes. The adjective's ending decides how.

What you need to know

  • An adjective agrees with the noun it describes: a feminine noun needs the feminine form of the adjective.
  • The default is to add -e (petit → petite). An adjective that already ends in -e does not change (jeune → jeune).
  • Five endings have their own feminine: -x → -se, -el → -lle, -en → -nne, -f → -ve, -er → -ère.
  • Some very common adjectives are irregular and are learned as separate vocabulary items: net/nette, bon/bonne, nouveau/nouvelle, pareil/pareille, travailleur/travailleuse.

The big picture

In French, an adjective has to match the noun it describes. If the noun is feminine, the adjective takes its feminine form, and which feminine form depends on how the masculine adjective ends. Most adjectives just add -e, adjectives that already end in -e stay the same, and five endings (-x, -el, -en, -f and -er) each have their own feminine. A few very common adjectives are irregular and are learned as words in their own right.

Key points

1The noun decides. You don't choose, and the adjective doesn't either.
2Gender belongs to the word: la maison is feminine, so a house is grande.
3Read the ending before you add anything. 'Just add -e' only works for the default pattern.
4Look-alikes: travailleur ends in -eur (not -er), bon in -on (not -en), pareil in -eil (not -el). All three are listed irregulars.
5Agreement is a reading clue: an adjective's ending tells you which noun it belongs to.

Worked example

Problem

Translate into French: 'The kitchen is new and modern.' (la cuisine = the kitchen; nouveau = new; moderne = modern)

⚠ Watch out

Adding a plain -e to every adjective: naturele instead of naturelle, or jeunee instead of jeune. Check the ending before you add anything.

🧠

Memory hook

Noun first, ending second: the noun tells you WHETHER the adjective changes, and the ending tells you HOW.

✓

Check yourself

Explain why la fille est calme needs no change to the adjective, but la fille est grande does.

Flashcards

(13)
What decides whether a French adjective takes its feminine form?
The noun it describes. A feminine noun needs the feminine form, whether it names a person (la fille) or a thing (la maison).
Default pattern: what is the feminine of intelligent?
intelligente. When the ending isn't a special one, just add -e.
What is the feminine of facile?
facile. It already ends in a mute -e, so there's no change.
-x pattern: what is the feminine of dangereux?
dangereuse (-x → -se).
-el pattern: what is the feminine of cruel?
cruelle (-el → -lle).
-en pattern: what is the feminine of européen?
européenne (-en → -nne).
-f pattern: what is the feminine of positif?
positive (-f → -ve).
-er pattern: what is the feminine of dernier?
dernière (-er → -ère). The grave accent is part of the pattern.
What is the feminine of bon?
bonne. A listed irregular: bon ends in -on, not -en.
What is the feminine of net?
nette. A listed irregular: the t doubles, so it isn't the add -e pattern.
What is the feminine of pareil?
pareille. A listed irregular: pareil ends in -eil, not -el.
What is the feminine of nouveau?
nouvelle. A listed irregular, learned as its own word.
What is the feminine of travailleur?
travailleuse. A listed irregular: it ends in -eur, not -er.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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