Adjectives: agreement and position

The logic

French (from France) has no single word for 70, 80 or 90. It builds them by calculation, a leftover of an old counting system in twenties (English still has a trace of it: four score and seven).

• 70 = 60 + 10 → soixante-dix /swa.sɑ̃t.dis/
• 80 = 4 × 20 → quatre-vingts /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃/
• 90 = 4 × 20 + 10 → quatre-vingt-dix /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.dis/

If German einundzwanzig (one-and-twenty) taught you to calculate while listening, you are already trained for this.

The full pattern

Sound details

• The x in soixante sounds like /s/: /swa.sɑ̃t/, never /ks/.
• dix alone is /dis/, but in dix-sept /di.sɛt/, dix-huit /di.zɥit/ and dix-neuf /diz.nœf/ it changes. So soixante-dix-neuf is /swa.sɑ̃t.diz.nœf/.
• In quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-huit, quatre-vingt-onze the t of vingt stays silent: /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.œ̃/, /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.ɥit/, /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.ɔ̃z/. Compare vingt et un /vɛ̃.te.œ̃/, where it is pronounced.
• The -s of quatre-vingts is only written; you hear it only as a liaison: quatre-vingts ans /ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.zɑ̃/.

Belgium and Switzerland: the easy way

In Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland people say septante (70), nonante (90), and in parts of Switzerland huitante (80). So septante-deux = 72, nonante-neuf = 99. Understand them, but in France use the standard forms.

Tip: French phone numbers are read in pairs: 06 78 92 85 71 = zéro six, soixante-dix-huit, quatre-vingt-douze, quatre-vingt-cinq, soixante et onze. Practise by reading prices and phone numbers aloud.

1. Agreement: the adjective copies the noun

In German the adjective ending depends on case and article (ein großer Mann, der große Mann). French is simpler: the adjective just copies the gender and number of its noun, always, also after être (where German and English never change: die Häuser sind groß).

• un petit chien, une petite maison, des petits chiens, des petites maisons
• La salle est grande. (The room is big.) Les murs sont blancs. (The walls are white.)
• Mes parents sont contents. (My parents are happy.)

The feminine -e often makes a silent final consonant audible: petit /pə.ti/ → petite /pə.tit/, grand /gʁɑ̃/ → grande /gʁɑ̃d/. So you often hear the gender.

Adjectives already ending in -e do not change in the feminine: un livre moderne, une salle moderne; rouge, jeune, pauvre, sympathique. Adjectives ending in -s or -x do not change in the masculine plural: un homme heureux, des hommes heureux.

2. Common feminine patterns

3. The big irregulars: beau, nouveau, vieux

They have a third masculine form before a vowel or silent h, so that the words flow (no hiatus):

• un bel endroit (a beautiful place), un nouvel appartement, un vieil ami
• une belle journée, une nouvelle voiture, une vieille maison

4. Position: usually after the noun

The default is the opposite of German and English: noun + adjective.

• une voiture bleue (a blue car), un vin rouge, la vie culturelle
• un problème économique, une salle moderne

Colours, nationalities, shapes, categories (-ique, -el) and participles (organisé) always go after.

5. BAGS: the short, frequent ones go before

A small group of very common adjectives goes before the noun. Remember BAGS:

• Beauty: beau, joli → une jolie rue
• Age: jeune, vieux, nouveau → un jeune homme
• Goodness: bon, mauvais → une bonne idée, un mauvais jour
• Size: grand, petit, gros, long → une grande fenêtre, un long chemin

You can combine both: une jolie maison moderne (a pretty modern house), un petit café sympathique.

Meaning shift: some adjectives change meaning with position. un grand homme = a great man, un homme grand = a tall man. mon cher ami = my dear friend, un repas cher = an expensive meal. ma propre chambre = my own room, une chambre propre = a clean room.

6. Written French: des → de before an adjective

When a plural adjective comes before the noun, careful written French turns des into de: de jolies maisons, de bonnes nouvelles. In speech you will also hear des. Recognise it when reading news.

The rule

The French past participle of -er verbs ends in -é. It matches English -ed and very often German -iert. Used as an adjective, it agrees like any other adjective: organisé, organisée, organisés, organisées (all pronounced /ɔʁ.ga.ni.ze/).

• L'appartement est bien situé. The flat is well located.
• La réunion est très bien organisée. The meeting is very well organised.
• Le dossier est compliqué. The file is complicated.

Traps

• fatigué = tired (not usually fatigued), occupé = busy (a phone line or a seat: occupied), pressé = in a hurry.
• passé as an adjective = past, last: la semaine passée = last week. As a noun, le passé = the past.
• Not every -é word is a participle: le café, l'été, la vérité, la société are nouns. Nouns in -té usually match English -ty (vérité = verity/truth, société = society).
• Watch the agreement in writing: Elle est fatiguée, Les salles sont réservées. The sound stays /e/.