Adjective Agreement and Placement

Français 1Waters

The Rule

•Adjectives must agree with the noun it modifies in gender and number.

What does it mean?

• ADJECTIVES (words that describe a noun) must AGREE (be in the same form) with the NOUN (person, place or thing) it MODIFIES (changes in character or form) in GENDER (a system of classification, in this case Masculine or Feminine) and NUMBER (single or plural).

Making Agreementwith regular adjectives

SingularPlural

Masculine - - - - - S

Feminine - E - ES

You have already seen the AGREEMENT rule when

using articles.

Masculine / Singular noun with definite article

Le cahier

Masculine / Plural

Les cahiers

Feminine/Singularwith definite article

• La calculatrice

Feminine/Plural

• Les calculatrices

Singular / Masculine Nounwith indefinite article

Un crayon

Plural / Masculine Noun

Des crayons

Feminine / Singular Nounwith indefinite article

• Une trousse

Feminine / Plural Noun

Des Trousses

You make the same changes when you add adjectives to describe

your nouns. Think equality! Whatever

characteristic your noun has (m/f, s/p) all words describing that noun MUST have the SAME

characteristics!

Masculine/Singular with adjective agreement

• Le cahier vert

Masculine Plural with adjective agreement

• Les cahiers verts

Feminine Singular with adjective agreement

• La trousse rose

Feminine Pluralwith adjective agreement

• Les trousses roses

Placement

• Did you notice where the colors were placed? In French, adjectives are placed AFTER the noun. Naturally, there is an exception called BANGS (but that is a whole different lesson that we will work on after you get this one down!).

Now you try!

• The blue backpack

• Le sac à dos bleu

Make the changes! Think equality and word order!

• The blue backpacks

• Les sacs à dos bleus

Keep going…

• The green calculator

• La calculatrice verte

…and if it is plural???

• The green calculators

• Les calculatrices vertes

Now it’s your turn!

• 1. Identify the noun in the sentence.• 2. Is the noun masculine or feminine?• 3. Is the noun singular or plural?• 4. Apply the answers to #2 and #3 to

ALL words that DESCRIBE the NOUN!

• BON COURAGE!

Can you fill in the blanks?

• J’ai une gomme (rose).• Tu as un stylo (bleu)?• Coline a une trousse

(vert).• Nous avons des cahiers

(noir).• Madame a des classeurs

(blanc).

• J’ai une gomme rose.• Tu as un stylo bleu?• Coline a une trousse verte.• Nous avons des cahiers noirs.• Madame a des classeurs

blancs.

Remember… EQUALITY!

•Adjectives must agree with the noun it modifies in gender and number.

Now, translate!

• Marc and Luc have green backpacks.• Mr. LeDuc does not have a red pen.• They have the blue books.• I need the red book.• Do you have the orange ruler?• Colette does not have the blue

binder.• He has a black pencil case.

1. Marc et Luc ont les sacs à dos verts.2. M. LeDuc n’a pas de stylo rouge.3. Ils ont les livres bleus.4. Il me faut un livre rouge.5. As-tu une règle orange?6. Colette n’a pas de classeur bleu. 7. Il a une trousse noire.

One final note…

• This one concept, for me, was the hardest thing I had to learn in French! But, don’t give up! If you follow the steps you will get it and if you get it now you won’t have to relearn it when the concept of AGREEMENT reappears. And, trust me…it reappears frequently! So BON COURAGE! Now, go forth and make your adjectives agree!