French adjective agreement: rules, forms and examples

Find the word being described, identify its gender and number, then choose the matching adjective form. The noun controls the agreement, including when the adjective comes after être or another linking verb. Its position beside the noun does not determine its ending. A masculine object needs a masculine adjective; a feminine object needs a feminine adjective, regardless of who owns it.

Here rouge describes the car and bicycle, so its agreement follows those nouns. The owner’s gender is irrelevant. The written form happens to stay the same because rouge already ends in -e. Learn nouns with an article, such as la voiture and le vélo, so you have the information needed to choose the adjective.

The usual feminine adds -e to the masculine form, but many common adjectives change more than one letter. An adjective already ending in an unaccented -e often has the same masculine and feminine form: calme, calme. Other patterns change the final consonant or ending, so learn the pair rather than trying to add e mechanically.

Feminine agreement can affect pronunciation. In petit/petite and grand/grande, a final consonant becomes audible in the feminine. Other changes mainly affect spelling. Do not rely on sound alone to proofread. If you meet an unfamiliar adjective, record both singular forms; they supply a more useful starting point than the masculine form by itself.

Most adjectives add -s to the appropriate singular form. First choose masculine or feminine, then make it plural: heureuse → heureuses. A masculine adjective already ending in -s or -x keeps that spelling in the plural. Adjectives in -eau take -x, and many masculine adjectives in -al change to -aux, with exceptions to learn.

Avoid adding -aux to every adjective in -al: banal gives banals, and fatal gives fatals. When two nouns of different genders share one adjective, standard agreement normally uses masculine plural: un sac et une valise lourds. With two feminine nouns, use feminine plural: une robe et une veste neuves. Keep the intended group clear when a sentence contains several possible nouns.

Use bel, nouvel and vieil before a masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel sound or mute h. These forms ease the spoken connection; they are still masculine singular. The feminine forms are belle, nouvelle, vieille, and the masculine plural forms are beaux, nouveaux, vieux. Do not use the special singular form just because any later word begins with a vowel.

In the plural, say de beaux arbres and de vieux immeubles, not bels or vieils. With an aspirated h, use the ordinary masculine form because the word blocks the vowel connection: un beau héros. Dictionaries identify this kind of h. The agreement cheat sheet and liaison pages help you connect the written adjective choice with the spoken phrase.

Simple colour adjectives generally agree, but orange, marron and compound colour descriptions are usually invariable. Une robe verte becomes des robes vertes. By contrast, des robes orange and des robes bleu clair keep the colour expression unchanged. The rule concerns how the colour term is formed, not the number of coloured objects.

Do not extend the orange/marron pattern to every colour historically derived from a noun: rose and violet agree in ordinary adjective use. For two-word shades such as vert foncé or bleu clair, leave the whole shade expression unchanged. The colour picture cards provide vocabulary, while the sombre/foncé comparison gives a focused setting for checking shade agreement.

Most descriptive adjectives go after the noun, while a common set including petit, grand, beau, bon, jeune and vieux often goes before it. Position is a separate decision from agreement: either way, the adjective must match its noun. Nationality and ordinary colour adjectives normally follow the noun: une voiture française, une porte bleue.

In this example, petite goes before table and ronde follows it; both are feminine singular. In careful standard French, plural indefinite des usually becomes de before a preposed adjective: de petites tables. This is an article pattern, not a reason to remove the adjective’s plural ending. Fixed expressions and some everyday usage need a more detailed treatment on the de/des page.

After être, sembler or devenir, make the adjective agree with the subject being described. With je, that can depend on the speaker: je suis prêt or je suis prête. With polite singular vous, use a singular adjective matching the person addressed. With conversational on meaning a known group, the verb stays singular but the adjective can reflect that group.

With quelque chose or rien, a following adjective commonly uses de and masculine singular: quelque chose de nouveau, rien de grave. The feminine spelling of chose does not make this indefinite expression feminine. This is a useful later extension once ordinary noun agreement is secure; a dedicated mistakes page explores it further.

The usual errors are matching the owner, overlooking a plural noun, adding e to every feminine form and overgeneralising colour agreement. Trace the adjective to its noun or pronoun, then check gender, number and any special pattern.

• Une voiture blanc.Une voiture blanche.

  The feminine form of blanc is blanche.

• Les maisons sont grand.Les maisons sont grandes.

  The adjective after être agrees with feminine plural maisons.

• Un belle appartement.Un bel appartement.

  Appartement is masculine singular and begins with a vowel.

• Des chaussures marrons.Des chaussures marron.

  Marron used as a colour adjective is invariable.

• Des robes bleues claires.Des robes bleu clair.

  The compound shade bleu clair is invariable.