French ordinal agreement drill: premier, deuxième and dernier

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated 1 October 2026 · About the library

Rewrite rankings and floor descriptions with premier, deuxième and dernier. Practise gender, plural endings and au premier étage in 14 transformations.

B1
14 answers
Checked all at once
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In short

Match the position word to its noun: le premier résultat, la première réponse, les derniers résultats, les dernières réponses. Deuxième has the same masculine and feminine form, and adds -s in the plural. For floors, say au premier étage and au deuxième étage.

A traveller with a suitcase reaches an upper stair landing beside an unnumbered door in a French townhouse. — The upper rooms give au premier étage a setting. Illustration: Atelier

Study first: four agreement slots

Position	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
First	premier	première	premiers	premières
Second	deuxième	deuxième	deuxièmes	deuxièmes
Last	dernier	dernière	derniers	dernières

Position words normally come before the noun in these phrases. A plural can describe the same position in several series: les deuxièmes essais means the second attempts. “Last” identifies the end of the stated group. Les dernières réponses means the last answers; les réponses dernières is not the order practised here.

Find the floor and the position

Front cutaway of a small French apartment building with a ground level and three upper floors, all visible at once. The ground level has exactly three separate

Count the upper floors from the ground floor, le rez-de-chaussée. The floor noun is masculine even when the room upstairs is feminine: la chambre est au deuxième étage. In the exercise, write the entire phrase or sentence requested, with the position spelled out.

1 · Turn the rank into an agreeing noun phrase

rank 1 / le résultat → (Masculine singular.)
rank 1 / la réponse → (Feminine singular.)
rank 2 / le candidat → (Use deuxième.)
rank 2 / la candidate → (Use deuxième.)
last / le groupe → (Masculine singular.)
last / la séance → (Feminine singular.)
rank 1 / les résultats → (Masculine plural.)
rank 1 / les réponses → (Feminine plural.)
last / les exercices → (Masculine plural.)
last / les questions → (Feminine plural.)

2 · Describe the floor

La cuisine / floor 1 → (Begin La cuisine est.)
La chambre / floor 2 → (Étage is masculine.)
Le bureau / final floor → (Use dernier.)
Les bureaux / floor 3 → (One shared floor; étage stays singular.)

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