Nul or mauvais: bad reviews, ability and adjective agreement

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated 26 September 2026 · About the library

Compare c’est nul, mauvais and être nul en with concrete feedback. Study the adjective forms, then check agreement and the meaning of match nul.

In short

Nul means “rubbish” or “hopeless” in familiar judgements; mauvais is the broader word for “bad” or “poor”. Use être nul en for an ability: Je suis nul en maths. In un match nul, the meaning changes to “a draw”.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

Football players shake hands after a match in a park. — The handshake closes un match nul. Illustration: Atelier

Nul et mauvais · fiche

1 · Judge a result

C’est nul ! gives a blunt, familiar reaction. Mauvais also works with a named feature. Add a reason to make the criticism clear.

Cette fin est nulle : tout arrive trop vite.This ending is rubbish: everything happens too quickly.

Le son est mauvais : on entend mal les voix.The sound is poor: you can barely hear the voices.

2 · Match the noun

Nul doubles the l in the feminine. The masculine plural of mauvais has the same spelling as the singular.

nul / nulle / nuls / nulles	masculine singular / feminine singular / masculine plural / feminine plural
mauvais / mauvaise / mauvais / mauvaises	the same four forms

Ces idées sont nulles.These ideas are rubbish.

Ce sont de mauvaises explications.These are poor explanations.

3 · Talk about an ability

Use en before a subject such as maths or anglais. For one difficult task, avoir du mal à gives a more precise description.

Je suis nulle en calcul mental.I’m hopeless at mental arithmetic.

J’ai du mal à faire ce calcul.I’m finding this calculation difficult.

4 · Recognise a different meaning

Sport and numbers give nul another job. Translate the whole phrase.

Les deux équipes ont fait match nul.The two teams drew.

La différence entre les deux résultats est nulle.The difference between the two results is zero.

What is the difference between nul and mauvais?

Après la présentation

Tom
Ma présentation était nulle.
My presentation was rubbish.
Aya
Le début était clair, mais tu parlais trop vite à la fin.
The beginning was clear, but you spoke too quickly at the end.
Tom
Oui, je vais ralentir et ajouter un exemple.
Yes, I’ll slow down and add an example.

Aya identifies the part Tom can change: speed at the end. His first reaction is a sweeping self-assessment. Compare Je suis nul en anglais with J’ai du mal à expliquer cette idée en anglais: the second tells the listener exactly where help would be useful.

The force also comes from the surrounding words. C’est un peu nul softens the reaction; c’est vraiment mauvais makes the criticism stronger. When speaking directly to someone about their work, a specific observation gives them something to respond to.