Most French adjectives go after the noun they describe. Some very common adjectives usually come before the noun: bon/mauvais, court/long, grand/petit, jeune/nouveau/vieux, gros, haut, beau, joli, premier, meilleur.

What’s the general rule? Adverbs (les adverbes) usually come after the verb they are describing when it is conjugated in a simple (non-compound) tense.

Not always. Short, common ones usually come before (petit, grand, vieux, beau…), but there are some others that fall within these categories and that come after (laid, âgé…) or can be used before or after (merveilleux, délicieux…).

The adjective “ancien” normally comes before the noun when it means “former”, and after it when it means “ancient”. The adjective “même” normally comes before the noun when it means “same”, and after it when it means “very same”.

Numerical word order Cardinal numbers as adjectives must come first, before the noun they modify as well as any other adjectives.

The qualities they describe can be summarized by the acronym BAGS: B for beauty: beau (beautiful), joli (pretty) A for age: jeune (young), vieux (old), nouveau (new) G for goodness: bon (good), meilleur (better), mauvais (bad), gentil (kind)

In French, adjectives must agree with their noun, which means that they have to show whether they are masculine or feminine and singular or plural to match the noun.

The most common colors in French

• red – rouge.
• yellow – jaune.
• blue – bleu/bleue.
• green – vert/verte.
• orange – orange.
• white – blanc/blanche.
• black – noir/noire.
• gray – gris/grise.

This is a beautiful smokey, grey blue. It is the colour I associate with the cloth used for the uniforms of French infantrymen in the 19th century. It would have been based on indigo the highly prized organic dye.

17 = 10 + 7, dix-sept. 18 = 10 + 8, dix-huit. 19 = 10 + 9, dix-neuf….Numbers in French: 1-20.

introduction → introduction, présentation.