Masculine and Feminine Adjectives

In French when a noun is masculin you must use a masculin adjective to describe it and when it’s feminine you must use a feminine adjective.

 

  • Il est beau (He is good looking) –> Beau is masculin.
  • Elle est belle (she is good looking) –> Belle is feminine.

Some of these masculin and feminine adjectives you simply must learn

Most adjectives follow general ending rules like the people nouns. Click here to revise the masculin and feminine of people nouns:

The most common ending change rule is to add en -E.

In general you don’t pronounce s, t, d, n, at the end of words in French

  • Gros, Important, Grand, Bon

But this changes when the E is added. Then the letters must be pronounced

  • Grosse, Importante, Grande, Bonne.

Adding an E is not always the answer. There are various ending changes possible.

Here is a list of the most common ending changes. Listen and repeat.

Ending changeMasculinFeminineEnglish
Add E for feminineGrand
Blond
Élégant
Fin
Important
Fatigué
Grande
Blonde
Élégante
Fine
Importante
Fatiguée
tall
blond
elegant
thin
important
tired
eux –> euseHeureux
Peureux
Sérieux
Curieux
Heureuse
Peureuse
Sérieuse
Curieuse
happy
fearful
serious
curious
if –> iveSportif
Actif
Intensif
Exécutif
Sportive
Active
Intensive
Exécutive
fit
active
intensive
executive
en –> enneAustralien
Indien
Musicien
Australienne
Indienne
Musicienne
er –> èreFier
Cher
Fière
Chère
Proud
Expensive
No changeBien
Riche
Bien
Riche
Good
Rich

Some adjectives don’t follow the main rules. Listen and repeat.

MasculinFeminineEnglish
BeauBellebeautiful
BonBonnetasty/good feeling
NouveauNouvellenew
VieuxVieilleold
GentilGentillekind
BasBasselow
GrosGrossefat
DouxDoucesoft/gentle
RouxRoussered haired
FauxFaussefalse/wrong
LongLonguelong
BlancBlanchewhite

Here are a few exercises to get used to masculin and feminine adjectives.

exercices-adjectives-masculin-feminine PDF

adjectives-masculin-feminine-corrige PDF

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