Chapter 2: Nouns and Adjectives
I
n this chapter we are going to learn about nouns and adjectives. Few things we have to
be careful about following things.
- gender
- singuler or pluriel
- articles
In French, all nouns have gender, e and feminine.
In English, a book is a book. There is no gender, but there is in French. So how do you know which is masculin
or feminine. Article is a key point. There are two articles in French. Un
is used for masculin, and une is used for feminine nouns.
Some of you might wonder about how French people decided which nouns are masculin or feminine. I don't know....
Y
ou can say same thing about adjectives. If you want to put some adjective, you have to look at the noun is
masculin or feminine. If it's feminine, you have to add e in the adjective.
Let's take a look at examples.
[EX]
C'est un grand livre. This is a big book.
C'est une grande chaise. This is a big chair.
Grand is big in French. If the noun is masculin, you don't have to worry about anything. However,
if the noun is feminine, you must put e in after grand.
T
here is some exception. You just can't put e when you see a feminine noun.
When you see f in the end of the adjective, you replace it with
ve. When you see x in the end of adjective,
you replace it with se. Look at the example.
[EX]
Il est un actif �tudiant. He is an active student.
Elle est une active �tudiante. She is an active student.
Il un ennuyeux �tudiant. He is a boring student.
Elle une ennyeuse �tudiante. She is a boring student
D
id you notice about �tudiant and �tudiante? Both words are same spelling except feminine word got
extra e in the end. In this way, some nouns, such as profession and nationality, have
to put e like adjectives.
masculin
singuler |
masculin
pluriel |
feminin
singuler |
feminin
pluriel |
meaning |
| am�ricain |
am�ricains |
am�ricaine |
am�ricaines |
American |
| canadien |
canadiens |
canadienne |
canadiennes |
Canadian |
| avocat |
avocats |
avocate |
avocates |
lawyer |
| musicien |
musiciens |
musicienne |
musiciennes |
musician |
F
iguring out which is singuler or pluriel is easy. Same as English, you just put s
in the end of the noun. But there is more in French. You also have to put s
in the end of the adjective. Since the noun is not sigular, you cannot use un or une. Instead of using them, we
use des for pluriel noun. Don't forget that you have to
agree with gender.
[EX]
Ce sont des grands livres. These are big books.
Ce sont des grandes gommes.. These are big erasers.
masculin
singuler |
masculin
pluriel |
feminin
singuler |
feminin
pluriel |
meaning |
| s�rieux |
s�rieux |
s�rieuse |
s�rieuses |
serious |
| intelligent |
intelligents |
intelligente |
intelligentes |
intelligent |
| actif |
actifs |
active |
actives |
active |
| fatigu� |
fatigu� |
fatigu�e |
fatigu�es |
tired |
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