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Adjectives II
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Les Adjectives II Adjectives

There are a good number of irregular adjectives. Normally adjectives ending in x replace the -x with -se to form the feminine adjective.

  Cet endroit est merveilleux. This place is great/marvelous.
  La vue est merveilleuse. The view is marvelous.
  Mathieu est trop sérieux. Mathieu is too serious.
  Dominique n'est pas assez sérieuse. Dominique isn't serious enough.

The following are all irregular. The archaic masculine form has fallen into disuse, however it is still used in front of masculine nouns that begin with a vowel or silent h.

Masculine un beau livre
a beautiful book
le nouveau conseil
the new advise
un vieux piège
an old trap
Archaic Masculine le bel oiseau
the beautiful bird
un nouvel échec
the new failure
le vieil horloge
the old clock
Feminine la belle montagne
the beautiful mountain
la nouvelle anné
the new year
une vieille plaie
an old wound

There are many other varieties of masculine and feminine adjectives covered in the adjective guide.


Normally adjectives trail the noun, however as you can see, the above adjectives all come before it. This also is the case for ordinal numbers...

  C'est la première fois que je vis seul. This is the first time that I'm living alone.

for the demonstratives, for the indefinites, and a select group of adjectives. Some of the most important are below.

  le bon curé the good priest une jolie femme the pretty woman
  Le gros homme the fat man Le mauvais Dr. Moreau The evil Dr. Moreau
  les hauts murs the high walls la petite enfant the small child
  la grande ville the large city    

Sometimes the meaning of an adjective changes depending on whether it comes before or after a noun
  un ancien président a former president ma propre cuisine my own kitchen
  un président ancien an old president ma cuisine propre my clean kitchen
  un grand peintre a great painter le pauvre homme the unfortunate man
  un peintre grand a tall painter l'homme pauvre  
  ma chère mère my dear mother   a poor man (money-wise)
  un légume cher an expensive vegetable  

  Il est la seule personne qui a terminé la course .
  He is the only person that finished the race.
  Un homme seul ne peut pas sauver le monde. Nous devons le faire ensemble.
  A single man cannot save the world. We must do it together.

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