Learn all about French adjectives
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Eric: How to Describe Your Significant Other in French. |
| Virginie: How are you, Eric? |
| Eric: Very good. How are you? |
| Virginie: I'm good. Thank you. So what are we going to see in this lesson? |
| Eric: In this lesson you're going to learn about adjectives that are placed before the noun in French. |
| Virginie: And our dialogue is about… |
| Eric: Well, it looks like our dialogue is about Rob asking Giulia about her boyfriend in Italy whose name is Danilo. |
| Virginie: Danilo. Sounds very Italian. |
| Eric: Why don't we have a listen to this conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
| Rob: Danilo, il est comment ? |
| Giulia: C’est un grand homme. |
| Rob: C’est un bel homme ? |
| Giulia: Bien sûr ! C’est aussi un bon cuisinier. |
| Rob: Miam. C’est un jeune homme ? |
| Giulia: Oui ! |
| Rob: Et il est loin. |
| Giulia: (Soupir). |
| Eric: One more time with the translation. |
| Rob: Danilo, il est comment ? |
| Eric: What is Danilo like? |
| Giulia: C’est un grand homme. |
| Virginie: He's a tall man. |
| Rob: C’est un bel homme ? |
| Eric: Is he a handsome man? |
| Giulia: Bien sûr ! C’est aussi un bon cuisinier. |
| Virginie: Of course! He's also a good cook. |
| Rob: Miam. C’est un jeune homme ? |
| Eric: Yummy. Is he a young man? |
| Giulia: Oui ! |
| Virginie: Yes! |
| Rob: Et il est loin. |
| Virginie: And he's far away. |
| Giulia: (Soupir). |
| Virginie: (Sigh) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Virginie: So we have Guilia in France and we have Danilo in Italy. |
| Eric: That is, yes. Have you ever have a long-distance relationship? |
| Virginie: Well, that happens a lot actually in Europe. |
| Eric: Because of the EU. |
| Virginie: Right. We opened all the borders and so people move around and you don't get to be with your boyfriend or girlfriend anymore. Isn't that sad? |
| Eric: Did anyone think of that as a downside to the EU? I mean, come on. |
| Virginie: No, actually, it's a true benefit that anyone coming from a EU country can work and live anywhere in Europe. |
| Eric: That is a very huge advantage. And Virginie, I think you were telling me before this all began in the '90s with the Shengen Agreement, right. |
| Virginie: Yes, it was signed in Amsterdam in '97. |
| Eric: I see. |
| Virginie: And that's when they opened all the borders. |
| Eric: So Virginie, do you think this has changed Europe forever? |
| Virginie: Yes. You know, there was another step ahead to build a big Europe. Ever since the borders are opened and ever since the EU become concrete, student exchanges have become really, really popular. |
| Eric: And this program is called Erasmus, right or ""Erasmus."" |
| Virginie: One of them is called Erasmus just like the philosopher Erasmus. And so you got to go to a country for a semester or two semesters, a European country obviously and you get to stay there, study there and then you come back home. |
| Eric: There was a movie L'Auberge Espagnole, the Spanish Inn that was sort of about that, right? |
| Virginie: That was about that. Again, it's L'Auberge Espagnole. You guys should definitely check it out. |
| Eric: Highly recommended. It's a good movie. L'Auberge Espagnole is about this French guy who goes to Barcelona and he is, you know, has these roommates from every different country in Europe. |
| Virginie: And he is studying in the University of Barcelona, and he is making a lot of friends. He's partying all the time and it's very funny. It portrays how it is to meet all these people from all these countries and how to party with them. |
| Eric: Which is the most important thing. |
| Virginie: Exactly, especially when you are student. Okay, let's talk about the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Virginie: Un homme. |
| Eric: A man. |
| Virginie: Un homme, un homme. |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Grand. |
| Eric: Masculine. |
| Virginie: Grande. |
| Eric: Feminine. |
| Eric: Big, large, or tall. |
| Virginie: Grand(e), grand(e). |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Beau, bel (before vowel). |
| Eric: Beautiful or handsome. |
| Virginie: Beau, bel, beau, bel. |
| Eric: Okay, next. |
| Virginie: Bon. |
| Eric: Masculine. |
| Virginie: Bonne. |
| Eric: Feminine. |
| Eric: Good. |
| Virginie: Bon(ne), bon(ne). |
| Eric: Then. |
| Virginie: Jeune. |
| Eric: Young. |
| Virginie: Jeune, jeune. |
| Eric: Okay. |
| Virginie: Aussi. |
| Eric: Too, also. |
| Virginie: Aussi, aussi. Un cuisinier. |
| Eric: Masculine. |
| Virginie: Une cuisinière. |
| Eric: Feminine. A cook. |
| Virginie: Un cuisinier, une cuisinière, un cuisinier, une cuisinière. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Virginie: All right. So Guilia is making a full description of her boyfriend. |
| Eric: That's right, yeah. She's giving a description of what he looks like, how he is, what he likes to do. |
| Virginie: So our word here is ""beau and bel."" That's the same word and it's the masculine adjective for handsome. The only difference is that whenever ""beau"" is placed before a noun that starts with vowel, it becomes ""bel"" For example, in our dialogue, ""est un bel homme."" |
| Eric: And there is other expression that you often hear, ""Un beau gosse."" |
| Virginie: Un beau goss, and that's true and then he is hot. So just remember, ""beau"" and ""bel"" and then ""beau gosse."" |
| Eric: Exactly. And our next word is ""aussi"" which is also or too. |
| Virginie: In the dialogue, Guilia says, ""C'est aussi un bon cuisinier."" And ""aussi"" is placed right after the verb. ""C'est aussi un bon cuisinier,"" he is also a good cook. |
| Eric: C'est aussi. |
| Virginie: She could have said, ""C'est un bon cuisinier, aussi."" |
| Eric: So a little flexible on where you've placed that. |
| Virginie: It's like in English when you say, ""He's a good cook, too."" |
| Eric: And we also have the word ""Un cuisinier or une cuisiniere"" a cook. |
| Virginie: Exactly. And I think that's a new profession in our vocabulary. So again, it's ""un cuisinier and une cuisiniere."" |
| Eric: And the verb in French to cook is… |
| Virginie: Cuisiner, which sounds almost the same, right? |
| Eric: Exactly. A way you can tell about the gender of the profession is by its ending. So if it ends with ""er"" it's going to be masculine. If it ends with ""-ère"" it's going to be feminine. |
| Virginie: Just like ""Un cuisinier or une cuisiniere."" Okay. Grammar now. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: The focus of this lesson in terms of the grammar is that you can have an adjective placed before the noun. |
| Virginie: So there are two types of adjectives in French. There are those who are placed before the noun and those who are placed after the noun. And today, we're going to see those who are placed before the noun. Okay, let's take a look at our dialogue and find some examples. What do they say? |
| Eric: Well, for example they say, ""C'est un grand homme."" |
| Virginie: That means, ""He's a tall man."" So pretty straightforward, just like in English, right? The adjective, ""grand"" is placed before the noun, ""grand homme."" What other adjective do we have? |
| Eric: Bel. |
| Virginie: Yes, ""C'est un bel homme."" |
| Eric: Again, ""bel,"" the adjective comes before the noun. |
| Virginie: And that's handsome. We have, ""C'est un bon cuisinier."" |
| Eric: Again, it's a good cook. |
| Virginie: And here, the adjective is ""bon"" which means ""good."" |
| Eric: To sort of distinguish between the adjectives that are going to come before the noun and those that would come afterwards, often the ones that are before will refer either to beauty. |
| Virginie: Yes, just like ""bel"" in the dialogue. |
| Eric: ""Joli,"" pretty or adjectives that also refer to age. So in the dialogue we have, ""jeune."" |
| Virginie: That's young. |
| Eric: And we could also say, vieux. |
| Virginie: Old. |
| Eric: Other adjectives that come before the noun refer to good or bad. |
| Virginie: Which is very straightforward, bonne or bon is good and mauvais is bad. |
| Eric: And the last category are adjectives that refer to size. So in the dialogue we have, ""grand"" large or tall, or we could say just as well, ""petit."" |
| Virginie: ""Petit"" is short. So it's very easy. Actually, a good tip to remember which adjectives are going to be placed before the noun is… |
| Eric: For the acronym BAGS, beauty, age, good and size. |
| Virginie: That's just a nice way of remembering most of them. |
| Eric: Okay. Now just a few examples. |
| Virginie: Let's talk about age and the adjective ""jeune"". How would say, ""She's a young girl""? |
| Eric: C'est une jeune fille. |
| Virginia: C'est une jeune fille. Again, jeune is before fille It's a young girl, C'est une jeune fille. What about ""mauvais"", the opposite of ""good"". |
| Eric: C'est une mauvaise fille. |
| Virginia: Uh-huh. She's a bad girl. |
| Eric: And obviously, the word ""mauvais"" will be for masculine and ""mauvaise"" for feminine. |
Outro |
| Virginie: Exactly. All right. Okay, I think we are all good for today. |
| Eric: Great. Thank you very much for listening. We'll see you soon. Take care. |
| Virginie: Bye-bye. Au revoir. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
HideIf you had to describe your significant other, which adjectives would you use? If you tell us in English, we'll come up with the French for you! Mine is merveilleux! Mine is wonderful!
Bonjour Shelley,
Je suis ravie d'avoir pu t'aider !
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour, Marion.
Merci tres bien pour votre reponse!🤗
Bien sur, le reponse a m'aide' beaucoup!👏👏👏👏 Merci beaucoup aussi pour tous les lecons de FrenchPod101. FrenchPod 101 est tres bon et on l'etudie avec plaisir.
Belle journee' a vous
Bonjour Shelley,
When describing a person, the choice depends on whether the person is indicated by a noun or an adjective.
C’est + déterminant + noun (with or without an adjective)
Il/elle est + adjective
- C'est un arbre.
- Il est vert.
It's the same with inanimate nouns with one key difference:
C’est is followed by a noun that may or may not be modified by an adjective and Il/elle est can again only be used with an adjective that describes the specific noun.
- C'est une belle robe
- Elle est belle
C’est also has an additional use: it can be followed by an adjective that describes the general sense of an inanimate noun, something unspecific, an abstraction (situation, opinion, feeling). This adjective is always masculine.
- C'est intéressant l'histoire.
Hope this helps!
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Belle journee' a vous 🌺
I do not understand how to distinguish when to use:
"c'est + (a person or a thing) "
rather than when to use:
"il (elle, on) est +(a person or a thing) "
Merci🥰
Bonjour Shelley,
I'm sorry but I'm not sure I get your question, could you please explain it in English?
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonsoir, mes amis de FrenchPod101,
J'ai des difficultes pour comprendre quand on peut dit: "Il (elle, on) est + adjecti"
ou quand on peut dit: "C'est est + adjectif"
parce que: les noms sont masculine ou
feminine en Francais.
Donc, je me demand: Est-ce que des adjectifs avec les personnes doivent
comme ca: "I, elle, on est + adjectif"
et aussi des adjectifs avec les choses doivent "C'est + adjectif" ?
Je ne comprends pas la difference
entre "Il, (elle, on) est bon (bonne)"
& ""C'est bon(ne)" si le sujet est une personne ou quand le sujet est chose.
Merci. (I hope that my French was not too poor to be understood in asking that question ⬆️)😭
Bonjour Daniel,
Oui c'est vrai, tu as tout à fait raison !
Belle journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Bonjour, Le français est une langue magnifique!
Hi Vincent,
Thank you for your message.
"supper" is not in our database, but "dinner" is, please find it in our dictionary.
We only add audio files to the words, which are in the vocabulary section.
You can listen to the audio of taille if you look it up in the dictionary.
I hope it helps. 😉
Have a great day!
Cheers,
Lena
Team FrenchPod101.com
soupier cannot be added to the word bank - why? - some of the work. - many parts have no pronunciation illustrations i.e. taille - is this on purpose? Thanks
Bonjour Ava,
It depends on the context! If you're using cute to talk about looks then yes, it's the same word as beautiful/handsome. However if you want to talk about somebody's behaviour, then "cute" would be "mignon" (mignonne in feminine). You can also use "chou" in a casual context.
Hope this helps!
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Salut,
What is cute? Is it the same as beautiful and handsome?
Merci,
Ava
Bonjour Suresh,
The correct form is "grand homme", grande is the feminine which would be used with a feminine noun (grande femme).
Please note that only "c'est un grand homme" is grammatically correct. When it's followed by an adjective, the article (il/elle, etc.) always turns into "c'est".
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Another question:
When to use?
1) C’est un grand homme
2) Il est grand homme
Thanks again!
Meant to type “est” instead of “eat” below. Many thanks!
Hi
May I ask which is correct “il eat grand homme” or “il eat grande homme”
Why do we use “grand” (the word “homme” ends with an e)?
Thanks!
Bonjour Adnan,
Be careful: bel is used when paired with a noun that starts with a vowel. For example, bel arbre, bel homme, bel italien, etc.
So here you should say "beau", since you're using the adjective on its own. The rest is good!
Bonne journée
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Je suis grand, bel, jeune et un bon cuisinier.
Bonjour Camille,
Because we're describing a person and the pronoun is followed by a noun.
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
Why not say 'il est grand homme', instead of c'est grand hoomme. Why do we use 'ce'?