Agreements

• •Every French noun is masculine or feminine, and you must learn the article with the word.
• •Some endings help.
• •Often feminine: -tion, -sion, -té, -ure, -ette, -ence.
• •Often masculine: -age, -ment, -isme, -eau, -oir.
• •Be careful with exceptions: le problème, le système, la plage, la page is feminine.
• •Learners often choose the gender from their own language instead of learning un/une with each noun.

Examples

• la nation, une information

  the nation, a piece of information

• le mariage, le gouvernement

  the wedding, the government

• Elle a posé une question difficile.

  She asked a difficult question.

• C'est un problème important.

  It is an important problem.

• •An adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes, wherever it stands in the sentence.
• •Usually add -e for the feminine and -s for the plural.
• •Watch special patterns: beau/belle, nouveau/nouvelle, blanc/blanche, heureux/heureuse, actif/active.
• •If an adjective describes several nouns, the masculine plural wins.
• •Learners often forget to agree an adjective placed after être or far from its noun.

Examples

• Ces robes sont très élégantes.

  These dresses are very elegant.

• Une réponse claire et précise

  A clear and precise answer

• Elle est heureuse de ce résultat.

  She is happy with this result.

• Le père et la fille sont contents.

  The father and the daughter are happy.

• •Add -s to most nouns.
• •Nouns ending in -s, -x or -z do not change: un prix, des prix.
• •Nouns ending in -al usually become -aux (un animal, des animaux), and -eau or -eu take -x (un bateau, des bateaux).
• •A few -ou nouns take -x (des bijoux, des cailloux).
• •Compound nouns follow special rules.
• •The plural is often invisible in speech, so listen to the article: le/les, un/des.

Examples

• un journal, des journaux

  a newspaper, newspapers

• un neveu, des neveux

  a nephew, nephews

• Les animaux sauvages vivent dans cette forêt.

  Wild animals live in this forest.

• un prix, des prix

  a price, prices

• •With être, the participle agrees with the subject: elles sont arrivées.
• •With avoir, it agrees only with a direct object (COD) placed before the verb: 'Les lettres que j'ai écrites'.
• •If the COD comes after the verb, there is no agreement: 'J'ai écrit des lettres'.
• •The COD can be a pronoun (la, les, que).
• •Reflexive verbs agree with the reflexive pronoun when it is a direct object.

Examples

• Elles sont arrivées hier.

  They arrived yesterday.

• Les lettres que j'ai écrites étaient longues.

  The letters I wrote were long.

• Elle a laissé ses clés sur la table.

  She left her keys on the table.

• Je les ai vues au marché.

  I saw them at the market.

• •Possessives agree with the thing owned, not with the owner: son livre can mean his or her book.
• •Before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel, use mon, ton, son: mon amie, son ancienne adresse.
• •Demonstratives are ce, cet (before a vowel or mute h), cette, ces.
• •Add -ci or -là to make a contrast.
• ⚠️A common mistake is writing 'ce arbre' instead of 'cet arbre'.

Examples

• Elle a oublié son parapluie.

  She forgot her umbrella.

• Mon amie a perdu son ancienne adresse.

  My friend lost her old address.

• Ces chaussures sont trop petites.

  These shoes are too small.

• Je vais prendre cet appartement-là.

  I am going to take that apartment.

• •Tout is an adjective (tout le monde, toute la ville, tous les jours, toutes les femmes) or an adverb.
• •As an adverb before a feminine adjective starting with a consonant, it agrees: 'elle est toute contente'.
• •Chaque is always singular and goes with a noun: chaque jour.
• •Chacun replaces a noun.
• •Colour words taken from nouns, such as marron, orange and noisette, do not change.
• •Adverbs and prepositions are invariable too.

Examples

• Tout le monde est arrivé.

  Everyone has arrived.

• Elle est toute contente de son résultat.

  She is very pleased with her result.

• Chaque participant doit signer le registre.

  Each participant must sign the register.

• Il a acheté des chaussures marron.

  He bought brown shoes.