Irregular Adjectives

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Adjectifs irréguliers

Five French adjectives are particularly tricky for several reasons.

1. They are among the relatively few adjectives that precede nouns.
2. They have very irregular feminine forms.
3. They have three masculine forms.

Singular				Plural
Masc	Special	Fem		Masc	Fem
beau	bel	belle		beaux	belles
fou	fol	folle		fous	folles
mou	mol	molle		mous	molles
nouveau	nouvel	nouvelle		nouveaux	nouvelles
vieux	vieil	vieille		vieux	vieilles

As you can see, in addition to the usual four adjective forms required to agree with nouns in gender and number, there is a special fifth form that is used only with masculine singular nouns that begin with a vowel or mute h.

Par exemple …

un beau pays		un bel endroit
un fou rire		un fol héroïsme
un mou refus		un mol effort
un nouveau mois		un nouvel an
un vieux monsieur		un vieil homme

 Notes

• The special masculine form is required for euphony.
• It’s pronounced just like the feminine adjective.
• There is no special form for plural nouns.

plusieurs beaux endroits

trois vieux hommes

 Irregular Adjectives Quiz

Think you’ve got it? Test yourself on agreement with beau, nouveau, and vieux with this fill-in-the-blanks exercise: Promenade en forêt

Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to take this test. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!

Expressions with bel

Bel is also found in two fixed expressions:

• bel et bien – well and truly, really, undoubtedly
• tout cela est bel et bon (mais…) – that’s all well and good (but …)

 Related lessons

• Introduction to adjectives
• Euphonic adjectives
• H muet
• Nouveau vs neuf
• Vowels

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