French Nouns and Adjectives: Irregular Feminines

Noms et adjectifs : Formes féminines irrégulières


	Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Most French nouns and adjectives become feminine with the addition of -e, but there are some exceptions. Some irregular adjectives and nouns require an additional spelling change, depending on the final letter(s) of the word.

			Par exemple…
c	>	che
franc		franche	(adj) frank
c	>	que
public		publique	(adj) public
er	>	ère
un jardinier		une jardinière	(noun) gardener
cher		chère	(adj) expensive
et	>	ète
secret		secrète	(adj) secret
eur	>	euse
un chanteur		une chanteuse	(noun) singer
heureux		heureuse	(adj) happy
eur	>	rice
un traducteur		une traductrice	(noun) translator
migrateur		migratrice	(adj) migratory
eux	>	euse
heureux		heureuse	(adj) happy
f	>	ve
naïf		naïve	(adj) naive
g	>	gue
long		longue	(adj) long
gu	>	güe, guë
aigu		aigüe, aiguë	(adj) acute
l	>	lle
formel		formelle	(adj) formal
n	>	nne
un patron		une patronne	(noun) boss
mignon		mignonne	(adj) cute
s	>	sse
bas		basse	(adj) low
t	>	tte
un chat		une chatte	(noun) cat
net		nette	(adj) neat, tidy

Conseil concis

-c and -eur have two different feminine endings, but that doesn’t mean you can choose which one to use. Each noun and adjective requires a specific feminine ending – you can find out the correct one for your word in the dictionary.

The location of the tréma on -gu is in flux. The feminine was originally spelled -guë and this is still very common, even though the spelling was officially changed to -güe in 1990.