Apocopes

French apocopes
Many French nouns and adjectives have shortened forms called apocopes, which are created by dropping one or more syllables at the end of the word. Some of these are further modified by adding o to the end.

   

Bon vs Bien

Bon vs bienThe French words bon and bien can be tricky for French students because they both belong to three different parts of speech (adjectives, adverbs, nouns) and have similar meanings. This is a good lesson that will get you well on your way to understanding the difference.

   

Color Adjectives

French color adjectivesWhen colors are used as adjectives, they usually need to agree with the nouns they modify in gender and number - but there are some notable exceptions.

   

Demonstrative Adjectives

French demonstrative adjectivesDemonstrative adjectives (this, that) are used to indicate a specific noun or nouns. In French, they must agree with the noun(s) in number and sometimes gender: ce, cette, cet, ces.

   

Determiners

French determinersDeterminers are a category of grammatical terms that includes articles, numbers, and non-qualifying adjectives. Unlike qualifying adjectives, determiners serve two functions: they introduce and modify nouns at the same time.

   

Euphonic Adjectives

French euphonic adjectivesFrench grammar is sometimes trumped by pronunciation, as in the case of euphonic adjectives. Because French does not like the hiatus created when a word ending with a vowel precedes a word that begins with a vowel or mute h, a few adjectives change their spelling—and thus their pronunciation—for purely euphonic reasons.

   

Exclamative Adjectives

French exclamative adjectivesTo express admiration, surprise, contempt, or another strong feeling about a noun, you can use the exclamative adjective quel, meaning "what (a)."

   

   

Fractions

French fractions
In both French and English, there's a lot of overlap between fractions and ordinals: the vast majority of these two types of numbers share the same word. In English, they are identical from "third" on up, while in French they're the same starting with cinquième.