Adjective Placement Within Sentences

A few short, descriptive adjectives, usually expressing beauty, age, goodness, and size (you can remember this with the acronym "BAGS"), generally precede the nouns they modify.

Adjective Placement Within Sentences
Most adjectives in French follow the noun they modify, for example, la maison blanche (the white house).
A few short, descriptive adjectives, usually expressing beauty, age, goodness, and size (you can remember this with the acronym “BAGS”), generally precede the nouns they modify:
Beauty: beau (beautiful, handsome), joli (pretty)
Age: nouveau (new), vieux (old), jeune (young)
Goodness (or lack of it): bon (good), gentil (nice), mauvais (bad)
Size: grand (large, big), petit (small, little), court (short), long (long), gros (fat)
Other common adjectives that precede the noun but do not fall into the BAGS categories include the following:
autre (other)
chaque (each, every)
dernier (last)
plusieurs (several)
quelques (a few)
tel (such)
tout (all, whole, every)
Consider the following examples:
un gros livre (a thick book)
une jolie robe (a pretty dress)
une autre histoire (another story)
plusieurs idées (several ideas)
une telle aventure (such an adventure)
In addition, tout precedes both the noun and the definite article ( le, la, l', les)
tous les homes (all the men)
toutes les femmes (all the women)
To use more than one adjective in a description, place each adjective according to whether it precedes or follows the noun. Two adjectives in the same position are joined by et (and).
une femme forte et athlétique (a strong, athletic woman)
un grand et mauvais loup (a big, bad wolf)
une petite voiture rouge (a small, red car)
Note that you may use past participles as adjectives, and they must agree with the nouns they modify:
C'était un plaisir inattendu. (It was an unexpected pleasure.)
Cette table est réservée. (This table is reserved.)

TABLE 1 Forming Irregular Plural Adjectives
Singular Adjective
Plural Adjective
un beau garçon (a handsome boy)
de beaux garçons
un bel arbre (a beautiful tree)
de beaux arbres
un nouveau livre (a new book)
de nouveaux livres
un nouvel hôtel (a new hotel)
de nouveaux hôtels
un vieux chapeau (an old hat)
de vieux chapeaux
un vieil artiste (an old artist)
de vieux artistes
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