French Language > Adjectives & Nouns

Placement of Adjectives

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I. Articles, Numerical Adjectives Go In Front

All determiners go at the very front of the noun phrase. Determiners include:

• Articles
  • un monsieur, une dame, des messieurs, le monsieur, la dame, les scouts
• Possessive Adjectives
  • mon grand-père, leurs chapeaux
• Cardinal Numbers
  • quatre sous, deux pas, trois rois, mille bornes
• Demonstrative Adjectives
  • ce monsieur, cette dame, ces imposteurs
• Various Indefinite Adjectives
  • plusieurs choses, quelques choses, tout homme valide, chaque weekend

Plus some adjectives that are not determiners precede the noun:

• Ordinal numbers
  • le premier ministre, la deuxième fois, le dernier métro
• The indefinite adjective autre
  • une autre objection, d’autres questions
• The I-don’t-know-what-kind-of adjective meme (même when it means “same”)
  • la même chose

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II. Descriptive Adjectives Go After

As here: un monsieur élégant (= an elegant gentleman). But what if there is more than one descriptive adjective?

A. Hierarchically Ordered Descriptives Adjectives

Put hierarchically related¹ descriptive adjectives in the reverse order to their order in English:

• “the 1 modern 2 French Church” = l’église 2 française 1 moderne
• “the 1 post-conciliar 2 Catholic Church” = l’église 2 catholique 1 post-conciliaire
• “a 1 modern 2 Cartesian approach” = une approche 2 cartésienne 1 moderne
• “1 recent 2 international 3 economic developments” = des développements  3 économiques 2 internationaux 1 récents²

B. Coordinate Descriptive Adjectives

Two coordinate³ descriptive adjectives will be joined by et. The order doesn’t matter.

• “a querulous, embittered old man” = un vieillard grognon et amer

If there are more than two coordinate adjectives, they are separated by a comma, except for the last two, which are joined by an et. The order doesn’t matter.

• “a modern, clear, (and) rigorous method” = une méthode moderne, rigoureuse et claire

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III. Small Group of Short Adjectives That Usually Go In Front (But Sometimes Don’t)

A short group of short, mostly descriptive⁴ adjectives regularly precede the noun.

Some of them have special forms:

• beau, bel, beaux; belle
• bon; bonne
• gros; grosse
• nouveau, nouvel, nouveaux; nouvelle
• vieux, vieil; vieille [vjœ, vjej; vjej]

Characteristic of these short preceding descriptive adjectives is that the quality they add to the noun is not very concrete or specific. They tell us what general class the thing belongs to, but little more (a good book; a big book; a bad book; a young man; an old man; a new idea; etc.).

Occasionally these adjectives appear after nouns, in which case they take back some of their original concreteness and have consequently a different meaning.

Ancien(ne)

• Before: “old = former, what we had before we had what we presently have.” It is the opposite of nouveau in the sense of “current, most recent.”
  • mon ancien mari = “my ex-husband”
  • un ancien combattant = “a veteran”
  • un ancien habitué = “a former frequenter of an establishment”
  • un ancien élève = “an alumnus”; une ancienne élève = “an alumna”
  • l’Ancien Régime = the style of monarchical regime France had in the two centuries before the Revolution; that is, the regime previous to the Revolution.
• After: “ancient, aged”
  • L’étude des langues anciennes est de loin préférable à celle des langues modernes. (The study of ancient languages is far preferable to that of modern languages.)

Autre

– is not really a descriptive adjective, and so I have put it in Part I above. However it does have a very different meaning in postposition:

• Before: “other”
  • Certains pensent que Villon mourut exécuté comme un criminel; d’autres pensent qu’il échappa à l’exécution, se repentit et vécut à un âge avancé. (Some people think Villon died executed as a criminal; others think he escaped execution, repented, and lived to an advanced age.)
  • Avez vous d’autres questions? (Do you have [any] other questions?)
• After (or as predicate): “different from, quite other”
  • Ses pensées étaient tout autres. (His thoughts were quite different.)

Bon(ne)

• Before: “good”; also “correct, right”
• After (or as predicate), can mean: 1. “simple, naïve”; 2. “kind, generous, good-hearted”
  • Monsieur Orgon est un homme très bon. (Mr Orgon is a very kind man.)

Brave

• Before: “fine, nice, decent” (person)
  • Les Américains sont de braves gens, somme toute. (Americans are fine people, all in all.)
  • Tu me sembles un brave type. (You seem like a nice guy to me.)
  • Quelle brave petite bête! (What a good little beastie!)
• After (and as predicate): “brave, courageous”
  • C’est un homme très brave en même temps que très pondéré. (He’s a very brave man and at the same time very level-headed.)
  • (But with a noun meaning someone who ought to be brave, it may be anteposed for emphasis:) Un brave soldat (“a brave soldier [like you wish they all were]”).

Certain(e)

Another indefinite adjective.

• Before: as our “certain,” in its indefinite use.
  • Certaines idées sont à repousser. (Some ideas must be immediately rejected.)
  • Certains croient qu’un Dieu a créé l’univers; d’autres, que l’univers s’est fait tout seul. (Some people think that a God created the universe; others, that the universe made itself on its own.)
• After (or as predicate): “sure, definite”; “sure to come” or “definitely existing.”
  • Si nous continuons ainsi, notre destruction est certaine! (If we continue in this way, our destruction is assured!)

Différent(e), Divers(e)

• Before: as our “different,” in its indefinite use; “various, several, a (smallish) number”; the items are numerically different from each other = not identical.
  • Elle a différentes idées pour résoudre le problème. (She has a number of ideas for solving the problem.)
• After: the emphasis is on, precisely, the difference from something else.
  • Elle a des idées différentes des miennes. (She has ideas [that are] different from mine.)

Grand(e)

• Before: “great”
  • C’est un grand homme. (He’s a great man.)
• After: “tall”
  • C’est un homme grand. (He’s a tall man.)

Jeune

• Before: “young in age”
  • C’était un jeune homme comme un autre. (He was a young man like any other.)
• After: “young in manner”
  • C’était un homme jeune, malgré son âge. (He was a youthful man, in spite of his age.)

Même

This word also does not belong here, not being descriptive; it appears in Part I above. But it does have three different possible positions, with three different meanings:

• Before the noun: “same”
  • le même roi (the same king)
• After the noun: “very, —self.” I am not completely sure the form is still an adjective here.
  • le roi même (the king himself, the very king)
• Elsewhere in the clause (as the first word, or after the verb): “Even.” The form is clearly an adverb here.
  • Même le roi l’a dit. (Even the king said so.)
  • Le roi a même dit qu’il pensait la même chose. (The king even said that he thought the same thing.)

Nouveau

• Before: “recent”; “the one replacing the one before.” The opposite of ancien meaning “former, ex-.” (see above).
  • Tu as vu notre nouveau prof de français? C’est une antiquité, tu ne trouves pas? (Have you seen our new French teacher? He’s an antique, don’t you think?)
• After: “fresh, new in manner or content”

Pauvre

• Before: “poor” in the sense of “pitiable.”
  • Pauvre jeune homme! (Oh, you poor young man!)
• After: “poor” in the sense of lacking money.
  • Un jeune homme pauvre (A poor young man = a penniless young man)

Propre

• Before: “one’s own”
  
  •  Il l’a tué de ses propres mains. (He killed him with his own hands.)
  • « Je l’ai vu, dis-je, vu, de mes propres yeux vu » (“I saw him, I tell you, saw, with my own eyes saw!”) –Moliere,Tartuffe
  • Vos propres mots vous condemnent! (Your own words condemn you.)
• After: “clean; neat, tidy”
  
  • Tu n’as pas les mains propres. (Your hands aren’t clean.)

Simple

• Before: “mere, nothing more than”
  • un simple malentendu (a simple misunderstanding)
  • une simple formalité (a mere formality)
  • un simple citoyen (a simple citizen)
  • un simple soldat (a private)
• After (thing): “is not made up of parts; cannot be divided further”
  • un lit simple (a single bed); un corps simple (a simple body = not a composite = made up only of the same kind of atom or molecule); le passé simple (past tense made up of only one word, as opposed to the passé composé)
• After (person): various
  • “undevious, sincere, straightforward”
  • “naïve, inexperienced, dupable”
  • “mentally undeveloped” (often as simple d’esprit)

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IV. Where’s the Noun?

French is as likely as the next language, and slightly more able than English, to use an adjective as a noun. It can be as easy as placing a determiner before the adjective:

• Où peut-on trouver le beau et le vrai dans le monde d’aujourd’hui? (Where can one find the Beautiful and the True [OR: Beauty and Truth] in today’s world?)

In the above example, the result is the equivalent of an abstract noun. Now observe the following, in which the substantivized adjective refers to a human or a group of humans:

• les pauvres
  
  • English can do the same: “the poor,” meaning “poor people.”
    “The poor you will always have with you.” (Matthew 26:110)
• le pauvre, un pauvre
  
  • English is obliged to add a noun: “the poor man.”
    Le pauvre n’a pas les mêmes soucis que le riche. (The poor man does not have the same concerns as the rich man.)
    Un pauvre traversait la rue. (A poor man was crossing the street.)

Now, what happens when such a substantivized adjective is in turn modified by one or more adjectives that could also be used as nouns? How do you tell which word is functioning as the noun, and which word or words as mere adjectives?

By and large, you apply the above rules, particularly II (a descriptive adjective regularly goes after the noun).

A case involving an abstraction:

• le beau idéal = “ideal beauty”
  Commentary. Both words can be either an adjective or a noun. Which is which? In this case, apply the principle enunciated in II above: A Descriptive Adjective Usually Comes After The Noun In French. Hence, beau is the noun, idéal the adjective.⁵
  • A chapter in Chateaubriand’s le Génie du christianisme (2.2.11) is a locus classicus for le beau idéal. The phrase is also used as the name of cosmetics companies and plastic surgery clinics.

Cases involving a human being:

• l’érudit français = “the French scholar”⁶
  Commentary. érudit is an adjective meaning “learned, erudite” that can also be used as a noun; and of course français can be used as either adjective or noun. But the rule states: A Descriptive Adjective Usually Comes After The Noun In French. Hence, érudit is the noun, français is the adjective, and not the reverse.
  • Do not translate such a phrase as “the erudite Frenchman.”
• le sage hindou = “the Hindu sage”
  Commentary. Both words are adjectives that can also be used as nouns: sage can mean “wise” or “wise person,” and hindou, like français, can be “Hindu” as an adjective or “Hindu person.” But the same rule applies: the noun comes first, the descriptive adjective second.
  • Do not translate as “the wise Hindu.”

Cases involving principle III:

• un jeune parvenu = “a young parvenu“
  Commentary. parvenu, a participle, could be an adjective; but the principle delineated in III applies: Certain Short Adjectives (Including jeune) Usually Precede the Noun.
• une jolie Belge = “a pretty (female-)Belgian”
  Commentary. There is a sound French practice of capitalizing adjectives indicating nationality when they are used as nouns (as I have done in this example). Unfortunately, not all French writers and editors follow it.

Now, cases involving both II and III:

• le grand scientifique finlandais = “the great Finnish scientist”
  Commentary. grand is one of the short adjectives that regularly precede the noun (III), which already suggests that scientifique is a noun here, and our principle II tells us that finlandais is here an adjective.
  • Do not translate as “the great scientific Finn.”
• le jeune noble misérable = “the wretched young nobleman”
  Commentary. Principles II and III tell you that noble is the substantive.
  • Do not translate as “the noble young wretch.”

1. “Hierarchically related” means that the adjectives do not all have the same, direct relationship to the noun. The adjective closest to the noun modifies the noun directly; the next adjective modifies not just the noun, but the adjective-and-noun phrase, thus: “the modern French post-conciliar Church” → the {modern [French (post-conciliar Church)]} [↩]
2. To be sure, a careful writer would opt for a less awkward phrasing, such as: des développements  économiques se manifestant récemment à l’échelle mondiale, or the like.[↩]
3. “Coordinate” means that the adjectives are equally important and are connected with equal directness to the noun.[↩]
4. Plus a few indefinites, and whatever kind of an adjective même is (when it is an adjective).[↩]
5. But wait! you say: doesn’t principle III say that a short adjective like beau regularly precedes the noun? Yes; but if beau were the adjective, since the supposed noun following begins with a vowel, the form should be bel, not beau (cf. le bel inconnu = “the handsome stranger”). Nonetheless, even the French find such things confusing, and often capitalize the first letter to show which is the noun: le Beau idéal.[↩]
6. In fact, you will not find a French author using the expression l’érudit français, but rather l’érudit américain, l’érudit russe, l’érudit espagnol. One sometimes feels that the French expect scholars to be found among their own, but are rather surprised to find them among other peoples![↩]

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