Agreement of Regular French Adjectives

French adjectives change to agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify, which means there can be up to four forms of each adjective. The different forms for adjectives depend mostly on the final letter(s) of the default form of the adjective, which is the masculine singular.

Most French adjectives add E for feminine and S for plural. This rule applies to adjectives that end in most consonants as well as all vowels except the unaccented E. It also includes all regular and most irregular present participles and past participles:

Adjective: vert (green)
   Masculine singular   vert
   Feminine singular   verte
   Masculine plural   verts
   Feminine plural   vertes

Adjective: bleu (blue)
   Masculine singular   bleu
   Feminine singular   bleue
   Masculine plural   bleus
   Feminine plural   bleues

Adjective: amusant (funny)
   Masculine singular   amusant
   Feminine singular   amusante
   Masculine plural   amusants
   Feminine plural   amusantes

Adjective: épicé (spicy)
   Masculine singular   épicé
   Feminine singular   épicée
   Masculine plural   épicés
   Feminine plural   épicées


When the masculine singular adjective ends in an unaccented E, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms:

Adjective: rouge (red)
   Masculine singular   rouge
   Feminine singular   rouge
   Masculine plural   rouges
   Feminine plural   rouges


When the default form of the adjective ends in S or X, there is no difference between the masculine singular and plural forms:

Adjective: gris (grey)
   Masculine singular   gris
   Feminine singular   grise
   Masculine plural   gris
   Feminine plural   grises


While most French adjectives fit into one of the above categories, there are still quite a few that have irregular feminine and/or plural forms.

Quiz: Agreement of French adjectives


Note: These rules are the same for making nouns feminine and plural.

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