Adjectives

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  • Adjectives
    • Agreement
      • French adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify
        • un chien noir
        • les robes noires
      • When used with pronouns, adjectives agree with the noun that has been replaced
    • Adjective Placement
      • Most adjectives appear after the noun they modify
      • Some adjectives precede the noun they modify
      • Use the mnemonic "BANGS" to remember these types of nouns:
        • B is for Beauty
        • A is for Age
        • N is for Number
        • G is for Good or Bad
        • S is for Size
      • All determiner adjectives appear before the noun, e.g. "mon livre"
      • The four exceptions to bangs are: laid, affreux, âge, and méchant
    • Literal and Figurative Adjectives
      • Some adjectives can come both before and after the noun depending on their meaning
      • Figurative meanings usually precede the noun, while literal meanings usually follow
      • When referring to people with "grand", place it before the noun to mean "great" and after to mean "tall"
      • Some other common adjectives that change meanings are: certain, pauvre, propre, seul, and cher
    • Multiple Adjectives
      • When multiple adjectives modify a noun, they should come before or after the noun depending on where they would stand if they were a singular adjective
        • This means that in some sentences, you'll get adjectives on either side of the noun
      • Concrete adjectives should be placed closer to the noun than abstract ones
      • You can add conjunctions and adverbs to break up multiple adjectives
      • One adjective describing multiple nouns should take on the masculine plural form by default
        • If all the nouns are feminine, however, then they can take the feminine plural form
    • Grand or Gros?
      • Grand tends to be used for: general size, height, area, figurative size, and importance
      • Gros tends to be used for: thickness or volume, fatness, things that are round, and seriousness
    • Adjectives that Precede Nouns
      • Ordinal adjectives (adjectives that describe the order of things) precede nouns
      • Autre, même, tel, and faux all go before nouns
      • "Tout" precedes not just the noun but also the article + noun

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