Masculin and Feminine Adjectives

In French when a noun is masculin you must use a masculin adjective to describe it and when it’s feminine you must use a feminine adjective.

Il est beau (He is good looking) –> Beau is masculin.
Elle est belle (she is good looking) –> Belle is feminine.

Some of these masculin and feminine adjectives you simply must learn

Most adjectives follow general ending rules like the people nouns. Click here to revise the masculin and feminine of people nouns:

practice dialogues

Masculin and feminine people

The most common ending change rule is to add en -E.

In general you don’t pronounce s, t, d, n, at the end of words in French

Gros, Important, Grand, Bon

But this changes when the E is added. Then the letters must be pronounced

Grosse, Importante, Grande, Bonne.

Adding an E is not always the answer. There are various ending changes possible.

Here is a list of the most common ending changes. Listen and repeat.

Ending change	Masculin	Feminine	English
Add E for feminine	Grand Blond Élégant Fin Important Fatigué	Grande Blonde Élégante Fine Importante Fatiguée	tall blond elegant thin important tired
eux –> euse	Heureux Peureux Sérieux Curieux	Heureuse Peureuse Sérieuse Curieuse	happy fearful serious curious
if –> ive	Sportif Actif Intensif Exécutif	Sportive Active Intensive Exécutive	fit active intensive executive
en –> enne	Australien Indien Musicien	Australienne Indienne Musicienne
er –> ère	Fier Cher	Fière Chère	Proud Expensive
No change	Bien Riche	Bien Riche	Good Rich

Some adjectives don’t follow the main rules. Listen and repeat.

Masculin	Feminine	English
Beau	Belle	beautiful
Bon	Bonne	tasty/good feeling
Nouveau	Nouvelle	new
Vieux	Vieille	old
Gentil	Gentille	kind
Bas	Basse	low
Gros	Grosse	fat
Doux	Douce	soft/gentle
Roux	Rousse	red haired
Faux	Fausse	false/wrong
Long	Longue	long
Blanc	Blanche	white

Here are a few exercises to get used to masculin and feminine adjectives.

corrections pdf

Exercise 1 Rewrite each adjective in the opposite form. Sometimes the adjective stays the same.

Musicien –> ___Musicienne______
Vieille –> ___Vieux____________
Beau –> ____________________
Gros –> ____________________
Roux –> ____________________
Riche –> ____________________
Blonde –> ____________________
Fier –> ____________________
Grand –> ____________________
Fine –> ____________________
Peureux –> ____________________
Fatigué –> ____________________
Timide –> ____________________
Active –> ____________________
Bien –> ____________________
Fâchée –> ____________________
Douce –> ____________________
Brune –> ____________________
Malheureuse –> ____________________
Intensif –> ____________________

Exercise 2 : Describe the characters using the suggested adjectives in correct form.

1 Petit

Il est ___petit____________.

Elle est ____petite__________.

2 Vieux

Elle est _________________ .

Il est ___________________ .

3 Sportif

_______ est _____________________ .

_______ est ___________________ .

4 Intelligent

_________________________________ .

5 Français

_________________________________ .

__________________________________ .

6 Gros

__________________________________ .

_________________________________ .

7. Élégant

______________________________ .

________________________________ .

8. Heureux

________________________________ .

____________________________________ .

9 Musicien

_____________________________________ .

______________________________________ .

10 Agressif

______________________________________ .

Exercise 3 You will hear « mon ami(e) est » (my friend is) followed by an adjective. According to the adjective, choose whether the friend is masculin, feminine or possibly both.

Example: Listen to the recording :