How to learn french adjectives
Answers
Where should you place French adjectives?
In English, you put adjectives before the noun they describe. So you’d say “a green bag”, or “a blue house”.
Most French adjectives are placed after the noun they describe. So you’d say “un sac vert” (lit: a bag green) or “une maison bleue” (lit: a house blue).
To remember that, imagine a Frenchman coming to you and asking with a heavy (and charming) French accent “excuse me, where is the house blue?”.
You could consider that French adjectives are placed after the noun they describe and would be correct in most situations, however it’s important to know there are a few exceptions.
Here come the bad boys or rather the BANGS boys:
Beauty
Age
Number
Goodness
Size
Most adjectives expressing these (BANGS adjectives) are placed before the noun they describe.
Une belle femme (a beautiful woman)
Un vieil homme (an old man)
Un gros sandwich (a big sandwich)
This is a useful rule to know, but hardly a reliable one since there are many exceptions.
For example, some adjectives like “délicieux” (delicious) can come both before and after the noun they describe depending on the context.