Adjectives before or after the noun (2024)

hi!

i understand how some french adjectives come before the noun, like 'la grande maison', but how can you tell for others?? i'm a bit
e.g. bien, bon, les couleurs, or more complex ones etc...

thanks for help

Hi supergirl:

Welcome to the forums. I'm transferring this thread to the English/French forum.

Greetings

You just have to learn them by heart. Colors, languages, and "complicated" or rarely used adjectives usually follow all nouns. You have to learn these ones:

mauvais, -e
bon, bonne
vieux, vieil, vielle
prochain, -e
beau, belle
joli, -e
nouveau, nouvelle

and just a few others, because those are the adjectives that usually preceed nouns:

une mauvaise/bonne/vieille/belle/jolie/nouvelle... maison
une maison verte/française/nouvelle/peinte/...

Adjectives in italics can be before a noun or follow it. A matter by feel, I think.

Benjy said:

general rule of thumb: if its short or common you stick it in front. otherwise it goes afterwards. apart from the colours. they always go afterwards. sometimes people but longer ones infront, but its usually in a more litterary context.

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What is long and what is short? français is as short as mauvais, but français is usually put afterward and mauvais should preceed nouns.

Whodunit said:

What is long and what is short? français is as short as mauvais, but français is usually put afterward and mauvais should preceed nouns.

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i think i was confusing my general rules of thumb there. i was thinking about adverbs long/short and where they go in relation to the past participle.

oops

Usually, adjectives go after the noun in French. Exceptions are of the following types:

1) The adjective may be put before the noun for styllistic effect, in literature. In this case, it's also possible to put the adjective after the noun, without changing its meaning.

2) Some adjectives have different meanings, according to whether they are placed before or after the noun, or they can only be placed before the noun. In this case, the two positions for the adjective are not interchangeable. Only a small number of adjectives fall under this category. Hopefully, the natives will be able to tell you more about them.

P.S. "Bien" is an adverb, not an adjective. The corresponding adjective is "bon/bonne".

Outsider2) Some adjectives have different meanings said:

Exemples:
Une curieuse personne, une personne curieuse
un homme jeune, un jeune homme
sa voiture propre, sa propre voiture
un patron seul, un seul patron
une église ancienne, une ancienne église.
un homme pauvre, un pauvre homme
(Tiré du Multidictionnaire)

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Gil said:

Exemples:
Une curieuse personne, une personne curieuse
un homme jeune, un jeune homme
sa voiture propre, sa propre voiture
un patron seul, un seul patron
une église ancienne, une ancienne église.
(Tiré du Multidictionnaire)

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What about "la semaine prochaine" and "la prochaine semaine"? Same goes for "l'ordinateur nouveau" and "le nouvel ordinateur" ...

Gil said:

Exemples:
Une curieuse personne, une personne curieuse
un homme jeune, un jeune homme
sa voiture propre, sa propre voiture
un patron seul, un seul patron
une église ancienne, une ancienne église.
un homme pauvre, un pauvre homme
(Tiré du Multidictionnaire)

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What's the difference between "un homme jeune" and "un jeune homme"?

Thanks

I am really surprised that it took several several replies before anybody actually came up with the correct response.
Le monsieur from Texas l'a très bien dit.
Adjectives are placed after the noun in French except for BANGS. This, and the small list of adjectives that change meaning when they come before the noun, is all you really need to know. Someone has previously made you a list of the meaning changing adjectives.

Good luck

nbellah said:

Adjectives are placed after the noun in French except for bags.

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Bags? Like a sack? That's a very peculiar thing to have a rule for!

So would you not say, "un petit oiseau" as Pierre Capretz does in his French in Action course?

nbellah said:

What are you talking about? The guy from Texas explained what BAGS stands for.

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No, he wrote baNgs. Plus he used all-caps, whereas you didn't.

Outsider said:

No, he wrote baNgs. Plus he used all-caps, whereas you didn't.

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Thank you, Outsider.

Makes me think...

Un certain talent and un talent certain mean 2 different things! Poor French learner...

Le Poem d'Adjectifs: (A little thing I learned in High School lo these many years ago.)

Petit, grand, gros,
Villain, jolie, beau,
Autre, longue,
Mauvais, bon,
Vieu, nouvelle, (and two others that I cannot remember)

For adjectives that change meaning according to whether they're before or after the noun, the most logical explanation (for me) is this:

Un pauvre homme = a poor, pathetic man (figurative)
Un homme pauvre = a man that is poor financially (literal)

L'ancienne maison = the house we had before (figurative)
La maison ancienne = the house is old (literal)

Un grand homme = an important man (figurative)
Un homme grand = a tall man (literal)

Sometimes you just have to memorize, though:
La dernière semaine = the last week (it's the last week of classes, for example)
La semaine dernière = last week, the preceding week