Lesson 1.7: Adjective placement

Now that you know how to decline adjectives, there’s one more thing to consider when you’re using adjectives: where to place them.

Pre-noun adjectives

In Lesson 1.4, we learned that the vast majority of French adjectives are placed after the noun they modify. However, there are a few adjectives that are always placed before the noun they modify, which we’ll call “pre-noun adjectives.”

Here are all commonly used pre-noun adjectives:

• ancien (former)
• autre (other)
• beau (beautiful)
• bon (good)
• bref (brief)
• cher (dear)
• curieux (strange)
• dernier (last)
• faux (fake; false)
• grand (large)
• gros (big; fat)
• haut (high; tall)
• jeune (young)
• joli (pretty)
• long (long)
• mauvais (bad)
• meilleur (better; best)
• même (same)
• moindre (lesser)
• nouveau (new)
• petit (small)
• pire (worse; worst)
• propre (own)
• vaste (vast)
• vieux (old)
• vilain (mean)
• vrai (real; true)
• All cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.)
• All ordinal numbers (first, second third, etc.)

Most of those adjectives describe either beauty, age, number, goodness, or size, so instead of memorizing the list, you can use the acronym BANGS to give a pretty good guess as to whether an adjective is a pre-noun adjective. If an adjective describes BANGS, there’s a good chance it’s a pre-noun adjective; if not, it probably isn’t.

Adjectives organized by BANGS:

• Beauty: beau (beautiful), joli (pretty)
• Age: jeune (young), nouveau (new), vieux (old)
• Number: un (one), deux (two), trois (three), etc.; premier (first), deuxième (second), troisième (third), etc.; dernier (last)
• Goodness: bon (good), mauvais (bad), meilleur (better; best), pire (worse; worst)
• Size: bref (brief), grand (big), gros (big; fat), haut (high; tall), long (long), petit (small), vaste (vast)

Some pre-noun adjectives don’t describe BANGS, and some post-noun adjectives do, so the acronym isn’t perfect. Still, it will help you remember most of the pre-noun adjectives.

Pre-vowel forms

The m/s forms of three of the adjectives listed above—beau, nouveau, and vieux—end with vowel sounds, and since they’re pre-noun adjectives, that creates the potential for bordering vowel sounds. Remember, French speakers try to avoid this, so they’ve developed a rule where these adjectives take a fifth form for nouns that:

1. Are masculine
2. Are singular
3. Begin with a vowel sound

When all three conditions are met:

• Beau becomes bel
• Nouveau becomes nouvel
• Vieux becomes vieil

Remember, these forms are for nouns that begin with vowel sounds, not just ones that begin with vowels.

Beau, nouveau, and vieux are the only three common adjectives that have pre-vowel forms.