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French - Future Tenses, Preceding and Plural Adjectives, Adjectives: Feminine

Future Tenses

The futur simple expresses an action that will take place.  The futur antérieur expresses an action that will have taken place before another future action.  The future tense is used just like it is in English, however, in French, the future is always used after quand or lorsque (when), dès que or aussitôt que (as soon as) and tant que (as long as.)

To form the future tense, use the infinitive and add these endings that resemble those of avoir.  However, you drop the -e from -re verbs.

-ai -ons
-as -ez
-a -ont

And of course, there has to be exceptions.  Here are the irregular stems for the future tense
(these will also be used in the conditional tense):

Irregular Stems
aller ir- pleuvoir pleuvr-
avoir aur- pouvoir pourr-
courir courr- recevoir recevr-
devoir devr- savoir saur-
envoyer enverr- tenir tiendr-
être ser- valoir vaudr-
faire fer- venir viendr-
falloir faudr- voir verr-
mourir mourr- vouloir voudr-

Other exceptions:  For appeler and jeter, double the consonant.  For nettoyer and payer, change the y to i.  For acheter, add an accent grave.  For préférer, the accents all remain the same.

jeter payer acheter

préférer

jetterai jetterons paierai paierons achèterai achèterons préférai préférons
jetteras jetterez paieras paierez achèteras achèterez préféras préférez
jettera jetteront paiera paieront achètera achèteront préféra préféront

To form the futur antérieur, use the future of either avoir or être (whichever the main verb takes) and the past participle of the main verb.

Quand ils reviendront, ils auront changé.  When they come back, they will have changed.
Dès qu'ils seront revenus, ils voudront repartir.  As soon as they have returned, they will want to leave again.

Preceding and Plural Adjectives

Masculine Feminine
Adjective Singular Plural Pronunciation Singular Plural Pronunciation
beautiful beau (bel) beaux boh (bell) belle belles bell
good bon bons bon bonne bonnes bon
dear cher chers share chère chères share
nice gentil gentils zhawn-tee gentille gentilles zhawn-tee
big grand grands grawn grande grandes grawnd
large gros gros groh grosse grosses grohss
young jeune jeunes zhun jeune jeunes zhun
pretty joli jolis zho-lee jolie jolies zho-lee
long long longs lohn longue longues lohng
bad mauvais mauvais mo-vay mauvaise mauvaises mo-vezz
better, best   meilleur meilleurs may-ur meilleure meilleures may-ur
new nouveau (nouvel) nouveaux noo-voh (noo-vell) nouvelle nouvelles noo-vell
little petit petits puh-tee petite petites puh-teet
old vieux (vieil) vieux vyuh (vyay) vieille vieilles vyay

Note:  The masculine singular and plural are pronounced the same, as are the feminine singular and plural.  These are the most common adjectives that go before the noun.  An acronym to remember which ones go before the noun is BRAGS:  Beauty, Resemblance (même and autre), Age/Order (premier and dernier), Goodness, and Size.  All other adjectives, except numbers, go after the noun.  The three words in parentheses (bel, nouvel, and vieil) are used before masculine singular words beginning with a vowel or a silent h.

A few adjectives can be used before or after the noun, and the meaning changes accordingly.  When used before the noun, they take a figurative meaning; and when used after, they take a literal meaning.

Remember that des means some, right?  Well, there is an exception to that rule too.  Before plural adjectives preceding plural nouns, you use de instead of des.  Ex:  Some old monuments.  De vieux monuments.

Adjectives: Feminine

All adjectives must agree in number and gender with the noun they modify. Most adjectives are given in the masculine form, so to change to the feminine forms, follow these rules:

Masculine Feminine Adjective
Add -e brun brahn brune brunn brown
fatigué fah-tee-gay fatiguée fah-tee-gay tired
If it already ends in -e, add nothing jeune zhun jeune zhun young
-x changes to -se généreux zhay-nay-ruh généreuse zhay-nay-ruhs generous

Exceptions:

faux foh fausse fohss false
roux roo rousse rooss red (hair)
doux doo douce dooss sweet, soft
-il, -el, and -eil change to
-ille, -elle
, and -eille
naturel naht-ur-ell naturelle naht-ur-ell natural
-et changes to -ète inquiet ahn-kee-ay inquiète ahn-kee-ett worried

Exceptions:

muet moo-ay muette moo-ett silent
coquet koh-kay coquette koh-kett stylish
-en and -on change to
-enne
and -onne
Italien ee-tahl-ee-ahn Italienne ee-tahl-ee-enn Italian
-er changes to -ère cher share chère share dear, expensive
-f changes to -ve actif ac-teef active ac-teev active
-c changes to -che blanc blawn blanche blawnsh white

Exceptions:

public pooh-bleek publique pooh-bleek public
grec grek grecque grek Greek
-g changes to -gue long lawn longue lawng long
-eur changes to -euse if adjective
is derived from verb
menteur mawn-tur menteuse mawn-tuhz liar
-eur changes to -rice if adjective
is not same as verb
créateur kray-ah-tur créatrice kray-ah-treess creator
-eur changes to -eure with
adjectives of comparison
inférieur ahn-fay-ree-uhr inférieure ahn-fay-ree-uhr inferior
And a few completely irregular ones: épais ay-peh épaisse ay-pehz thick
favori fah-voh-ree favorite fah-voh-reet favorite
frais freh fraîche frehsh fresh, cool
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