Most adjectives have a clearly defined position in a sentence. The majority of descriptive adjectives follow the noun they modify.
du vin rouge (red wine), un fromage délicieux (a delicious cheese)
Some short descriptive adjectives usually precede the noun:
beau (beautiful), bon (good), mauvais (bad), court (short), long (long), gentil (nice, kind), vilain (ugly), gros (big), jeune (young), vieux (old), joli (pretty), nouveau (new), petit (small), grand (big)
Quelle vilaine grenouille! (What an ugly
frog!)
C'est vraiment un bel homme. (He really is a
handsome man.)
Adjectives denoting origin (geographical, historical, religious, etc.) are placed after the noun:
un artiste espagnol (a Spanish artist)
la période élizabéthaine (the Elizabethan
period)
la religion musulmane (the Muslim religion)
Indefinite adjectives precede the noun they modify:
Nous
avons plusieurs amis.
(We have several friends.)
The indefinite adjective autre (other) may follow any of the determiners:
Cet autre étudiant est intelligent.
(That other student is intelligent.)
The adjective
tout precedes both the noun and the article:
tout le village (the whole village)
tous les pays (all the countries)
When more than one adjective describes a noun, each adjective is placed in its normal position. Two adjectives in the same position are joined by et.
une longue histoire
intéréssante (a long, interesting story)
un chat calme et doux (a calm and gentle cat)
Adjectives with Different Meanings
Some adjectives have different meanings depending on their position:
ancien
(former/ancient)
un ancien théatre (a former theater)
un théatre ancien (an ancient theater)
brave (good-hearted/brave)
un brave fils (a good-hearted son)
un fils brave (a brave son)
certain (undefined/definite)
un certain changement (a certain change)
un changement certain (a definite change)
cher (beloved/expensive)
une chère femme (a dear woman)
un poisson cher (an expensive fish)
dernier (last of a series/the one before
this)
le dernier mois (the last month)
le mois dernier (last month)
honnête (honest/virtuous)
un honnête homme (an honest man)
un homme honnête (a virtuous man)
grand (great/tall)
un grand homme (a great man)
un homme grand (a tall man)
même (same/very, exact)
la même chose (the same thing)
la chose même (the very thing)
pauvre (wretched/penniless)
les pauvres artistes (the wretched
artists)
les artistes pauvres (the penniless artists)
propre (own/clean)
mon propre bureau (my own office)
mon bureau propre (my clean office)
sale (nasty/dirty)
un sale chien (a nasty dog)
un chien sale (a dirty dog)
seul (one only/alone)
un seul représentant (the only
representative)
un représentant seul (representative only)
triste (wretched/sad)
un triste type (a wretched/sorry guy)
un type triste (a sad guy)
Articles are not used before cardinal adjectives, except for fractions:
trois
oiseaux et vingt papillons
(three birds and twenty butterflies)
les deux tiers du
fromage bleu
(two-thirds of the blue cheese)
Cardinal numbers precede ordinal numbers:
les cinq premiers passagers
(the first five passengers)
Note: Most of the rules above may be broken for stylistic effect.
See Also: