Grande ou petite ? Tall or Short? Describing People in French

In this post we’ll learn some basic descriptions of people in French. We’ll start with some physical descriptions, so you’ll learn basic adjectives like tall and short. Then we’ll move on to other descriptions of people that aren’t physical, so you’ll learn how to talk about people’s moods and personalities.

Grand(e), Petit(e): Tall, Short: Basic Descriptions of People in French

Let’s start with some basic adjectives that you can use to describe people’s physical characteristics: grand/grande tall; petit/petite short; jeune young; vieux, vieil/vieille (agé/agée) old; gros/grosse fat; mince thin; beau, bel/belle beautiful; laid /laide, moche ugly. Let’s see some examples:

• La femme est grande/mince.
  The woman is tall/ thin.
• Les femmes sont grandes/minces.
  The woman are tall/thin.
• L’homme est petit/gros.
  The man is short/ fat.
• Les hommes sont petits/gros.
  The men are short/fat.

• C’est un viel homme. L’homme est vieux.
  He’s an old man. The man is old.  
• Mon grand-père est vieux (âgé).
  My grandfather is old.
• Ma grand-mère est vieille (âgée).
  My grandmother is old.
• Le garçon est jeune.
  The boy is young.
• Nous avons un jeune fils/garçon.
  We have a young son.

GRAMMAR TIP!

You probably know that adjectives in French agree with the noun that they modify. The typical pattern of endings is – (masculine singular), –e (feminine singular), –s (masculine plural), –es (feminine plural), for example:

• un homme grand a tall man
• une femme grande a tall woman
• des hommes grands tall men
• des femmes grandes tall women

Adjectives that end in –e only have two forms, -e singular (masculine and feminine) and –es in the plural (masculine and feminine). For example:

• un jeune homme a young man
• une jeune femme a young woman
• des jeunes hommes young men
• des jeunes femmes young women

Vieux (old) has a special masculine singular form vieil that you only use directly before nouns beginning with a vowel sound.

• un vieil homme
  an old man

But if the adjective isn’t right before the noun, you use the regular masculine singular vieux.

• L’homme est vieux.
  The man is old.

You can read much more about French adjectives and test yourself in this post and in this post.

Other Basic Descriptions of People in French

Now let’s see a few more adjectives that describe people’s moods or emotions or other non-physical characteristics: heureux/ heureuse, content/contente happy; triste sad; intelligent/intelligente intelligent; bête foolish; intéressant /intéressante interesting; populaire popular; sportif/sportive sporty, athletic; paresseux /paresseuse lazy; fort /forte strong; faible weak; courageux/courageuse brave; timide shy; bavard/bavarde talkative; calme, réservé/réservée quiet; marié /mariée married; célibataire single; sympa, gentil/gentille friendly, nice; pas sympa, antipathique unfriendly, mean.

• La femme est intelligente.
  The woman is intelligent.
• Les femmes sont intelligentes.
  The women are intelligent.
• L’homme est fort.
  The man is strong.
• Les hommes sont forts.
  The men are strong.
• Ma soeur est gentille (sympa)/n’est pas gentille (sympa).
  My sister is friendly/ unfriendly.
• Mon frère est gentil (sympa)/n’est pas gentil (sympa).
  My brother is friendly/mean.
• La fille est timide.
  The girl is shy.
• Nos filles sont timides.
  Our daughters are shy.
• Es-tu heureux/heureuse (content/contente) ou triste ?
  Are you happy or sad?
• Notre professeur(e) est intéressant(e).
  Our teacher is interesting.
• Elle est une chanteuse très populaire/très appréciée.
  She’s a popular singer.
• L’agent de police est courageux/courageuse.
  The police officer is brave.

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