Image by Jacques GAIMARD from Pixabay
In this post we’ll learn some basic French vocabulary and grammar that you can use to describe people.
Beau ! Beautiful!
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.
Heureux ou triste ? Happy or Sad?
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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