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BANGS adjectives
BANGS adjectives
While most French adjectives follow the nouns they describe, there are a few adjectives that should be placed before the noun.
A good way to remember these adjectives is with the acronym BANGS, which lists the categories of adjectives that are placed before the noun. BANGS stands for Beauty, Age, Numbers, Goodness, and Size.
Beauty – beau / belle (beautiful); joli / jolie (pretty)
Age – vieux / vieille (old); jeune (young); nouveau / nouvelle (new)
Numbers – all numbers
Goodness – bon / bonne (good); mauvais / mauvaise (bad); gentil / gentille (kind)
Size – grand / grande (big) ; petit / petite (small) ; court / courte (short); long / longue (long); gros / grosse (fat)
Two less common, but useful, adjectives that are also placed before the noun are: autre (other) and faux / fausse (false)
Irregular adjectives
The adjectives in the chart below have irregular masculine, feminine, and/or plural forms. Read, study, and listen to each adjective.
| Meaning | Masculine, singular | Masculine, singular, before a vowel | Masculine, plural | Feminine, singular | Feminine, plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beautiful
|
beau | bel | beaux | belle | belles |
| new |
nouveau | nouvel | nouveaux | nouvelle | nouvelles |
| old
|
vieux | vieil | vieux | vieille | vieilles |
Irregular placements
A few adjectives can be placed before or after the noun, but the location of the adjective will change the meaning.
un grand homme – a great man
un homme grand – a tall man
un pauvre homme – a poor man (unfortunate)
un homme pauvre – a poor man (with no money)
une ancienne école – a former school (previously)
une école ancienne – a very old school
ma propre chambre – my own room
ma chambre propre – my clean room
Using indefinite articles
When using the indefinite articles (un, une, and des), pay close attention to the article des. When des is used before a BANGS adjective, it changes to de before a consonant or d' before a vowel.
une petite maison rouge – a small red house
de petites maisons rouges – some small red houses
la petite maison rouge – the small red house
les petites maisons rouges – the small red houses
une nouvelle voiture allemande – a new German car
de nouvelles voitures allemandes – some new German cars
la nouvelle voiture allemande – the new German car
les nouvelles voitures allemandes – the new German cars