Do you remember from our last lesson Michel Garcia and his mysterious catch from Easter Island? Today we will reveal his secret: what made him famous worldwide was his discovery of a beautiful shell, extremely rare and previously unknown. And the name of this shellfish? The Garciai! Michel's pride in his namesake is second only to that for his son, Tokiroa.

...Tokiroa est tout de même plus important que la belle Garciai.
...Tokiroa is all the same more important than the beautiful Garciai.
Caption 36, Le Journal: L'île de Pâques

By now, you're probably used to adjectives in French following the nouns that they modify (as in le ciel bleu/"the blue sky"). But, as you can see above, the adjective belle precedes the noun Garciai. That's because Garciai is a proper noun, a nom propre, and in French, adjectives precede proper nouns.

In fact, there are a few other occasions when you'll see an adjective placed before the noun it modifies. It can also occur when an adjective is used very often in day-to-day language and is easily associated with the noun that it qualifies (generally these adjectives are short words). For example, notice that the common and monosyllabic adjective long (long), comes before frisson (shiver) in the lovely music video "Les mots d'amour" (meaning, "the words of love") by Debout sur le zinc.

Et ce long frisson qui n'en finit pas.
And this long shiver that does not end.
Caption 6, Les mots d'amour: Debout sur le zinc

And, similarly, Ina-Ich places the short and common adjective beau (beautiful/handsome) before gosse (kid), giving us beau gosse, a common French expression that means "handsome" or "good-lookin'," as in, "Hey handsome!"

À quoi penses-tu beau gosse?
What are you thinking about, handsome?
Caption 3, Ina-Ich: Âme armée

The most common adjectives that you will find placed before a noun are: beau (beautiful), bon (good), grand (tall), gros (big), jeune (young), joli (pretty), mauvais (bad/mean), nouveau (new), petit (small), vieux (old), and their feminine forms. Some examples: un bon livre (a good book), une jolie fleur (a pretty flower), un gentil chien (a nice dog).

However, we should point out that when an adjective of this type is accentuated or highlighted, the tendency is to place it after the noun. You would normally say, C'est une gentille fille (She's a nice girl), but you'd say C’est une fille gentille! (She's a really nice girl!) if you wanted to emphasize gentille.

We expect hot sunny days in the summer, but in "Un automne bien chaud," a bright, warm November day throws some people off.

Quinze centimètres sous les pas, un soleil gros comme ça, et pourtant pas un chat!
Fifteen centimeters under your feet, a big sun like this, and yet nothing stirring!
Caption 1, Le Journal: Un automne bien chaud

Notice that the short and common adjective gros (big) this time follows the noun soleil (sun) to emphasize how exceptionally large the sun seems to be on an unusually warm autumn day.

The sun, the sea, and the words of love: three magical elements right there at your fingertips, waiting to teach you more about the placement of French adjectives. What are you waiting for? Check out the videos!

Laurence Boccolini, the beloved rich and famous French host of TV Channel 2, should be a happy woman. Quite the contrary, malheureusement. In Le Journal’s video on age and fertility, she describes her sorrow at being unable to conceive:

Mais c'est une femme profondément meurtrie, parce qu'elle n'a pas réussi à donner la vie.
But she's a deeply wounded woman, because she hasn't been able to create a life.
Caption 2, Le Journal: L'âge et la fertilité

Notice that the adverb profondément (deeply) is modifying the adjective meurtrie (wounded), and that both words together describe this femme (woman). It's important to note that, like in English, the adverb precedes the adjective, so it's profondément meurtrie not meurtrie profondément, but unlike the English translation, this phrase meaning "deeply wounded" follows the noun it modifies, femme. Indeed, that is the typical pattern; in most cases, when an adverb modifies an adjective that is qualifying a noun, the adverb-adjective pair will appear after the noun.

Let's take another look, this time at an, ahem, somewhat happier example. Someone who was not concerned with fertility problems was the famous poet Victor Hugo. He conceived five children. For those interested in learning about more than just the literary side of Victor Hugo, the singer Bertrand Pierre clues us in to some of the poet's other "talents" in this Yabla exclusive interview:

Il avait une... activité sentimentale et... sexuelle assez débordante.
He had... a rather overactive romantic and... sex life.
Caption 30, Bertrand Pierre: Victor Hugo

Here we see a noun, activité (activity), which we translated as "life" to fit this context (you wouldn't really say "a romantic activity" in English), being modified by two adjectives: sentimentale/"romantic" and sexuelle/"sexual." Then that whole chunk, his "romantic and sex life," is being modified by the adjective-adverb combo assez débordante/"rather overactive."

Take a look at the order of the words. It might help to think of the words like building blocks. First you have activité. Now, what kind of activité do you mean? Since you are talking about his romantic and sexual life, you add the building blocks sentimentale and sexuelle. In English, these blocks go before the noun; in French, they go after. Now, what kind of romantic, sexual life did he have? Well, a rather overactive one! So you add these building blocks assez débordante to what you've already built to finish up the block tower. And again, in English we see "rather overactive" appears before the phrase it modifies, while in French, assez débordante follows it.

So is it always the case that an adverb+adjective modifier will follow the noun? If only it were so simple. In fact, the Bertrand Pierre example above is an interesting case. Bertrand could actually also have said: Il avait une assez débordante activité sexuelle/"he had a rather overactive sex life," and placed this débordante (overactive) adjective before the noun activité (activity). Why? Because the adverb assez (rather) modifying the adjective (débordante) is a short adverb.

Most adverbs in French are formed by adding the suffix -ment (like for profondément above), and the general rule is to place the adjective qualified by an adverb after a noun (as in "une femme profondément meurtrie"). However, if the adverb is short (generally, these are adverbs not ending in "-ment"), like très/very or plus/more or assez/rather, etc., then the adjective can be placed in either location: before or after the noun that it describes.

You can see an example of this "before" placement in the beautiful Le Journal video about Easter Island—a video that may be as beautiful as the native French Riviera that Michel Garcia left twenty-eight years ago:

On se rend compte que la France, c'est un très beau pays et qu'on y vit très bien.
You realize that France is a very beautiful country and that life is very good there.
Caption 30, Le Journal: L'île de Pâques

Notice the very short adverb très/"very" that modifies the adjective beau/"beautiful" placed here before the noun that it qualifies: pays/"country." This diver who appreciates the beauty of both countries could have easily said, and would have been equally correct to say: La France, c’est un pays très beau, placing the adjective after the noun. Remember, this is because très/"very" is a short adverb that qualifies the adjective beau/"beautiful."

Whichever way Michel says it, we have to agree with his statement!

Adjectives derived from verbs

You may have heard that most of the time, an adjective in French is placed after the noun, but not always. How are we supposed to know? We find plenty of clues and start to gain an intuitive understanding when we watch authentic French videos. Let's have a look at a few instances when the adjective almost always follows the noun it modifies: color or shape, and origin/nationality, ethnicity, or religion.

Let's have a look at shapes and colors first. In English we say "square meter," but in French, the adjective carré, (square) follows the noun mètre (meter). This is evident in our video about "green tides" in Brittany:

Mètre carré par mètre carré.
Square meter by square meter.
Caption 3: Le Journal, Green Tide in Brittany
 
Colors follow the same pattern. Listen to master chef Daniel Boulud describing what goes into his extremely high-end hamburgers:

Un, un pavé de, de bœuf braisé au vin rouge, avec du foie gras dedans...
A, a chunk of, of beef braised in red wine, with some foie gras inside...
Caption 9: Le Journal, Expensive Burger

Like most Frenchmen, M. Boulud loves his vin rouge (red wine). Note that he puts the color "red," rouge, after the noun "wine," vin, not the other way around.

Similarly, Ina-Ich, the lovely chanteuse parisienne (Parisian singer) d'origine vietnamienne (of Vietnamese origin) places the color kaki (khaki) after the noun habits (dress/clothes), in her song "Âme Armée" ("Armed Soul").

En habits kaki, plus rien n’a de prix
In khaki dress, nothing more has any value
Caption 4: Ina-Ich, Âme Armée
 
Notice that when we describe Ina-Ich, we say that she is a chanteuse parisienne and not a parisienne chanteuse; we say that she is d'origine vietnamienne and not de vietnamienne origine; and French web sites proclaim that she sings rock français (French rock) and not français rock. Why? Because another instance when adjectives pretty much always come after the noun in French is when the adjective is indicating origin/nationality or ethnicity. That is why we find parisienne (Parisian) following chanteuse (singer), vietnamienne (Vietnamese) following origine (origin), and français (French) following "rock."

We hear this in our "Farm Stand" video from Montreal, Quebec, when François, the proud farmer, describes for us his finest organic vegetables:

Ici, c'est le choux chinois.
Here, this is Chinese cabbage.
Caption 14: Farmer François, Farm Stand

Here again we find an adjective that describes origin/nationality, chinois (Chinese) coming after, not before, the noun it modifies, choux (cabbage).

In Le Journal's segment about last year's hotly contested Parisian Book Fair, the Salon du Livre, we hear an adjective describing ethnicity (arabe/Arab) and one describing religion (musulman/Muslim):
 
L'Egypte, pays arabe et musulman, pourrait bien être à son tour l'invitée d'honneur du Salon du Livre.
Egypt, an Arab and Muslim country, could well be the next guest of honor of the Book Fair.
Captions 17-18: Le Journal, Salon du Livre
 
(In a similar vein, you'll see the same placement, after the noun, for an adjective describing an official function: for example, une rencontre ministérielle, "a cabinet meeting.")

So there we have it: color, shape, origin, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and official function—a few of the types of adjectives that almost always come after the noun in French. Keep your ears open while watching Daniel Boulud making his infamous burger, farmer François talking up his organic vegetables, Ina-Ich singing "Âme Armée," and all the other videos on Yabla French and you'll notice the rule is nearly universal!

In Le Journal's video on Chalets, we're treated to a fascinating description of a modern cabin entirely built of ancient wood. And speaking of modernity, the speaker's story includes quite a few instances of neuf and nouveau. Both adjectives mean "new," but each corresponds to a different meaning of the word "new."

Before we talk about the trick to distinguishing between neuf and nouveau, we should point out the feminine forms, which are irregular, of each adjective: the feminine of neuf is neuve, and the feminine of nouveau is nouvelle (though nouvel is used as the masculine form before words beginning with vowels or the silent letter H. For example: un nouvel album).

We see an instance of nouvelle right at the beginning of the Chalets video.

        Ce tronc d'arbre a été coupé il y a plus de deux cents ans.
        Aujourd'hui Michel Ferrari lui redonne une nouvelle vie.

        This log was cut more than two hundred years ago.
        Today, Michel Ferrari gives it back a new life.
        Captions 1-2

Here, nouvelle vie denotes a life different from before. Notice that the qualifying adjective nouvelle precedes the noun vie.

A little further, we see nouveaux (the plural form of nouveau):

        La Pologne fait par exemple partie des nouveaux fournisseurs.
        Poland, for example, is among the new suppliers.
        Caption 13

Again, the adjective here indicates a change; the list of suppliers is now different from the previous one. And, once again, the adjective nouveaux is placed before the substantive fournisseurs.

Now, the following captions give us some examples of an entirely different meaning of "new."

        Le vieux bois, un matériau très recherché pour les constructions de montagne,
        même s'il coûte deux fois plus cher que le bois neuf.
        Old timber, a much sought-after material for building in the mountains,
        even if it costs twice as much as new wood.
        Captions 3-4

Here, neuf means wood that was recently produced. Notice that neuf is placed after the substantive bois.

We see the same primary meaning for neuf below:

        Aujourd'hui pour construire, comme ici, du neuf avec du vieux . . .
        Nowadays, to build, like here, the new with the old . . .
        Caption 11

The speaker is talking about the recent construction of these houses. (And note that neuf is a substantive here: "the new.")

Want some more examples of objects with which you could use neuf? You could have un manteau neuf—a new coat, or un livre neuf—a new book. And don't forget about the ironically named Pont-Neuf—which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris!

And what other types of changes would you describe with the word nouveau? You could use it to talk about une nouvelle amie—a new friend, or un nouveau numéro de téléphone—a new phone number.

If you look at all the examples above, you'll see that neuf is used for recent creations: objects, like wood, constructions, etc., that were recently manufactured and are thus "new to the world." Nouveau, however, is used to indicate a change: either something different or the most recent example of something (a change from before).

Now that we've explored the linguistic subtleties of these two adjectives, let’s look at a few more ways to use the words neuf and nouveau.

La Nouvelle Vague is the name of the post-WWII cinematic trend in France of shooting movies in a different, more realistic way and using modern, spontaneous young actors rather than handsome, classical movie stars. In English, we call this type of cinema "French New Wave." "Nouvelle vague" also became a cultural term, applying to the youth of the time, who aspired to change their lives, to have freedom without convention.

There is also the term nouvelle cuisine, which refers to a French cooking approach that uses light ingredients and emphasizes presentation—a change from the previous heavy classical cuisine.

So what about other ways to use neuf?

You probably know that neuf also means the number nine.

Neuf is also used in some common expressions, like peau neuve, which we can also see in the Chalets video.

        Nous voici dans une ancienne ferme proche de Megève.
        C'est l'heure pour elle de faire peau neuve.
        Here we are in an old farmhouse near Megève.
        It's time for it to get a face-lift.
        Caption 5

This old farm is in need of a "new skin" to look better.

And speaking of old, our curious readers may be interested to know that the opposite of neuf/neuve is vieux/vieil/vieille; (vieil, like nouvel, is the masculine adjective for preceding vowel sounds), and the opposite of nouveau/nouvel/nouvelle is ancien/ancienne. Hard to believe there are five different options for such a simple word as "old"!

Stay tuned for a lesson that further discusses the placement of adjectives in French, which will help you solve that pesky "before or after?" dilemma.