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Free French Lessons
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C'est l'heure de ton Yabla, pauvre gosse!Lesson 13. GrammarSome French adjectives change their meaning depending on whether we put them before or after the noun they modify. For example, in Le Journal's video Les microcrédits, we learn about a fellow who realizes his dream of opening a business. This pauvre homme (poor, as in "pitiable," man) had spent years doing nothing every day. But, because he was also an homme pauvre (poor, as in "penniless," man), he qualified for a microcredit loan, and is now a proud restaurateur! Il a réussi à monter sa propre pizzeria, il y a maintenant trois mois. He succeeded in opening his own pizzeria, just three months ago. Caption 3, Le Journal: Les microcrédits Sa propre pizzeria means it's his alone, but if he wants customers to keep coming back, he'd better make sure it's also a pizzeria propre (a clean pizzeria)! As you can see, if placed in front of the noun, propre signals ownership; if placed after, it indicates cleanliness. We hear another interesting example when rugby-player-turned-singer Cali sings the romantic ballad C'est quand le bonheur? Car qui mieux que ces vieux amants, sait qu'on perd l'amour Because who knows better than those old lovers that you lose love Caption 34, Cali: C'est quand le bonheur? You may notice that Cali does not mention anyone's age; ces vieux amants, "those old lovers," refers to lovers who have experienced long-lasting love. They might be in their twenties or in their eighties—we don’t know. If Cali had placed the adjective vieux (old) after the noun amants (lovers), then we'd know that he meant elderly lovers (who, for all we know, met last week at bingo). So, amants vieux would indicate their age, while vieux amants indicates the duration of their love. Dropping in on the Paris Poetry Fair, we hear: Antonin Artaud, grand homme de théâtre, grand poète du vingtième siècle... Antonin Artaud, famous playwright, famous poet from the twentieth century... Notice that grand, placed before the noun, means "famous" or "great"—quite different from when it appears after the noun. Un homme grand means a tall man—a man of physically grand proportions. Can you spot any poètes grands (tall poets) among the aspiring grands poètes (great poets) at this Paris Poetry Fair? Did you see Le Journal's piece about teen use of marijuana? Selon lui, certains signes devraient alerter vite les parents. According to him, certain signs should quickly alert parents. Caption 24, Le Journal: Cannabis en hausse chez les jeunes This specialist talks about certains signes (certain, as in "some specific," signs). But are these also signes certains (certain, as in "definite, unquestionable," signs)? Watch the video and decide for yourself! Keep an eye out for these and other adjectives that change their meaning depending on where they sit! Extra credit: Certain language sages have noted that, generally speaking, these types of adjectives take a more figurative meaning when placed before a noun, and a more literal one when placed after. Can you see what they mean? Adjective ArithmeticLesson 12. GrammarWe know you look to Yabla for language, not math, so apologies in advance to any arithmophobes out there. Yes, we're going to talk some numbers today, but you can count on us to go easy on you. Remember last time, when we talked about French adjectives that come before the noun they modify? Well, there's another category of adjectives that behave that way: numbers! Parmi les expériences inoubliables des deux plongeurs... Among the unforgettable experiences of the two divers... Caption 20, Le Journal: Sillonner & photographier les océans In this video about Pierre and Laurent's beautiful underwater photography, you see an example where the adjective deux (two) comes before the noun plongeurs (divers). It's just like in English: "two divers." And staying on the numerical track, when an adjective indicates a place in a series, like premier (first), prochain (next), or dernier (last), it should also be placed in front of the noun it qualifies. For example, le premier président (the first president). If you'd rather be on top of the water than underneath it, take a look at this lightning trip around the world in 50 days. Captain Bruno Peyron and his crew break Steve Fossett's record on their impressive catamaran. Lorsque le jeune Bruno Peyron boucle le premier tour du monde en équipage et sans escale... When the young Bruno Peyron completed the first trip around the world with a crew and without a stop... Caption 13, Le Journal: Le record du Tour du Monde! Notice the adjective premier (first) that precedes the noun tour (trip), because premier indicates a place in a series (the first place). However, be aware that prochain (next) and dernier (last) do not always precede the noun they modify. In fact, they follow the noun when they indicate a notion of time, as when they are used with a week, month, or year. For example: le mois prochain (next month). We hear an example in the video about French youth up in arms against the loi Fillon designed to reform French education. Trois mille à Lyon, ils étaient deux fois plus la semaine dernière. Three thousand in Lyon, they were twice as many last week. In this instance, the adjective dernière (last) is placed after the noun semaine (week) because it indicates an expression of time: the protest is simmering down a bit compared to the previous week. Finally, one last number-related point: a tip on where to place an adjective if, after all you've learned from the Yabla lessons, you still aren't quite sure where the darn thing should go. It's easy math: count and compare the number of syllables in the two words, adjective and noun. Most often, the qualifying adjective is placed in front of the noun if the noun is composed of a greater number of syllables than the adjective. In other words, if the adjective is shorter, it goes in front. Corrine, a young and charming French woman, shows us an example of this when talking about the merits of her hometown. On a la chaleur, on a, euh... peut-être la pollution, mais en tout cas, on a de beaux paysages. We've got warm weather, we have, uh... maybe pollution, but in any case, we have beautiful landscapes. Caption 16-17, Fanny et Corrine: Leurs origines Notice how Corrine mentions Marseilles' beaux paysages (beautiful landscapes). The adjective beaux (beautiful) has fewer syllables than the noun paysages (landscapes), so beaux is placed before paysages. Conversely, the adjective is usually placed after the noun if it has more syllables than does the noun. For example, you would say une voix horrible (a horrible voice); the noun voix (voice) has fewer syllables than the adjective horrible, so the noun comes first. Le Journal tells the story of Claudia Rusch, a young Francophile who was one of the first to scramble over the falling Berlin Wall to join a friend on that memorable day, November 9th, 1989. ...escalade ce grillage insupportable qui les sépare... ...scales this unbearable fence which separates them... Caption 23, Le Journal: Le mur de Berlin s'écroule Here, because the adjective insupportable (unbearable) has a greater number of syllables than the noun grillage (fence), the adjective goes last. See? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Forward-Thinking AdjectivesLesson 11. GrammarDo 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 41, 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 (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, Debout Sur Le Zinc: Les mots d'amour 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!
When Adverbs Get Cozy with AdjectivesLesson 10. GrammarLaurence 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 the building blocks assez débordante to what you've already built to finish up the block tower. And again, in English we see that "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 the adjective débordante (overactive) before the noun activité (activity). Why? Because the adverb assez (rather) modifying the adjective débordante (overactive) is a short adverb. Most adverbs in French are formed by adding the suffix -ment (as in 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), plus (more), 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 33, 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 from Names and VerbsLesson 9. GrammarAdjectives derived from verbs Cet astronaute expérimenté a passé des heures à observer la Terre. This experienced astronaut spent hours observing Earth. Caption 10, Le Journal: La Grande Muraille vue de l'espace? If you have watched our video "The Great Wall Visible from Space?" you may have noticed that French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy is described as expérimenté (experienced). This adjective is formed by the past participle of the verb expérimenter (to experience). Adjectives derived from verbs are almost always placed after the noun, as we see here: astronaute expérimenté. Native English speakers might be tempted to say that Jean-François is expériencé, but this word does not exist, nor does any such verb expériencer. Of course the noun expérience does mean "experience" and one could say, l'astronaute a de l'expérience, which would translate as "the astronaut is experienced." Note also that expérimenter can also mean "to experiment," as an English speaker might surmise. Heading back into space, in Part 3 of our thriller La Conspiration d'Orion, we hear another type of verb-derived adjective: La NASA a dû faire face à une avalanche de données et de preuves embarrassantes. NASA had to face an avalanche of data and embarrassing evidence. The verb embarrasser means "to embarrass," just as an English speaker might guess, and from its present participle is formed the adjective embarrassant (embarrassing). In this case we are modifying preuves ("evidence," or more literally, "proofs"), which is feminine (so we add an e) and which is also plural (so we add an s), giving us the feminine plural form: embarrassantes. As you continue to dive into authentic French with Yabla and other sources, keep your eyes open for more verb-derived adjectives. Verify that in most cases they are found after the noun they modify. You will want to keep this in mind when you set out to speak or write du français correct (correct French) yourself! Adjectives derived from proper names Have you had a look at the fascinating Le Journal piece about World War I we recently added, "Life in the Trenches"? Listening in, we hear: Ces soldats ressemblent plus aux combattants du Premier Empire, des guerres napoléoniennes... These soldiers are more like the fighters of the First French Empire, of the Napoleonic wars... Captions 5-6, Le Journal: La vie dans les tranchées The adjective napoléonien (Napoleonic) is derived from the proper noun Napoléon, the famous Emperor of early 19th-century France. Guerre (war) is a feminine noun, so we must use the feminine version, napoléonienne, and guerres (wars) is plural, so it requires the feminine plural form, napoléoniennes. As is typical with adjectives derived from proper nouns, and like most adjectives, it is placed after the noun being modified. Other examples are la théorie cartésienne (Cartesian theory) or la France chiraquienne (the France of Chirac/Chirac's France). Adjectives derived from proper names of places, such as regions, cities, and countries, behave similarly, as we already discussed in our lesson Adjectives of Color, Shape, and Origin. |
