French Adjectives: Singular or Plural?

In our first article on French adjectives we looked at various ways of changing masculine forms of adjectives to feminine forms – this time we take a look at how to make an adjective plural.  

If a noun is in the plural, the adjective that modifies it must also be in the plural.

PLURAL FORMS OF ADJECTIVES

As in English, the usual way to form a plural is by adding -s to the singular form. Here are a few examples:

petit – petits (m.); petite – petites (f.) – small

long – longs (m.); longue – longues (f.) – long

difficile – difficiles (m. and f.) – difficult

Masculines adjectives ending in -eau or -eu add -x to form the plural:

beau – beaux (m.) – beautiful, handsome, attractive

nouveau – nouveaux (m.) – new

(The feminine forms of these adjectives just add -s.)

Masculine adjectives ending in -s or -x stay the same in the plural. Examples are dangereux (dangerous), heureux (happy), ennuyeux (boring), gros (fat) and frais (fresh).

Some masculine adjectives ending in -al change this ending to -aux in the plural, for example:

loyal – loyaux (m.) – loyal
royal – royaux (m.) – royal.

There are, however, some adjectives ending in -al that just add -s to form the plural. Some examples are fatal, final and naval.

With thanks to Elizabeth Allen