Adjectives- Placement of Adjectives
FRENCH
Adjectives placed after the noun
- Participles (a link to past participles under verbs will be placed here)
la porte peinte
The painted door
- Color
la porte rouge
The red door
- Adjectives of shape, nationality, etc.
la porte française
The french door
Adjectives placed before the noun
The references I've seen list a series of words like the following:
- autre (other)- l'autre chat
- beau (beautiful)- le beau chat
- bon (good)
- court (short)
- grand (tall)
- gros (big)
- yeune (young)
- petit (small)
If these adjectives are placed after the noun, they add emphasis.
More adjectives placed after the noun ("Magnificent adjectives")
The following adjectives are placed after the noun, but they can be placed before the noun to provide emphasis.
- célèbre (famous)- le chat célèbre
- formidable (tremendous)
- magnifique (magnificent)- le chat magnifique
- terrible (terrifying)
It could be tempting to summarize the above rules with put the adjective after the noun unless it is a "magnificent" adjective. However, for the person who has more time to study grammar, and would like more literary "finesse" :), there are adjectives that change meaning depending on if they are used before or after the noun. When time permits, these adjectives deserve a separate page.