Adjectives
Adjectives normally follow the noun if they express a distinguishing feature of the person or thing referred to, although some very common adjectives precede the noun. Adjectives must agree with their noun in gender and number.
Adjectives which normally follow the noun:
(a) adjectives of nationality, religion, politics:
La langue espagnole est difficile. Spanish is difficult.
Ils se sont mariés à l’église protestante.
They got married in the Protestant church.
The noun group
Elle a la carte du parti socialiste.
She’s a card-carrying member of the Socialist Party.
(b) adjectives expressing a physical characteristic, form, colour:
C’est un enfant très maigre. He/She is a very thin child.
C’est une maison blanche. It’s a white house.
(c) participles used as adjectives:
un ouvrier fatigué a tired worker
une histoire connue a well-known story
la page précédante the previous page
(d) adjectives qualified by an adverb ending in -ment:
un homme extrêmement laid an extremely ugly man
un enfant incroyablement an unbelievably stupid child
Some adjectives are usually placed before the noun:
(a) beau ‘handsome’, bon ‘good’, bref ‘short’, dernier ‘last’, gentil ‘nice’, grand ‘great’, gros ‘big’, haut ‘high’, jeune ‘young’, joli ‘pretty’, long ‘long’, mauvais ‘bad’, meilleur ‘better’, moindre ‘lesser’, nombreux ‘many’, nouveau ‘new’, petit ‘little’, premier ‘first’, vaste ‘huge, vieux ‘old’, vrai ‘real’, vilain ‘ugly’…
une belle femme a lovely woman big feet
un long voyage a long journey
la première page the first page
(b) some of these, in certain contexts, follow the noun:
la marée haute high tide
d’un ton bref curtly
and with days of the week, seasons, parts of the year:
l’ été prochain next summer
la semaine dernière last week
otherwise , they precede the noun.