A Guide to the French Language

BAGS

As you may know, in the French language, adjectives are placed after the noun, rather than before

Imagine if we said things like, "The cat black is eating my lamp sad while listening to music metal heavy."

Yeah, that's what French is like

"BUT WAIT!" you shout. "Aren't there exceptions to every rule?"

And indeed you are correct! For there are certain types of adjectives that do, in fact, go before the noun

"But what are these adjectives, and how do we remember them?"

Well friends, just leave that up to a simple acronym known as BAGS

*angelic chorus plays* BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS!

B is for Beauty!

Adjectives that describe the beauty of the subject go before! :D

These words include:

Beautiful (feminine): "belle" (sounds like bell)

Handsome (masculine): "beau" (sounds like bow)

Handsome (masculine, used when the noun begins with a vowel sound): "bel" (sounds like bell)

Pretty: "joli" for masculine and "jolie" for feminine (sounds like Joe Lee)

So instead of "la femme belle" for "the beautiful woman", we say "la belle femme" :D

We can also say "la jolie jupe" for "the pretty skirt", "le beau chien" for "the handsome dog", and "le bel arbre" for "the handsome tree"!

However, words that describe ugliness are not included in BAGS :(

A is for Age!

Words that describe the youngness or oldness of the subject! :D

Young: "jeune" (Juhn)

Old (feminine): "vieille" (Vee-AY)

Old (masculine): "vieux" (Vee-OH)

Old (masculine, used when the noun begins with a vowel sound): "vieil" (sounds like "vieille")

New (feminine): "nouvelle" (Noo-Vell) (It sounds like it has the words "new" and "elle (meaning she)" in it :D)

New (masculine): "nouveau" (Noo-Voh)

New (masculine, used when the noun begins with a vowel sound): "nouvel" (sounds like "nouvelle")

So now we know how to say things like "le nouveau poisson" for "the new fish", and "la vieille chatte" for "the old cat", using the power of BAGS! :D

G is for Goodness!

Huzzah ^w^

Good: "bonne" for feminine, "bon" for masculine

Bad: "mauvais" (moh-vay) (For example, if you're bad in math class)

So we can say things like "le bon homme" for "the good man". "Bonhomme" is also the word for gentleman, and "un bonhomme de neige" is a snowman! :D

S is for Size!

Yay for sizes!

Big: "grosse" (sounds like how it looks) for feminine, "gros" (sounds like grow) for masculine

Tall: "grande" (grahnd) for feminine, "grand" (grahn) for masculine

Small: "petite" (peh-TEET) for feminine, "petit" (peh-TEE) for masculine

(NOTE: the word for short, courte (kohrt) or court (kohr) DOES NOT COUNT IN BAGS)

A tall tree would be "un grand arbre," but a short tree would be "un arbre court"

To review:

Beauty (Beautiful, Handsome, Pretty)

Age (Young, Old, New)

Goodness (Good, Bad)

Size (Big, Small, Tall)

So now you have learned about the glorious glory that is BAGS.

See you later for more French <3