Adjective Agreement & Position
विशेषण की संगति और स्थिति
French adjectives change their spelling to match the noun's gender and number — and Hindi's own -आ-ending adjectives (अच्छा, बड़ा, छोटा) already do this, so the agreement idea is familiar. What's genuinely new is word order: French's default position for adjectives is after the noun, while Hindi, like English, always puts the adjective before.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
The regular pattern: +e for feminine, +s for plural ≈ Hindi's -आ/-ई/-े adjectives
grand → grande (fem.) → grands (masc. pl.) → grandes (fem. pl.)
बड़ा → बड़ी → बड़े → बड़ी (लिंग और वचन के अनुसार बदलता है)
Most French adjectives add -e to form the feminine (if they don't already end in -e) and -s to form the plural. Hindi's -आ-ending adjectives already do a nearly identical four-way dance: बड़ा (masc. sg.) → बड़ी (fem. sg.) → बड़े (masc. pl.) → बड़ी (fem. pl.) — so this agreement layer isn't a new concept, just a new set of endings layered onto adjectives that, unlike Hindi's, always follow the noun by default. Adjectives that don't end in -आ, in both languages, often stay invariant or follow their own smaller patterns.
Common irregular patterns
heureux → heureuse, actif → active, bon → bonne, beau/bel → belle, vieux/vieil → vieille
ख़ुश, सक्रिय, अच्छा, सुंदर, बूढ़ा — इनमें से कुछ हिंदी में भी असामान्य रूप से बदलते हैं
A set of endings has predictable irregular feminine forms in French: -eux → -euse (heureux → heureuse), -if → -ive (actif → active), -on → -onne (bon → bonne). beau ('handsome/beautiful') and vieux ('old') are more irregular still, with a special masculine form (bel, vieil) used only before a vowel-starting masculine noun: un bel homme, un vieil ami. Hindi's own irregular agreement patterns are smaller in number but exist too, so French simply has a larger, messier set of sound-based irregular patterns to memorize than Hindi does for the equivalent meanings.
Most adjectives follow the noun in French — the opposite of Hindi's default
une voiture rouge (a red car) but un joli garçon (a pretty boy)
एक लाल कार — हिंदी हमेशा विशेषण को संज्ञा से पहले रखती है
The default position for French adjectives is after the noun (une voiture rouge), unlike Hindi, which — like English — always puts the adjective before the noun: एक लाल कार, 'a red car', लाल comes first. A short list of very common French adjectives break the after-the-noun default and go before instead — remembered with the acronym BAGS: Beauty (joli, beau), Age (jeune, vieux, nouveau), Goodness (bon, mauvais), Size (grand, petit, gros). These BAGS adjectives are actually the cases where French word order finally matches what Hindi does automatically for every adjective — so it's worth flipping your expectation: BAGS is 'normal' by Hindi standards, and everything else in French is the exception you need to consciously flip around.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
- Hindi
- बड़ा/बड़ीbaṛā/baṛī
- English
- big / tall (masc./fem.)
- Hindi
- ख़ुशkhuś
- English
- happy (masc./fem.)
- Hindi
- सक्रियsakriya
- English
- active (masc./fem.)
- Hindi
- अच्छा/अच्छीacchā/acchī
- English
- good (masc./fem.)
- Hindi
- सुंदरsundar
- English
- handsome, beautiful (masc./fem./masc. before vowel)
- Hindi
- बूढ़ा/बूढ़ीbūṛhā/būṛhī
- English
- old (masc./fem./masc. before vowel)
- Hindi
- नया/नईnayā/naī
- English
- new (masc./fem./masc. before vowel)
- Hindi
- एक सुंदर लड़काek sundar laṛkā
- English
- a pretty boy
- Hindi
- एक लाल कारek lāl kār
- English
- a red car