4. The Determinative Adjectives include The Article le, etc. The Adjective Pronouns mon, ce, etc. 5. The Articles have special forms for gender, le, la; number, le les; case, le, du, au. 6. The Adjective Pronouns have special forms for gender, mon, ma; number, mon, mes. 7. A few Numeral Adjectives have special gender or number forms: un, une; vingt, quatre-vingts; premier, première. ARTICLES. § 146. The Article is a kind of Determinative Adjective. The Articles are divided into DEFINITE and INDEFINITE. To prevent two vowel sounds from coming together, when the next word begins with vowel or silent h— FORMATION OF FEMININE IN ADJECTIVES. § 147. Unless the masculine already ends in e unaccented, that letter is added to it: clair, claire. But changes are often made before the e is added: I. If the Masculine ends (a) In f, the f is changed into v: neuf, neuve. (b) In x, the x is changed into s: glorieux, glorieuse. But vieux, old, has vieille, from vieil. doux, sweet, has douce. roux, reddish, has rousse. (c) In -eur the r is changed into s: trompeur, trompeuse. (1) The following comparatives simply add e mute: (d) In -ien, -eil, -as,† -on, the consonant is doubled: * Words in -teur are really substantives. This older form is now only employed before a vowel or h unaspi rated, to avoid hiatus: un bel homme, un nouvel accident. † Ras only has rase. (e) In -et the consonant is usually doubled: muet, muette.* But an accent is put instead in the following words: *(ƒ) In -er an accent is put: cher, chère, dear. II. The following Adjectives, by modifying the ending, try to keep the sound of the masculine : III. The following Adjectives have che in the feminine : IV. The following Adjectives have -t in the feminine: * Compare Verbs. † Franc, the proper name, has franque. (§ 205.) PLURAL IN ADJECTIVES AND SUBSTANTIVES. § 148. Plural of ordinary Adjectives and Substantives. GENERAL RULE, The letter s is added to the singular. SPECIAL RULES AND EXCEPTIONS. (1) If the singular ends in -s, -X, -Z, no change is needed. -al, the al is changed into aux. (4) The singular of yeux, eyes, is œil. aïeux, ancestors, is aïeul. cieux, heavens, is ciel. travaux, works, is travail. $149. Plural of Words taken Substantively. Verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc., used substantively, remain unchanged under all circumstances,† ex. : Les qui, les oui, les ouï-dire, les rendez-vous. * Except bleu, bleus, feu, late feus (rare). Such words are always masculine. (See § 158.) § 150. Plural of Proper Names. (1) In French a proper name as SUCH is incapable of plural: Les deux Corneille. (2) In imitation of the Latin, the plural form is given to a few names of families; as, Les Horaces (Horatii), les Gracques (Gracchi), les Bourbons, les Stuarts, etc. (3) A proper name may be accidentally employed as a common substantive, and can then take a plural: Il y a plusieurs Raphaëls au Louvre. There are several Raphaels in the Louvre (i.e., paintings). § 151. Plural of Foreign Words. When a foreign word (or whatever part of speech it may originally have been) has become thoroughly naturalized as a noun, it takes the marks of the plural according to the rules which are usual in the language into which it is adopted. Hence the difficulty reduces itself to deciding whether the word is naturalized or not (§ 141). In the following list will be found most of those words about which there may be doubt in French. * Duplicata, agenda, errata, lazzi, macaroni, are plural words which have been naturalized in French as nouns of the singular number. Concetti and dilettanti are similarly employed, but are not so established. |