Unité 2: Il est comment?
Il est comment?
Aussprache: ei and ie
 
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Activité 18Listen to Marie describing her father and mother in response to the question Il/elle est comment? ('What is he/she like?') Which of the following adjectives do you hear used? Bitte schreiben Sie. Écoutez et cochez la bonne réponse. |
Describing physical characteristics using être
To describe people you can use être + an adjective.
Elle est belle - She is beautiful.
Il est gentil - He is kind.
Vous êtes grand - You are tall.
The adjective agrees in gender with the noun it goes with, such as a person or people being described. You already saw this when talking about nationalities.
In most cases, the adjective is made feminine by adding -e to the end. For example, Marie described her father as grand, but her mother as grande. These are the masculine and feminine forms of the word for 'tall'.
Il est grand.
Elle est grande.
In the masculine form of the adjective, the final consonant (e.g. -d, -s) is silent. In the feminine form it is sounded because it is followed by an -e. Listen again to Marie to hear the difference between grand and grande.
Some adjectives do not behave this way. Some change altogether in the feminine form:
Beau becomes belle.
Others take a double consonant and then an -e:
Gros becomes grosse.
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Activité 19Take a look at this table and try to match the masculine and feminine forms of the adjectives, together with their meaning. At the moment they are all mixed up. Listen to them being spoken and hear where there are differences. |
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Activité 20Now practise pronouncing masculine and feminine adjectives. Listen to the audio clip. You will hear someone describing Georges using these adjectives. In the pauses, describe Marie using the same adjective put into the feminine. You will then hear the model answer.
Exemple Vous écoutez: Georges est grand Vous dites: Marie est grande Vous écoutez: Marie est grande Which adjective in this exercise sounds the same in the masculine and feminine forms? |
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Activité 21Look at the cartoons below and see if you can guess which physical characteristic matches which cartoon. |
Describing physical characteristics using avoir
Using avoir + un/une/des:
Il a un grand nez - He's got a big nose.
Pascal a des taches de rousseur - Pascal has freckles.
Using avoir + le/la/les + noun + adjective:
J'ai le visage rond - I have a round face.
Il a le menton pointu - He has a pointed chin.
You may have noticed that the position of the adjective may vary. Normally adjectives are placed after the noun, but the following are normally placed before the noun: bon(ne), grand(e), petit(e), joli(e), beau (belle), gentil(le), gros(se), jeune, long (longue), mauvais(e), vieux (vieille).