KS2 · French · Year 4

Describe what you have: adjectives after the noun

People, places, things: adjective agreement, subject pronouns 'it'

Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.

IllumED Slides

Download lesson + answers ↓

IllumED · 1/11

Your learning goal

I can describe what I, you and others have using postnominal adjectives.

1 of 11

Describe what you have: adjectives after the noun: slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.

Original teaching resources

The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.

Download original PowerPoint ↓

What you’ll learn

I can describe what I, you and others have using postnominal adjectives.

Key learning points

Adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in French. They can be either masculine or feminine.
Regular feminine adjectives add an -e: une voiture lente. This is a SFe (silent final e).
In English, adjectives come before the noun: 'a grey bike'.
In French, most adjectives go after the noun: 'un vélo gris'. These are called postnominal adjectives.
'J'ai' means 'I have' and 'tu as' means 'you have'. These are singular forms of the verb 'avoir'.

Words to know

SFe: silent final e at the end of a word
feminine adjective: form of an adjective that describes a girl, woman or feminine noun (regular adjectives add an -e in the feminine form)
postnominal adjective: adjective which comes after the noun in French, e.g. 'un vélo gris'
avoir: French infinitive verb meaning 'to have, having'

Common mistakes

'Il a' and 'il y a' sound similar and can be confused.

'Il a' and 'il y a', despite sounding similar, are in fact different and have different meanings. 'Il a' means 'he has', 'il y a' means 'there is' or 'there are'.

For parents, carers and teachers

Use realia in the classroom to describe nouns using postnominal adjectives.