KS2 · French · Year 6
School: 'ils, elles ont' and 'ils, elles sont'
School: 'avoir', 'être' , 'il y a' and regular verbs in the present
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/10
Your learning goal
I can use 'ils, elles ont' and 'ils, elles sont' with a range of adjectives to write sentences describing my school.
1 of 10
School: 'ils, elles ont' and 'ils, elles sont': 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 use 'ils, elles ont' and 'ils, elles sont' with a range of adjectives to write sentences describing my school.
Key learning points
- An adjective must agree with the gender of the noun it describes; this is called adjective agreement.
- Most adjectives end in -e in the feminine form, but some are irregular like 'beau' (beautiful) which becomes 'belle'.
- To express 'they have' use 'ils ont' or 'elles ont'. To express 'they are' use 'ils sont' or 'elles sont'.
- Adjectives must also agree with the noun in number; many add -s in the masculine plural form and -es in the feminine.
- Some common adjectives are irregular in the plural: 'vieux' and 'mauvais' stay the same and 'beau' becomes 'beaux'.
Words to know
- adjective agreement
- when the ending of an adjective matches the noun it describes in gender and number
- ils, elles ont
- ‘they have’ in French
- ils, elles sont
- ‘they are’ in French
Common mistakes
All adjectives add -e in the feminine form, -s in the masculine plural form and -es in the feminine plural.
Many common adjectives like 'vieux' (old) 'beau' (beautiful) and 'bon' (good) are irregular and don't follow this exact pattern. We have to learn their different forms by heart.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Colour-coding is very helpful to assist students in understanding adjective agreement in French. They could be encouraged to colour code nouns and adjectives according to their gender in their exercise books.