General

There are four declension classes for adjectives and participles used as adjectives (see Table 2). The flexions should be compared with those for nouns (Table 1).

The uninflected neuter is used in the singular only, to qualify neuter pronouns, phrases or clauses:

The stressed -e in past participles in -ez, -éṭ > é and -eḍe > ee was pronounced [é:], while the corresponding stressed diphthong -ie = [ié]. An accent is nowadays placed on -(i)é and -(i)éṭ to avoid confusion with forms ending in a weak e (see § 11.2a and note; §12.1). Later final -z became -s (§39.3), e.g. chantez > chantés, and this stressed ending -(i)és is accented nowadays as well.

The Class 1 adjective tot (all) has an irregular masculine NP tuit. Since this adjective is frequently used, it has been added in Table 2.

Examples of adjectives belonging to Classes 11, m and iv are listed in Appendix A.

See the vocabulary on p. 32 for the meaning of OFr words in this chapter.

Class I

Most adjectives and all past participles belong to this class. The inflexions are those of Class 1 (M) or (F) nouns.

The feminine form adds a weak e (bon / bone, chante / chantee) except in a few cases where the masculine already ends in a weak e, as in malade (see also §49 below). The modified (F) form chanteḍe is explained in §48.