Describe places: common irregular and pre-nominal adjectives
Learning outcomes
I can describe a French town using pre-nominal and common irregular adjectives.
I can distinguish the hard [c] with the soft [c] sound and the SSC [ç].
Describe places: common irregular and pre-nominal adjectives
Learning outcomes
I can describe a French town using pre-nominal and common irregular adjectives.
I can distinguish the hard [c] with the soft [c] sound and the SSC [ç].
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- The letter 'c' is naturally soft (sounds like 's') before 'e' or 'i'. It is hard (sounds like k) before 'a', 'o' or 'u'.
- The 'c' is sometimes softened before 'a', 'o' or 'u' with a cedilla: 'ç'.
- Many adjectives add an 'e' in the feminine form. Some adjectives are irregular in the feminine e.g. beau (m), belle (f).
- Most adjectives come after the noun in French: 'un livre intéressant'.
- Some adjectives go before the noun. These adjectives refer to beauty, age, good/bad and size (BAGS): 'un vieux vélo'.
Keywords
[c] - makes a soft sound (like 's') before 'e' or 'i': 'ici', makes a hard sound (like 'k') before 'a', 'o' and 'u': canard
[ç] - makes a soft sound before 'a', 'o' or 'u', pronounced as in 'français'
Irregular feminine adjective - an adjective in the feminine form that does not follow the regular pattern: 'beau' (m), 'belle' (f)
Pre-nominal adjective - a BAGS adjective (beauty, age, good/bad or size) that goes before the noun: 'un vieux vélo'
Common misconception
All adjectives go after the noun in French, the opposite to the word order of nouns and adjectives in English.
Most adjectives do go after the noun in French, however some adjectives go before the noun, these are pre-nominal adjectives. They refer to age, beauty, goodness and size (BAGS).
To help you plan your year 7 french lesson on: Describe places: common irregular and pre-nominal adjectives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 7 french lesson on: Describe places: common irregular and pre-nominal adjectives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
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Explore more key stage 3 french lessons from the Paris and Nice: adjective placement unit, dive into the full secondary french curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
beach
road, street
cinema
cafe
shop
boat

Exit quiz
6 Questions
a building
a bridge
a garden
a church
old
new
tall, high
beautiful
good