Describing one or several objects in French

Level A1

Describing one or several objects in French

Describe a book, a table and a chair, then imagine several of each. The central idea is agreement: the article, the pronoun, the verb and the describing word fit the noun’s gender and number, even when an ending is silent.

Three familiar objects

Livre means book and is masculine: un livre, le livre; table means table and chaise means chair, both feminine: une table, la table; une chaise, la chaise. This is grammatical gender, not the sex of an object, so learn the noun with its article. C’est un livre means “It’s a book”: c’est introduces an identification. Où est le livre ? asks “Where is the book?”, and Il est sur la table means “It’s on the table”; sur means on. Here il refers back to livre, and est means is: listen to the five examples before adding a description.

A book, some books; the book, the books

Use un with a masculine singular noun and une with a feminine singular noun to introduce one item; des introduces an unspecified plural group. The first three audio lines say “a book, some books”, “a table, some tables” and “a chair, some chairs”. English can simply say books, but French normally keeps des in these labels.

Use le, la or les when the listener can identify which item or group you mean: le livre, la table, la chaise; les livres, les tables, les chaises. Les and des work with both genders. In these three nouns, the written plural adds -s, but livre/livres, table/tables and chaise/chaises sound alike; listen for the article to hear the number. Compare un with des and le with les: the change is audible even though the noun’s final -s is silent.

un / une / des … → le / la / les …

Describe it: il est or elle est

Petite in La chaise est petite means small: “The chair is small.” Once you have named the object, use il for masculine livre and elle for feminine table or chaise, where English uses it for all three. Est stays the same: il est, elle est.

The next four lines describe, in order, a small book, a small chair, a large book and a large table: Il est petit; Elle est petite; Il est grand; Elle est grande. Petit and grand become petite and grande with a feminine noun; the added -e also makes the final t or d audible here. There is no article before the adjective in this pattern: Elle est grande, not elle est une grande. Keep the subject il or elle in these complete sentences.

il / elle + est + petit / petite / grand / grande

Several objects: ils sont or elles sont

For several books, il est becomes ils sont; for several chairs or tables, elle est becomes elles sont. Ils and elles both mean they; elles refers to a group whose nouns are all feminine, while ils is used for masculine or mixed groups. Here each group contains only books, only chairs or only tables.

The four examples describe small books, small chairs, large books and large tables, in that order. Write petits, petites, grands and grandes: these regular plurals add -s to the singular adjective. In these sentences the final -s of the pronoun and adjective is silent, so il/ils and petit/petits sound alike; est versus sont gives you an audible singular/plural clue. Listen to each line, then say it with its object in mind.

ils / elles + sont + petits / petites / grands / grandes

See the endings

Read across each row to choose small or large for the noun shown. These two adjectives add -e for the feminine and -s for the plural: petite → petites, grand → grands, grande → grandes. For example, La chaise est grande means “The chair is large”; the table shows possible descriptions, not a fixed size for every chair. This chart is for spelling; the preceding examples provide the audio.

Object or groupSmallLarge
le livrepetitgrand
la chaisepetitegrande
les livrespetitsgrands
les chaisespetitesgrandes

Recognize exceptions; keep your first descriptions simple

These examples are for recognition only: cheval means horse, and its plural is chevaux, not chevals. Beau means beautiful, and its masculine plural is beaux, as in Les livres sont beaux (“The books are beautiful”); a plural is not always made by simply adding -s. In C’est un beau livre (“It’s a beautiful book”), beau comes before the noun, whereas rouge, red, follows it in C’est un livre rouge. Adjective position depends on the adjective, so do not apply one order to every describing word. For your own first descriptions, keep using il/elle est or ils/elles sont followed by the forms of petit or grand already practised.

Your turn: give three descriptions

Imagine a small book, a large table and several small chairs; each object or group has just been named. Before reading the answers, describe the book, the table and the chairs in that order, using a pronoun instead of repeating the noun. The three lines below are the answers: listen and check the pronoun, est or sont, and the adjective ending. Then change only the size: describe a large book, a small table and several large chairs using the earlier models.

Keep the whole description together

Introduce one or several objects with un/une/des; use le/la/les for identifiable ones. For the book use il est, for the table or chair elle est; several books become ils sont, several tables or chairs elles sont. Choose petit/petite/petits/petites or grand/grande/grands/grandes to match. Read the written endings, but listen for the article and est/sont to hear the number.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons