The position of adjectives within a sentence in French

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The position of adjectives within a sentence

For the most part, adjectives are placed after the noun.
Une maison bleue a blue house
Un film étranger a foreign film
However, we put the adjective before the noun when describing the following:

• Beauty
Une jolie femme a pretty woman
De beaux bébés some beautiful babies
• Age
Un vieil homme an old man
Des nouvelles chaussures some new shoes
• Things we can count
La deuxième fois the second time
Le dernier métro the last metro
• Things that are qualified as good or bad
Un mauvais souvenir Aa bad memory
La meilleure idée the best idea
• Size
Une grande maison a large house
Une minuscule erreur a tiny mistake
Notes:

• Adjectives with more than three syllables are always placed after the noun.
Un film extraordinaire an amazing film
Un parfum malodorant a foul smell
• Some adjectives change their meaning according to their placement.

Un grand homme = un homme illustre mais un homme grand = un homme de grande taille (notez que cet usage de grand ne s'applique qu'aux personnes) Un grand homme a grand/illustrious man and un homme grand a large man (note: the change in the meaning of grand only applies when describing people)
La semaine dernière = la semaine précédente mais la dernière semaine = l'ultime semaine (il n’y en aura pas d’autres après) La semaine dernière last week and la dernière semaine the final week (there won't be others afterwards)

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