French agreement has a long tail. You settled the main body of it long ago â adjectives, past participles with ĂȘtre, the preceding-COD rule with avoir. What is left is a set of roughly a dozen words that agree sometimes, according to what job they are doing in the sentence: tout, mĂȘme, quelque, tel, demi, nu, ci-joint, the numerals, the colours.
This is the material of the French dictée, of every concours, and of the moment a French colleague glances at your email and decides whether you write well. It is finite. Learn it once.
| Job | Agrees? | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Determiner (all, the whole) | yes | toute la journée · tous les jours · toutes mes amies |
| Pronoun (everything, everyone) | yes | Tous sont venus. · Toutes le savent. |
| Adverb (= quite, entirely) | normally no | Ils sont tout étonnés. · Elle parle tout bas. |
Adverbial tout is invariable â except before a feminine adjective beginning with a consonant or an h aspirĂ©, where it agrees for purely euphonic reasons:
Elle est tout Ă©tonnĂ©e. (vowel â invariable)
Elle est toute surprise. (consonant â agrees)
Elles sont toutes honteuses. (h aspirĂ© â agrees)
And two fixed traps: tout autre chose = quite another thing (adverb), but toute autre solution = any other solution (determiner). Tous les deux, tout le monde, en tout cas are frozen.
| Position | Meaning | Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| Before the noun | the same | agrees â les mĂȘmes erreurs |
| After a noun or pronoun | -self, very | agrees, hyphenated â eux-mĂȘmes, les enfants mĂȘmes |
| Adverb | even | invariable â mĂȘme les enfants sont venus |
Lesson 1 met these as subjunctive structures. Here is the agreement side.
| Form | Meaning | Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| quelque + noun | some | agrees in number â quelques amis |
| quelque + numeral | about, some | invariable â quelque cent personnes |
| quelque + adjective + que | however | invariable â quelque grands quâils soient |
| quel que + ĂȘtre | whatever | quel agrees with the following subject â quelles que soient les raisons |
| Word | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| tel | agrees with what follows (comparison) | Il a fondu telle une cire. |
| tel que | agrees with what precedes | des fruits tels que la pomme |
| leur (possessive) | agrees in number with the thing owned | leurs affaires · leur maison |
| leur (pronoun) | invariable | Je leur ai parlé. |
| demi before the noun | invariable, hyphenated | une demi-heure |
| demi after the noun | agrees in gender only | deux heures et demie |
| nu / mi before | invariable, hyphenated | nu-pieds · à mi-chemin |
| nu after | agrees | les pieds nus |
Before the noun it is treated as an adverb and stays invariable; after the noun it is an adjective and agrees.
Ci-joint la facture. â enclosed, the invoice.
Vous trouverez la facture ci-jointe. â you will find the enclosed invoice.
Ci-joint les documents demandĂ©s. â invariable, because it opens the sentence.
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| vingt and cent take -s when multiplied AND final | quatre-vingts ans · deux cents pages |
| no -s when another numeral follows | quatre-vingt-deux · deux cent dix |
| mille is always invariable | deux mille euros |
| millier, million, milliard are nouns and agree | trois millions dâhabitants |
| ordinal use is invariable | page quatre-vingt · lâan mil neuf cent |
| Type | Agreement | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple adjective | agrees | des robes vertes |
| Noun used as a colour | invariable | des robes orange, marron, or |
| Compound colour | invariable | des yeux bleu clair, vert foncé |
| Two colours joined | invariable, hyphenated | des drapeaux bleu-blanc-rouge |
| The exceptions | agree anyway | roses, mauves, pourpres, fauves, Ă©carlates |
The subtlest rule in the set, and the one that appears most often in exams.
| Participle | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| fait + infinitive | always invariable | Je les ai fait venir. |
| laissé + infinitive | agrees if the object does the action (1990: may stay invariable) | Je les ai laissés partir. |
| vu, entendu + infinitive | agrees if the object does the action | Je les ai vus partir. / Les airs que jâai entendu jouer. |
| dĂ», pu, voulu | invariable when the infinitive is understood | Jâai fait tous les efforts que jâai pu. |
Most of these rules are silent on the ear and visible only on the page â which is exactly why they are hard. A few, though, you can hear, and hearing them fixes them. Read this set aloud.
| French | Pronunciation | What the agreement does |
|---|---|---|
| toute la journĂ©e | toot lah zhoor-NAY | determiner â audible t |
| elles sont tout Ă©tonnĂ©es | el sohn too-tay-to-NAY | adverb before a vowel â invariable |
| elles sont toutes surprises | el sohn toot sĂŒr-PREEZ | adverb before a consonant â agrees |
| quelles que soient les raisons | kel kuh swah lay ray-ZOHN | quel agrees with the following noun |
| une demi-heure | ĂŒn duh-mee-UHR | before the noun â invariable |
| deux heures et demie | duh zuhr ay duh-MEE | after the noun â agrees in gender |
| quatre-vingts ans | kah-truh-van ZAHN | the liaison betrays the plural -s |
| deux cents pages | duh sahn PAHZH | multiplied and final â takes the -s |
| je les ai fait venir | zhuh lay zay fay vuh-NEER | fait invariable before an infinitive |
| je les ai vus partir | zhuh lay zay vĂŒ par-TEER | vu agrees â they do the leaving |
| Pair | How to choose |
|---|---|
| quoique / quoi que | = bien que â one word. = peu importe ce que â two. |
| plutĂŽt / plus tĂŽt | = rather â plutĂŽt. Opposite of plus tard â plus tĂŽt. |
| quand / quant Ă / quâen | = when â quand. = as for â quant Ă . = what of it â quâen. |
| sa / ça / çà | possessive / this-that / the fixed çà et là . |
| leur / leurs | Pronoun before a verb â always leur. |
| peu / peut / peux | Try pouvait: if it works, it is the verb. |
| prĂšs / prĂȘt | prĂšs de + noun (near). prĂȘt Ă + infinitive (ready). |
Look up a video of the French DictĂ©e des champions or Bernard Pivot's Dicos d'or and take the dictation yourself. You will meet every rule on this page in four paragraphs, and the humiliation is instructive â native adults score badly on it too.
These rules carry real social weight in France. Agreement errors in a professional email are noticed, and the Certificat Voltaire â a commercial spelling exam â is now listed on French CVs precisely because employers treat orthography as a proxy for rigour. The 1990 reform made laissĂ© + infinitive optionally invariable, but the older agreeing form remains commoner in careful writing.
Québec applies the same rules and teaches them at least as rigorously; provincial ministry exams test them explicitly. Québec was, however, quicker than France to adopt the 1990 rectifications in school materials and in government style guides, so a Québécois text is somewhat more likely to write maitre and cout without the circumflex. Both spellings are correct on both sides of the Atlantic.
Write tout, toute, tous or toutes.
1. Why does toute agree in elle est toute surprise but not in elle est tout étonnée?
2. Which is correct?
3. Quatre-vingt-deux has no -s on vingt because: