Déterminant + adjectif : la chaîne complète

Unité GR-41 · campagne 2 · le tableau des déterminants, maintenant avec un adjectif dans la chaîne.

The determiner tables (previous unit) assumed a bare noun. Real French inserts an adjective — before the noun for a small famous family (petit, grand, beau, nouveau, vieux, bon, joli…), after it for everything else — and the insertion bends three things: the determiner itself, the adjective's form, and the liaisons.

Adjective BEFORE the noun (masculine: petit avion, beau train)

Three effects to memorise:

1. des → de before a preposed plural adjective: des avions but de petits avions, de beaux avions, de bons amis.
2. The special vowel forms: beau → bel, nouveau → nouvel, vieux → vieil — only before a vowel-initial masculine noun (un bel avion, but un beau train and une belle école).
3. The adjective takes the liaison: petit‿avion [t], grand‿homme [t], grands‿avions [z] — the adjective's silent final consonant wakes up.

Adjective AFTER the noun (the default position)

Postposed adjectives keep des intact (des trains rapides), agree in writing always, and agree audibly only when the feminine adds a consonant sound (vert/verte, grand/grande, petit/petite) — rapide, rouge, jaune sound identical everywhere. That asymmetry is exactly what the next unit weaponises.

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