🅶 Singulier et pluriel – Singular and plural
Comment rendre les noms français pluriels ?
How do you make French nouns plural?
Écrit par / Written by: Anthony Lucas
Dernière révision / Last revision: Thursday 7 December 2023
We are talking here about the singular and plural versions of nouns. Most of the time you need to add a final “s” to make a noun plural in French. But as you know, the French language is full of surprises 😉
La règle générale de transformation des noms au pluriel en français – The general rule for transforming nouns into the plural in French
For nouns and adjectives, the general rule is to add a s at the end of word when it is plural. Let’s see some examples:
➜ There is a dedicated lesson about The place and agreement of adjectives, this is why in this lesson we will talk mainly about nouns.
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| une télévision | des télévisions | a television – televisions | ||
| un grand appartement | des grands appartements | a big apartment – bigs apartments | ||
| la ville | les villes | the city – cities | ||
| ma petite soeur | mes petites soeurs | my little sister – my little sisters |
Que se passe-t-il lorsqu’un nom se termine par un “s” au singulier ? – What happens when a noun ends with an “s” in the singular?
When a noun already ends with a -s, -z or -x when it is singular, there is no need to add an extra s for the plural version:
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| un pays | des pays | a country – countries | ||
| le gaz | les gaz | the gas – the gases |
Règles secondaires pour le pluriel des noms en français – Secondary rules for the plural of nouns in French
The point at this stage of your learning process is not to remember all the different cases but to get a big picture of what you can encounter in the French grammar. Here are some interesting cases for common words:
For most of the nouns ending with –ail, the plural is –aux.
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| un travail | des travaux | a work – works | ||
| le bail | les baux | the lease – the leases |
For singular nouns ending with –al, plural nouns in French end with –aux.
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| un cheval | des chevaux | a horse – horses | ||
| un journal | des journaux | a newspaper – newspapers |
7 nouns ending in –ou have a plural in French in –oux
Here are the most common ones:
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| un bijou | des bijoux | a jewel – jewellery | ||
| un chou | des choux | a cabbage – cabbages | ||
| un genou | des genoux | a knee – knees |
Singular nouns ending by –eu, –au or –eau will have an extra x when becoming plural.
| 🇫🇷 Français singulier | 🇫🇷 Français pluriel | 🇬🇧 Anglais | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| un cheveu | des cheveux | a hair – hair | ||
| un manteau | des manteaux | a coat – coats | ||
| un chapeau | des chapeaux | a hat – hats |
Fais particulièrement attention quand ta langue maternelle est l’anglais ! – Be particularly careful when your mother tongue is English!
Nouns that are plural in English but singular in French
| 🇫🇷 French | 🇬🇧 English | |
|---|---|---|
| l’actualité | news | |
| un escalier | stairs | |
| un jean | jeans | |
| un pantalon | trousers | |
| un pyjama | pyjamas |
Nouns that are singular in English but plural in French
| 🇫🇷 French | 🇬🇧 English | |
|---|---|---|
| des conseils | advice | |
| des spectateurs | audience | |
| les bagages | baggage, luggage | |
| les affaires | business | |
| les meubles | furniture | |
| les cheveux | hair | |
| les devoirs | homework | |
| des pâtes | pasta | |
| les transports | transportation |
À RETENIR
WORTH REMEMBERING
If you just want to remember the basics, then just remember to add an “s” to the plural noun
(unless the singular word already has a final “s”).
Scroll down and…
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