How to use indefinite adjectives in French?

Indefinite adjectives are used to give an indication about an imprecise quantity of people or things: quelques amis (meaning a few friends), plusieurs manifestants (meaning several protesters), toutes les roses (meaning all the roses).

Do you know which indefinite adjectives are always followed by a plural noun? Or which indefinite adjectives are invariable or variable? In this post, we’ll review the invariable French indefinite adjectives, as well as the few variable indefinite adjectives. Let’s take a look.

Use an indefinite adjective in French for the purpose of describing an entity without being too specific. Indefinite adjectives are words like “a few,” “each,” or “all” in English. You can use indefinite adjectives to express a vague quantity, as with quelques (meaning some, a few).

In all cases, the noun expressing the entity always follows the indefinite adjective.

If there is not a noun after the indefinite adjective, then what you’re looking at is probably a French indefinite pronoun! Indefinite pronouns replace nouns, but indefinite adjectives describe them. Now that you know the difference, let’s get into the details!

There are differences in the French indefinite adjectives, as some are invariable and some agree with the noun that follows. First let’s take a look at the invariable ones.

The invariable indefinite adjectives in French are chaque, quelques, and plusieurs. “Invariable” indefinite adjectives are adjectives where there is no agreement with the noun they modify. This means that the spelling remains the same for masculine or feminine nouns. The invariable French indefinite adjectives will always be singular (chaque) or plural (quelques, plusieurs), so you won’t need to worry about changing the number of the adjective either. Let’s take a look at chaque first!

• Chaque (meaning each, every) expresses a total: it represents all the elements of a total, but taken separately. It is always followed by a singular noun.

  indefinite adjectivenoun

  Il faut que chaque candidat complète le formulaire de candidature.

  Translation: Each candidate must complete the application form.

• Quelques (meaning some, a few) and plusieurs (meaning several) express a vague quantity. They are always followed by a plural noun.

  indefinite adjectivenoun

  Dans ce musée, on peut voir quelques tableaux de Claude Monet.

  Translation: In this museum, you can see some paintings by Claude Monet.

That’s it for the invariable indefinite adjectives. The majority of indefinite adjectives agree with the noun. Let’s see how this works.

Most of the French indefinite adjectives are variable, meaning they have to agree in either gender (with singular nouns) or in gender and number (with plural nouns). The French indefinite adjective aucun(e) (meaning none, not any) is always followed by a singular noun, so it only agrees in gender. Let’s take a look:

• Aucun / aucune (meaning none, not any) expresses a quantity of zero. It is always singular, but will agree with the gender of the noun: aucun for a masculine noun and aucune for a feminine noun.

  feminine

  Fabien a sauté du plongeoir sans aucune hésitation.

  Translation: Fabien jumped off the diving board without any hesitation.

Other indefinite adjectives in French can only be followed with plural nouns:

• Divers (meaning various, numerous) is only followed by a plural noun. Can you guess its feminine form? The answer is in the example below.

  feminine

  Diverses études l’ont prouvé !

  Translation: Various studies proved it!

Now, it’s time to look at the French indefinite adjectives that agree both in gender and number with the noun and can accompany both singular or plural and masculine or feminine nouns. We’ll look at two: tout (meaning all, every) and certain (meaning some, certain).

• tout (meaning all, the whole, every)

  Tout is the most famous of all indefinite adjectives that agree in gender and number with the noun. It represents a quantity as a whole.

  Form of tout	Example
  tout + masculine singular noun	Il aurait acheté tout le magasin. Translation: He would have bought the entire shop!
  toute + feminine singular noun	J’ai toute la collection de cartes des joueurs de l’équipe de France de foot. Translation: I have the whole collection of cards of the French football team.
  tous + masculine plural noun	On a classé tous les documents. Translation: We have filed all the documents.
  toutes + feminine plural noun	Toutes les invitations sont envoyées. Translation: All the invitations are sent out.

  As you can see in the above examples, you must always use a definite article (le, la, les), a demonstrative adjective (ce, cette, ...) or a possessive adjective (mon, ton, ...) before the noun when using tout:

  Tous les hommes portaient un costume.

  Translation: All the men wore suits.

  You can also use tout with a time expression to indicate how often something happens:

  Tous les mardis, je fais du yoga. 🧘

  Translation: Every Tuesday, I do yoga.

  Note that tout can also be used as an adverb in French.

• Certain(e) / certain(e)s can be followed by both plural and singular nouns and will always agree in gender and number with that noun.

  • The singular form, certain(e) takes various meanings, depending on the type of noun it modifies (much like the word “certain + singular noun” in English!)

    • In front of a proper noun, it means we don’t really know who a person is:

      proper noun

      Un certain M. Schmidt a appelé.

      Translation: A certain Mr Schmidt called.

    • With an abstract noun, it means a rather high quantity:

      abstract noun

      C’était un homme d’un certain âge.

      Translation: It was a man of a certain age.

    • Before a common noun, it helps us distinguish someone or something specific from a whole:

      common noun

      À un certain moment, j’ai cru qu’il allait s’énerver.

      Translation: At a certain time, I thought he was going to get angry.

  • The plural form, certains (meaning some, certain) is used to express an imprecise quantity. It is always followed by a plural noun and its feminine form is certaines.

    noun

    Certaines personnes ne regardent que des documentaires.

    Translation: Some people only watch documentaries.

Head to the list of French indefinite adjectives to discover even more indefinite adjectives with examples of how to use them in a sentence.

You are now ready to use indefinite adjectives! Don’t forget to read the recap and practice your indefinite adjective skills with some exercises!

When you use indefinite adjectives in French, keep the following tips in mind:

• Indefinite adjectives are useful to give an imprecise quantity of people or things.

• Indefinite adjectives are always placed before the noun.

• Chaque (meaning each) can only be followed by a singular noun.

• Quelques (meaning some, a few) and plusieurs (meaning several) are only followed by plural nouns.

• Some indefinite adjectives agree in gender only: aucun / aucune (meaning none, not any), divers / diverses (meaning various).

• Some agree in gender and number: tout / toute / tous / toutes (meaning all), certain / certaine / certains / certaines (meaning some, certain).