# FR: making a verb into an adjective



## etudian

Hi, everyone. I have a general grammar question.

In English a verb can be turned into an adjective by adding "ing." For example, "reading list," "parking place," "flying saucer," "hearing aid," "listening comprehension," "writing skill," etc. Is there a general rule in French to turn a verb into an adjective like that?

Merci.


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## carolineR

hélas non, c'est bien pour ça que l'anglais est plus souple que le français...


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## frenchaudrey

Hi. Unfortunately this is no general rule of that kind. You can form adjectives out of verbs by using different endings like "-able" for example. But as a French person I'm not aware of all existing grammar rules.
Hope you'll find a solution


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## Michmuch

Hi
No there is no rule but you can try to use the prsent participle as the english way but it doesn't work everytime.


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## Opticrom

The _-ing_ suffix doesn't really turn a verb into an adjective as such, but a gerund (a verbal noun), which can then be agglutinated (a bit like in German, I think) to form a sort of _ad hoc_ compound noun. As French is not an agglutinative language, this has to be done with chains of _de_ and _a_ etc.

However, "flying sauce" is different, as this is a present participle, which functions in a similar way to an adjective, but not quite (think - you can't say "the flyingest/more flying saucer") - it has different distributional properties. In this case, I think French would say (lacking the vocab...) "un _saucer_ qui _flies_", if you see what I mean.]

Hope that helps


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## french4beth

Hmm... but if we take a French verb and add "_-ant_" as in "_cerf volant_" wouldn't this be similar to an English gerund?

She's annoying.    _Elle est fatiguante [fatiguer + -ant]._
While shopping, I saw my neighbor.  _En faisant les courses [faire + -ant], j'ai vu mon voisin._


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## Opticrom

Yeah, I suppose there are plenty of adjectives like "annoying" or "interesting" which end in -ing, but the question didn't seem to concern that. And I believe an English gerund is defined as a verbal noun, i.e. I like _swimming_. You can say "I like _annoying_".


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## Opticrom

....and regarding the while+participle - that's yet another kettle of fish. I suppose this is why English can seem so mad to those learning it, as the -ing ending can mean so many different things.


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## etudian

Thank you very much for your quick replies!  "Flying saucer" was a bad example.  I was looking for a loose and convenient way of conneting a verb with a noun, but maybe it's not really allowed in French!  It helps a lot just to know it.

Merci beaucoup!


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## geve

Welcome to this forum, etudian.
As Opticrom said, I think you must distinguish how the gerund is used.
In most of your sample sentences, we would not translate the gerund by an adjective in French, we would use a substantive instead, in the cases where you could replace the gerund in English by "noun+to+verb":
_reading list = a list of things to read = une liste de lecture(s)_
_parking place = a place to park = une place de parking_
_writing skill = the skill to write = la capacité d'écriture/à écrire_ 

Except when there's a corresponding adjective:
_hearing aid = une aide auditive maybe?_
_listening comprehension = compréhension orale_

And with flying saucer you can use the present participle as has been said:
_flying saucer = a saucer that is flying = une soucoupe volante_



			
				french4beth said:
			
		

> She's annoying. _Elle est fatiguante [fatiguer + -ant]._


Ah-ha! Beth, welcome to the club of people-who-didn't-know-there-were-two-spellings-for-fatig(u)ant (see my confession in this thread)


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## etudian

Yes, Opticrom and geve actually gave the answer I was looking for!  So the rule of thumb would be to look for a noun version of the verb and use "de+noun version" to postmodify the noun unless there are better alternatives, right?

Thanks again!


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## justin

Another exception would be 'étoile filante'. "shooting star". And in Louisiana they call a "skunk" a 'bête puante', otherwise 'bête', when used alone means "cattle", (des bêtes) and  "head of cattle": 'tête de bête', "head of cattle".


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## JDnCoke

french4beth said:


> Hmm... but if we take a French verb and add "_-ant_" as in "_cerf volant_" wouldn't this be similar to an English gerund?
> 
> She's annoying.    _Elle est fatiguante [fatiguer + -ant]._
> While shopping, I saw my neighbor.  _En faisant les courses [faire + -ant], j'ai vu mon voisin._



In terms of basic French and not taking it to the absurdly complicated levels of gerunds etc. this seems logical?

I'd agree anyway :|.


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## tinsel

etudian said:


> Yes, Opticrom and geve actually gave the answer I was looking for! So the rule of thumb would be to look for a noun version of the verb and use "de+noun version" to postmodify the noun unless there are better alternatives, right?
> 
> Thanks again!


 
Voila - l'idee dont je cherchais beaucoup! 

Peut-on dire: Ils ecrivent --> ils font de l'ecriture.

-ils draguent - -> ils font de la drague.

- Ils essaient de ne pas ecrire -> Ils tentent d'eviter l'ecriture. 

Ce travail exige beaucoup -> ce travail est exigeant.

elle agace - elle est agacant?

Merci d'avance!

Xx


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