B'A'N'G'S'

1
B.A.N.G.S.
The Big

• Adjectives
• that
• PRECEDE
• the
• Noun
• they
• Describe

2

• Its more than just a theory
• Its the LAW!
• Find out how and why?

3
Qui?

• Think about a family member or classmate that you
  know well.
• How would you describe this person?
• Intelligent, young, kind, handsome or pretty,
  tall or short???
• Answer the following questions in space provided
  in your study packet

4
une description

• Cest une fille ou un garçon?
• Quel âge a-t-il / a-t-elle?
• Comment est-il / est-elle?
• Donnez 7-10 adjectifs français pour décrire cette
  personne
• 1. 6.
• 2. 7.
• 3. 8.
• 4. 9.
• 5. 10.
• Make sure to use the correct gender of
  adjectives to avoid insult and embarrassment

5
écrire

• Maintenant, using the adjectives that you have
  come up with, write several short descriptive
  phrases about this person.
• Par exemple, prenons ROY
• Ce nest pas un garçon gentil.
• Roy est un élève méchant.
• Il est jeune et petit.
• Il est brun.

6
un adjectif normal

• When you wrote these short phrases, where did you
  put the adjective that described the person?
• Before or after the noun? Where do must
  adjectives go in French? Circle the correct
  phrase for each set in your packet
• Une fille intelligente / une intelligente fille
• Un homme anglais / un anglais homme
• La voiture violette / la violette voiture
• Le livre intéressant / le intéressant livre
• Mes voisines chinoises / mes chinoises voisines

7
un adjectif normal

• So, where to most adjectives go in terms of the
  word that they are describing?
• Behind it, of course!
• You should have circled the phrase on the left
  side of the / mark for each exercise.
• Is this adjective placement similar to English?
• NOPE!
• Sounds simple, enough, right? Nothing you didnt
  already know.

8
Mais

• Just when you thought it was safe to nail down a
  solid grammatical rule in the French language
• Nine (and sometimes more!) exceptions rear their
  ugly heads! Oui! There are basically nine
  adjectives that precede the noun they modify!

Disclaimer There are other adjectives that
precede the noun in addition to the adjectives we
are discussing today, but well save that study
for French II IV.
9
the nature of the beasts

• To make things easier, lets just focus on the
  nine little monsters that surfaced last slide.
• Fortunately, these monsters are easily tackled
  and placed into categories, which makes
  identification much simpler.
• The grammar police have come up with a special
  acronym to assist regular civilians.
• This acronym is best known as

10
B.A.N.G.S.

• B beauty (2 adjectives)
• A age (2 adjectives)
• N newness (1 adjective)
• G goodness (2 adjectives)
• S size (2 adjectives)
• NOTE not all adjectives that are used to
  describe these features are part of the BANGS
  adjectives. Rather, it is just a simple way of
  categorizing the adjectives that DO come before
  the noun they are describing.

11
B.A.N.G.S.

• BANGS adjectives that precede the noun that
  they are describing.
• Actually, you already know most of them! In your
  study packet, list the adjectives that you think
  might fit under each category. Remember, there
  are 9 total.
• To keep it simple, just list the masculine
  singular forms.

12
B.A.N.G.S.
13
B.A.N.G.S.

• So, providing you didnt already jump ahead to
  the next few slides, check your guesses with the
  teacher and see how you did.

14
B.A.N.G.S.
Jaune indicates words you may not have known
prior to this chapter
15
B.A.N.G.S. and all their forms

• While classifying these monsters can be fairly
  simple, getting a grip on them can be a little
  more challenging because they morph into many
  forms.
• Each adjective has at least 3 forms
• For describing masculine singular nouns (m.s.)
• For describing feminine singular nouns (f.s.)
• For describing masculine plural nouns (m.pl.)
• For describing feminine plural nouns (f.pl.)

16
Mastering the Forms

• Enclosed in your packet is a chart where you can
  write in all of the forms for each adjective
• Go ahead and fill in as much as possible. Dont
  worry about the prounciations just yet.
• Once you are finished, check with the teacher to
  see if you have the correct answers.

17
la prononciation

• Once you have verified your adjectives, get the
  pronunciations by going to this site and click on
  the three listening portions marked by a
  underneath the picture shown below

http//www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/adj3.html
In your chart, write in any pronunciations you do
not already know or that you think you might
forget in the future.
18
The Tricksters Group 1

• Did you notice that for three of the adjectives,
  there are TWO masculine singular forms?
• Write the masculine forms of these adjectives in
  your study packet
• a. _________ , _________
• b. _________ , _________
• c. _________ , _________
• If you look closely at the top of your chart,
  youll see a small notation indicating the
  purpose of the second masculine singular
  adjective.
• What is it? Write the answer in your packet.

19
The Tricksters Group 1 (cont)

• The second m.s. form is for describing masculine
  singular nouns that start with a vowel sound.
• Can you think of any examples? Write a few down
  in your packet.
• Did you think of
• homme
• ami
• ordinateur
• élève (m.s.)
• étudiant
• All the words above start with a vowel sound. In
  order to make French sound a little prettier,
  special adjectives were invented to use in front
  of these masculine singular nouns that start with
  a vowel sound.

20
The Tricksters Group 1 (cont)

• Voici des exemples

bell vee-yay nooh-vell
21
The Tricksters Group 2

• Got it? The adjectives of that particular group
  can sneak up on and get by you pretty easily if
  youre not paying attention.
• Now for the second group masculine singular and
  plural adjectives.
• Did you notice that some of the adjectives have
  the exact same form for describing masculine
  singular (m.s.) and masculine plural (pl.) words?
• What are they? Write them down in your packet.
• 1.
• 2.

22
The Tricksters Group 2 (cont)

• Those adjective forms arent quite as difficult,
  as we already know some other adjectives that do
  the same thing. (most of them being
  nationalities)
• Do you remember any? List three other adjectives
  that have the same form for masculine singular
  and masculine plural.
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.

23
Recap B.A.N.G.S.

• Please review by writing down the answers to the
  following questions in your packet
• Whats special about the BANGS adjectives? (Why
  have we specially classified them? )
• What are the two groups of tricksters?
• What is special about each group of tricksters?

24
les étapes the detection process

• Now its time to apply your new-found knowledge.
  
• In theory, its easy to say that you understand
  BANGS in these exercises, but will they catch you
  off guard in day-to-day translation?
• Most likely! Unless, that is, you are prepared.
  
• On the following slide, you will see a specially
  designed process for detecting those nasty BANGS
  adjectives. Internalize this process and it will
  be sort of like your own grammatical anti-virus
  system.

25
les étapes en ordre

• Zut! Looks like the steps have been scrambled
  up!!! Write them in the logical order in your
  packet.
• 1. THEN ask yourself,  Is the word to be
  described singular or plural?  If singular,
  does is start with a vowel sound?
• 2. Decide what characteristic the adjective is
  expressing (color, size, shape, etc)
• 3. Find the adjective in the sentence and what
  it is describing.
• 4. Choose the correct for of the adjective based
  on your conclusions of number, gender, and
  beginning sound.
• 5. After deciding if singular or plural, ask
  yourself,   Is the word to be described
  masculine or feminine? 
• 6. Ask yourself,  Is the adjective expressing
  beauty, age, newness, goodness, or size?  If
  so, its most likely a BANGS adjective.
• 7. Ask yourself,   Is the adjective that I have
  found translate to one of the BANGS adjective
  forms? 

26
application

• Did you get the steps figured out?
• Using the numbers from the previous slide, here
  is the correct order 3,2,6,7,1,5,4)
• Use this process the help you complete the
  following exercises by answering six important
  questions for each exercise.

27
les exercices

• The exercises are given in your packet. Arrive
  at the correct answer (and write it down of
  course!) by answering the following questions
  each time
• 1. What is the adjective?
• 2. What is the adjective expressing?
• 3. Is it expressing any of the BANGS
  characteristics?
• 4. Is this word actually a BANGS adjective?
• 5. Am I describing a singular or plural word?
  If singular, does it start with a vowel sound?
• 6. Am I describing a masculine or feminine noun?

28
encore

• Try out these slightly more difficult exercises
  and record how you did in your activity packet.
• For the adjectives that you are unfamiliar with,
  be sure to read the topmost portion of the page
  to help you out.
• http//www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/adj3.html
• If you dont know what a French word means, use
  context clues to help you or go to
• http//www.freetranslation.com
• (for simple phrases only, not full sentences)

29
The Great Conspiracy Ce sont

• Well, how did you do?
• Before stepping out into the world of grammatical
  uncertainity, you must be alerted to one other
  potential problem perhaps the most threatening
  yet!
• The BANGS adjectives have devised a plan to
  confuse you when it comes to plurals and
  indefinite articles.

30
Ce sont

• As you might have guessed, it has to do with the
  phrase Ce sont
• What is  Ce sont ?
• It is the plural form of  Cest 
• Cest can mean (write them in your packet)
• He is (he is)
• She is (she is)
• It is (Its)

31
Cest ? Ce sont

• If  cest  can mean
• He is (hes )
• She is (shes)
• It is (its)
• And  Ce sont  is the plural of  cest  then
•  Ce sont  most likely means the plural forms of
  hes, shes, and its.
• And that makes

32
Cest ? Ce sont (cont )

• Ce sont
• they are (theyre)
• These are
• Those are
• Ok, so not quite as simple, but definitely not
  impossible.
• Be sure to write down the meanings of  ce sont 
  in your study packet.

33
Ce sont and articles

• If you can think back to the rules we learned
  about definite and indefinite articles, you will
  remember that
• Cest and Ce sont can be followed by indefinite
  and definite articles.
•  Il/elle est  and  Ils/elles sont  CANNOT be
  followed by indefinite or definite articles.
• You might want to write that down again, just so
  you dont forget.

34
Ce sont and articles (cont)

• Cest and Ce sont can be followed by indefinite
  and definite articles.
•  Il/elle est  and  Ils/elles sont  CANNOT be
  followed by indefinite or definite articles.
• So, if singular articles come after  cest 
  (singular), then what kind of articles come after
   ce sont ? Write your answer in your packet.
• Why, its plural articles of course! And what
  are the plural articles?
• 1. les (definite)
• 2. des (indefinite)
• Use the chart on the following slide to help you
  fill in the table in your study packet.

35
Cest ? Ce sont / s. ? pl.

• Voici une carte to remind you of article usage.

36
application

• Go to this link and practice what you know by
  complete the exercises at the bottom of the page.
  Be sure to follow any additional instructions in
  the packet when doing so.
• http//www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/pro3.html
• REMEMBER
• Cest and Ce sont can be followed by definite and
  definite articles.
•  Il/elle est  and  Ils/elles sont  CANNOT be
  followed by indefinite or definite articles.

37
The kick in the head

• Got it?
• So what does this have to do with BANGS? Good
  thing you asked!
• Ce sont is always followed by ______ articles.
• What are these two articles? (check the previous
  chart if you forgot)
• 1.
• 2.

38
Des ? (de) in front of BANGS

•  Des  is the article for which BANGS causes
  trouble. You dont have to worry about  les .
• By some miracle, they have suspended the laws of
  the grammatical universe so that when a sentence
  using (write these down)
• 1. Ce sont AND
• 2. A plural BANGS adjective,
•  des  becomes DE in most cases (for French I).
  Instead of using  des , you use  de. 
• Dont ask why! Thats just the way it is with
   ce sont  and those sneaky BANGS adjectives!!

39
application

• Try our these exercises to reinforce this new
  concept. Use the indefinite article.

40
La fin

• Check with the teacher to see how you did.
• Are you back? How did you do?
• Thanks for participating in basic training for
  the big BANGS. If you are unclear on any
  concepts, please go back and review or seek out
  assistance from friends or the teacher. You will
  use this material for the rest of your French
  career at U-High!
• And remember

41

• BE CAREFUL OUT THERE