Nationality adjectives agree with the person
Nationality adjectives are ordinary adjectives: they agree with the PERSON described (gender + number), never with the country. Two patterns: consonant/-s endings add -e / -es (français → française, anglais → anglaises); -ien endings double the n before -e (italien → italienne, canadien → canadiennes). They are never capitalised — je suis français, not Français. The full table stays in the note.
en / au / aux before a country
To say in/to a country, French uses en, au or aux — never à alone: en for feminine (en France), au for masculine (au Canada), aux for plural (aux États-Unis). au is à + le contracted; aux is à + les. Most -e countries are feminine (la France, la Chine). Languages use the masculine adjective with le / l' (le français, l'anglais), but take no article after parler: je parle français.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
à + le → au (never "à le Canada")
à never stands directly before le or les — it must contract, exactly as in au zoo (never à le zoo). ✗ Je vais à le Canada → Je vais au Canada (à + le → au). ✗ Il habite à les États-Unis → Il habite aux États-Unis (à + les → aux). Don't drop the preposition either: ✗ Nous voyageons Japon → au Japon.
Flagged s22 41 Accuracy (à le zoo → au zoo).
Missing the feminine -e (anglais → anglaise)
When a nationality adjective describes a woman it needs the feminine ending — an agreement slip named in the Writing Accuracy notes every sitting: ✗ Ma mère est anglais → Ma mère est anglaise; ✗ elle est espagnol → elle est espagnole. Always ask who the adjective describes, and agree it to that person's gender and number before moving on.
Adjective agreement named scoring-critical in the Writing Accuracy notes, every sitting (s22/w22/s23/w23).
-ien doubles the n: italien → italienne
The -ien nationalities double the n before the feminine -e: italien → italienne (not italiene), canadien → canadienne. The masculine plural just adds -s (italiens, canadiens); the feminine plural is -iennes (italiennes, canadiennes). Writing italiene with a single n is a common spelling slip that can cost the accuracy mark.
(general FL trap)
Wrong-gender article on a country
A country's gender is a fixed fact, not guessable from its ending: ✗ la Canada → le Canada (masculine, despite the -a); ✗ le Chine → la Chine (feminine, like most -e countries); ✗ le Etats-Unis → les États-Unis (plural, always les, accent on États). Learn each country's gender with the word, and keep the accent (États, not Etats).
Flagged s23 41 Accuracy (l'environment — missing accent + wrong-gender article).
Agree with the person, not the country
The nationality adjective agrees with the PERSON, never with the country: in Mon amie est canadienne, the -e is there because amie is a woman, not because Canada is masculine. Mes cousins sont américains agrees with cousins (masculine plural), not with les États-Unis. Decide who is described first, then agree to that person.
(general FL trap)
Naming the nationality, not the language
A which-language question wants the language, not the nationality: ✗ (Quelle langue parles-tu?) Je suis italien → Je parle italien. The language keeps the invariant masculine form (l'italien); the nationality agrees with the person (italienne, espagnole). Read the question word and answer the category it asks for.
(general FL trap)
Language name ≠ nationality; both lower-case
Two false beliefs recur. (1) The language and the nationality are the same word — ✗ Je parle l'anglaise. The language stays the invariant masculine l'anglais; the nationality agrees with the person. (2) Nationality adjectives and languages are lower-case in French, unlike English: je suis français. Only the country name keeps a capital (la France).
(general FL trap)
Country check: gender, preposition, category
Work in order: (1) fix the country's gender/number — the rest follows; (2) pick en (feminine) / au (masculine) / aux (plural); (3) decide if you need the country, the nationality (agrees with the person) or the language (always masculine).
Vary connectors and tenses for Range
In Writing, don't run Je suis... Je parle... J'habite... in a row. Combine ideas with a connector (parce que, où, quand) and mix tenses to reach the higher Range band — most candidates rely only on parce que/car, which caps them mid-band.
An accent slip can make a different word
Spell country and nationality words precisely: a slip is tolerated only if it does not form a different real French word. Keep accents exact — États-Unis, française, américaine — a dropped accent that makes another word costs the mark.
This topic covers country names (with their gender), nationality adjectives (with full gender/number agreement), the preposition used before a country (en/au/aux), and languages spoken. The examiner digest repeatedly flags article-contraction and adjective-agreement errors as scoring-critical across every Writing report.
Continents: l'Europe (f), l'Afrique (f), l'Asie (f), l'Amérique du Nord (f), l'Amérique du Sud (f), l'Océanie (f) — all continents are feminine.
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