Why is magnifiques placed differently in 2 sentences?

Melody S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Why is magnifiques placed differently in 2 sentences?

-- relative to endoits vs. gâteaux ?
Asked 8 years ago
AurélieNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer
Bonjour Melody !

The regular rule is to place "long" adjectives (3 or more syllables) AFTER the noun. However, they can also be placed BEFORE when expressing an "affective", subjective opinion. Therefore, adjectives such as "magnifique", "délicieux", "énorme"... can be used in either position.

I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !
Michael D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Can't get my FR keyboard to stay French when I click here. Anyway, Tres complique! So the BAGS (adjectives of Beauty, Age, Goodness or Size precede the noun) rule gets "overruled" by the 3-syllable rule which gets overruled by the "'affective', subjective opinion" rule? What is "affective", subjective? Aren't all opinions subjective?
Jennifer C.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Sorry, clumsy fingers down voted instead of upvoted. Loved your concise summary, but am puzzled by the affective bit of affective subjective. What does it mean anyone?
Arsen T.B1Kwiziq community member

why on earth you call "des" a partitiff? it is so confusing. it is in fact the indefinite article. McGraw Hill's French books goes like this 

When a plural adjective precedes a plural noun, the indefinite article des usually shortens to de/d’, as you may have noticed in the previous chart.

de grandes autos de nouvelles idées d’autres amis

(some) big cars (some) new ideas (some) other friends

However, colloquial French often retains des before the plural.

Ce sont des bons copains! They’re good pals! 

p.s. by the way, partitive is used only for uncountable nouns, amis and copains are obviously countable.

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

@Arsen - The partitive article is not only used for uncountables - it also applies to vague or unspecified quantities of 'countables'. Just one of many other sources that agree with this: https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-indefinite-and-partitive-articles/

Why is magnifiques placed differently in 2 sentences?

-- relative to endoits vs. gâteaux ?

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