Nouveau, neuf, nouvelle nouvel? How to say “new” in French

English: Brand new, new. French: Neuf, neufs, neuve, neuves, nouveau, nouvel, nouveaux, nouvelle, nouvelles.

Oh, and one of those also means “nine,” and two of them mean “news,” like, “she watches the news.” Haha, good luck!

Okay, but for real, let’s talk about this and when to use each one. French can be really confusing sometimes, but it gets a lot easier once you go through things one by one and understand where everything fits. So go ahead and make some coffee (you’re going to need it), then let’s get to it! Soon you’ll be a pro when it comes to knowing when to use nouveau, neuf, nouvelle, nouvel, nouveaux, and all their friends!

Neuf, Neufs, Neuve, Neuves

Neuf

Let’s start with “neuf.” This word means “brand new,” and will usually refer to something hot off the press, still in its original packaging, unopened, or even freshly out of the box.

Example: 

Enlevez le film protecteur de l’écran neuf avant de l’utiliser.

There are actually two more ways of saying “brand new” — “flambant neuf” and “tout nouveau.” We’ll discuss the word “nouveau’ in a bit.

Neufs

Meanwhile, the plural of “neuf” is “neufs.”

Example:

Elle a acheté des ordinateurs neufs.

Here, the noun “ordinateurs” is plural and masculine, so the adjective describing it (neufs) also needs to be plural and masculine. The determiner is plural and works for both masculine and feminine (des.)  

Neuve

This is the feminine form of “neuf.” We use this form to describe a noun that is grammatically feminine.

Example:

Il aime sa télévision neuve.

Since “télévision” is a singular feminine noun, the adjective describing it (neuve) is in singular feminine form, as well as the possessive pronoun (sa.)

Neuves

This is the plural form of “neuve.”

Example:

Elle a acheté des chaussures neuves.

Since the noun, “chaussures,” is both feminine and plural, the adjective describing it (neuves) is also feminine and plural. The determiner is plural and neutral (des.)

So, here we learned that “neuf,” “neufs,” “neuve,” and “neuves” are all variations of the same word that means “brand new.” Which variation we use depends on the grammatical gender of the noun, as well as whether it’s singular or plural.

Bonus

“Neuf” is also the number nine.

Example: 

Les chats ont neuf vies

Since the number nine is not an adjective, we don’t change it to match the gender of the noun. So, at least here, you don’t need to worry about the gender of a refrigerator if you’re saying there are nine of them.

Nouveau, Nouvel, Nouveaux, Nouvelle, Nouvelles

Okay, so, here, once again, these four words represent one concept. We choose one of the four based on the noun’s grammatical gender and whether it’s singular or plural, and, um, one more aspect, but we’ll get to that soon.

Nouveau

This word means “new.” Unlike “neuf,” it doesn’t have to refer to something brand spanking new. Instead, it can describes things that are generally new to the speaker. 

If you’ve just read the above explanation and still aren’t sure about the difference between “neuf” and “niveau,” let’s take a moment to break it down. 

Imagine you went to the store and bought a pair of shoes. Later, you call your friend to tell her about it. Just like in English, you can say both “I got a new pair of shoes” and “I got a brand new pair of shoes.” As long as the shoes are not second-hand, then both “brand new” and “new” work. This is because the shoes are both fresh out of the box (brand new) and also new to your life (new). That is to say, anything that is brand new is also new, but not everything that is new is brand new. 

Now, if the shoes are second-hand, or maybe you actually bought them a few months ago, but still consider the purchase relatively recent, you would probably only describe them as “new,” and not “brand new.”  

Here’s another example: “I’m going to a new school.” Here, the school itself isn’t new, it’s just new in your life. But, if you said, “I’m going to a brand new school,” that would mean something else — that the school had just recently opened, and you’re in the first batch of students. 

So English and French follow the same rules for “new” and “brand new.” Think about which one you would use in English, and then pick the equivalent in French.

Nouvel

This is another variation of the masculine singular “new.”

Okay, so, in French, vowels don’t like to follow vowels. If a word ends with a spoken vowel (nouveau) and then the next word starts with a vowel, it’s going to be hard to pronounce. 

So, instead, what we do in some cases, is add a spoken consonant in between. Here, we swapped the ending of the word to include the consonant L. We only do this if the next word starts with a vowel.

So, for example:

Elle adore son nouvel appartement.

Nouveaux

This is the plural form of “nouveau” and “nouvel.”

If the noun is plural and masculine, we need to use this form.

Example: 

Le lancement officiel du service nous aidera à pénétrer de nouveaux marchés.

Nouvelle

This is the feminine form of nouveau. With feminine, we don’t need to worry if the next word starts with a vowel or not. This is because the last pronounced sound is the L anyway, and the E is silent. So we don’t need to add another consonant to break up the vowels.

Example:

Elle adore sa nouvelle coupe. 

Nouvelles

This is the plural form of nouvelle. We use this when the noun it’s describing is plural and feminine.

Example:

J’adore essayer de nouvelles cuisines de différentes cultures.

Oh, and here’s one more thing you should know: 

“Nouvelle” is also a specific piece of news, like “the news of their breakup made her parents sad” (La nouvelle de leur rupture a rendu ses parents tristes.) Meanwhile, “nouvelles” is news in general, like “she reads the news” (Elle lit les nouvelles.) 

Conclusion

There are so many ways to say “new” in French! Nouveau, neuf, nouvelle nouvel nouveaux… But now we know what to do!

Brand new: Neuf (masculine singular), neufs (masculine plural), neuve (feminine singular), neuves (feminine plural)

Neuf is also the number nine.

New: Nouveau (masculine singular), nouvel (masculine singular before a vowel), nouveaux (masculine plural), nouvelle (feminine singular), nouvelles (feminine plural)

Nouvelle is also a specific piece of news, and nouvelles is news in general.

French can be tricky, but as long as you keep learning, keep reading, and keep practicing, you’ll be fluent in no time. You can also use this conjugator if you need a little extra help. Good luck! You got this.