What are the cognate patterns for adjectives in French?

Question

I'm reading "French for Reading" by Sandberg and there is a section for cognate patterns for adjectives that I do not understand on page 4:

There are four items here that I'd like to clarify

1. Sandberg states that -en and -euse in French often correspond to -ous in English. Should this be -eux and -euse in French correspond to -ous in English?

2. He also states that -eux and -elle in French often correspond to -al in English. Should this be -el and -elle in French correspond to -al in English?

3. Next, he states that -el and -ive in French usually correspond to -ive in English. Should this be -if and -ive in French usually correspond to -ive in English?

4. Finally, he states that -if and -enne in French often correspond to -an in English. Should this be -en and -enne in French often correspond to -an in English?

Answer 1

All of your corrections are right.

• 1/ eux, euse (ous) — vicieux/vicieuse (vicious), pieux/pieuse (pious), précieux/précieuse (precious), sérieux/sérieuse (serious), bulbeux/bulbeuse (bulbous)

• 2/ el, elle (al) — officiel/officielle (official), constitutionnel/constitutionnelle (constitutional), réel/réelle (real)

• 3/ if, ive (ive) — consécutif/consécutive (consecutive), abrasif/abrasive (abrasive), abusif/abusive (abusive), constructif/constructive (constructive), conclusif/conclusive (conclusive)

• 4/ en, enne (an) — autrichien/autrichienne (Austrian), canadien/canadienne (Canadian), martien/martienne (Martian), diététicien/diététicienne (dietician), méditerranéen/méditerranéenne (mediterranean), mathématicien/mathématicienne (mathematician), parisien/parisienne (Parisian), londonien/londonienne (Londonian)