In the French language, agreement refers to the grammatical agreement that must occur between different parts of speech in a sentence.

In particular, French nouns and adjectives must agree in gender and number. This means that if a noun is feminine and singular, any accompanying adjectives must also be feminine and singular. Similarly, if a noun is plural, any accompanying adjectives must also be plural.

For example, consider the sentence: “Le chat noir dort tranquillement.” This translates to “The black cat is sleeping peacefully.” In this sentence, both “chat” (cat) and “noir” (black) are masculine singular, so they agree in gender and number.

However, if we were to change the gender of the noun, we would need to change the gender of the adjective as well. For example, “La chienne noire dort tranquillement” translates to “The black female dog is sleeping peacefully.” In this sentence, both “chienne” (female dog) and “noire” (black) are feminine singular, so they agree in gender and number.

In addition to agreement between nouns and adjectives, French verbs must also agree in number and person with their subject. This means that if the subject of a sentence is singular, the accompanying verb must also be singular. And if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural as well.

For example, consider the sentence: “Le chat dort.” This translates to “The cat is sleeping.” In this sentence, “chat” (cat) is singular, so the accompanying verb “dort” (is sleeping) is also singular.

However, if we were to change the subject to be plural, the verb would need to be plural as well. For example, “Les chats dorment” translates to “The cats are sleeping.” In this sentence, “chats” (cats) is plural, so the accompanying verb “dorment” (are sleeping) is also plural.

In conclusion, agreement is an important aspect of French grammar that involves ensuring that different parts of speech agree with each other in terms of gender and number. This helps to ensure that sentences are grammatically correct and easy to understand.