Herramientas de la lengua
Adjectives: agreement and placement
Why do you want to know this?
In Spanish adjectives have to match in gender and number with nouns and articles (ex. el perro gordo) so it is important to know how to form the masculine, feminine, singular and plural forms of adjectives so they can match! It is just as important to know where to place adjectives so people can understand what we intend to say.
1. ¿What is an adjective?
Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. Some adjectives have masculine and feminine forms (lindo / linda) while others don’t change (mucho, feliz, joven). Unlike English, they are usually placed after the noun (perro gordo, casa blanca) though sometimes they go before (gran persona, muchos niños). Keep reading and find out why!
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2. How to form the masculine and feminine
- Adjectives that end with -o in the masculine change to -a in the feminine (lindo / linda).
- Adjectives that mark nationalities or origin have masculine and feminine forms (alemán / alemana, hispano / hispana, latino / latina)*
- Adjectives that end in -or change to -ora in the feminine form (trabajador / trabajadora) but there are some that don’t (mayor, menor, mejor, peor, superior, inferior)
- Adjectives that end in a consonant or the letter “e” have the same masculine and feminine form (joven, inteligente, audaz).
* Inclusive language: You may have seen an “X” at the end of adjectives lately (hispanx, latinx). These are new variations that are emerging to address diversity and inclusion. Watch “What is with the X in Latinx”or “Inclusive Spanish”
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3. How do we form the plural
- Words ending in a vowel, add -s (café / cafés)
- Words ending in a consonant, add –es (joven / jóvenes)
- Words ending in -z add -ces (audaz / audaces)
- Words ending in a stressed vowel plus -s add -es (cortés / corteses)
- Words ending in stressed -í, -ú, add -s or -es (marroquí/marroquíes)
- Some words will lose or gain an accent in the plural so make sure to pay attention
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4. Placement of adjectives
- In Spanish, most adjectives follow the noun (día interesante), unlike in English, where they go before: (interesting day)
- Adjectives that refer to numbers, quantities, or are indefinite (alguno, ninguno, cada) go before the noun (ocho perros, muchos niños, ninguna persona)
- Some adjectives can be placed before the noun to emphasize a known characteristic (la blanca nieve, el pequeño bebé)
- Descriptive adjectives can be placed before the noun to establish a subjective poetic tone. (sus azules ojos y sus bellas cejas) but don’t overdo it!
- Some adjectives can be placed before or after the noun usually to mean different things (mi amigo pobre vs. mi pobre amigo – poor friend vs.unfortunate friend)
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¡Hola! A continuación tienes un ejercicio para un total de 10 puntos Debes lograr al menos 8 ¡Suerte!
5. Forming opposite adjectives by adding prefixes
Prefixes are word-parts that you add before a word to produce a new related word. (formal vs. informal, known vs. unknown). These exist in Spanish too and help us make opposite words (antónimos). Sometimes it is hard to know what word part to use to make antonyms!
¡Practiquemos!
¡Hola! A continuación tienes un ejercicio para un total de 10 puntos Debes lograr al menos 8 ¡Suerte!
This unit “Nouns in Spanish: Gender and Number” was created by Alegría Ribadeneira by combining original material and portions from sections about nouns in Spanish Grammar Manual by Enrique Yépez licensed CC BY-NC-SA and Spanish Grammar in Context by Jacqueline Larsen Serigos and Adriano Trovato, licensed CC BY-NC-SA
