{"id":655,"date":"2016-11-12T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-12T18:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/?p=655"},"modified":"2022-10-16T06:33:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T14:33:49","slug":"guide-spanish-adjectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/guide-spanish-adjectives\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick & Simple Guide to Spanish Adjectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spanish<\/span><\/p>\n

Adjectives take a dull, plain thought and make it more exciting.<\/p>\n

They can make a boring sentence dynamic, a nice sentiment sweeter and a harsh word, well\u2026 even harsher. If you want to be able to do anything in terms of describing something, you need to be able to use this handy, and necessary, part of speech!<\/p>\n

In Spanish adjectives are a little more complicated than they are in English. But don\u2019t fret! Below you will find a quick guide to how you can spice up your conversations.<\/p>\n

The Basics<\/h1>\n

Let\u2019s start by first figuring out what is an adjective? It\u2019s simple, really. Adjectives are the words we add into a sentence to define our nouns. They describe<\/em><\/strong> a person, place, or thing.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

The house- The red house<\/p>\n

The boy- The handsome boy<\/p>\n

The building The tall building<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s look at how these parts of speech work in Spanish.<\/p>\n

Do you need a girl or a boy adjective?<\/h2>\n

All right, it\u2019s not really a \u201cgirl\u201d or \u201cboy\u201d adjective, but one thing about Spanish that is very different from English is that words have a gender. They can be \u201cfeminine\u201d or \u201cmasculine.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re familiar with the Spanish language, even just a little bit, you\u2019ve realized that a lot of words end in O<\/em>\u2019s or A<\/em>\u2019s. Well, the \u201co\u201d words are masculine, and the \u201ca\u201d words a feminine.* Like the nouns they modify, the adjectives will need to be either masculine or feminine.<\/p>\n

For example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- here, the word \u201chouse\u201d in Spanish is feminine (casa<\/strong>) so you will need the feminine<\/em> form of the adjective \u201cred\u201d (roja<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

*Note- Not ALL nouns will end in either \u201co\u201d or \u201ca\u201d. But ALL nouns WILL have a gender! This means it\u2019s something you\u2019ll have to memorize. Example: coche<\/em>– (car) masculine; leche<\/em>– (milk) feminine<\/p>\n

And how many \u201creds\u201d will you need?<\/h2>\n

Just like agreeing in gender, your adjectives need to agree in number. If you have more than one house, you will have more than one \u201cred.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- here, we have only one, singular red house, so our adjective would be roja<\/em> (singular). But, if we were to say \u201cthe red houses\u201d our adjective would become the plural version rojas<\/em>. No matter if we have 2 or 23 red houses, if there is more than one, they will be rojas<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I know this seems a little weird, but it\u2019s really not all that difficult. Just remember your adjectives have to AGREE, AGREE!! (Two agrees, for two criteria- gender, number.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Almost time to put it all together<\/h2>\n

Just one last little detail to throw your way before we can dive in a little deeper to the really juicy technical stuff.<\/p>\n

In Spanish, the adjectives come after<\/strong> the noun. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to our example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- In Spanish this little phrase would be \u201cLa casa roja<\/em>.\u201d So, literally you\u2019re saying \u201cThe house red.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

The handsome boy- El chico (the boy) guapo (handsome\/ attractive)<\/p>\n

The tall building- El edificio (the building) alto (tall)<\/p>\n

The handsome boys- Los chicos guapos<\/p>\n

The tall buildings- Los edificios altos<\/p>\n

The Technicalities<\/h1>\n

Some adjectives will be able to take ALL the possible forms we looked at briefly above (masculine, feminine, singular, plural) while some, actually, will only take a few of them.<\/p>\n

You will find, generally speaking, three different types of adjectives.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Adjectives that end in \u201co\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Adjectives that end in \u201ce\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Adjectives that end in a consonant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To make this a little easier, why don\u2019t we look at these in a chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
    Adjective<\/td>Meaning<\/td>Masculine<\/td>Feminine<\/td>Singular<\/td>Plural<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Bonito<\/Strong><\/td>Pretty <\/td>Bonito<\/td>Bonita<\/td>Bonito\/a<\/td>Bonitos\/as<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    T\u00edmido<\/Strong><\/td>Shy<\/td>T\u00edmido<\/td>T\u00edmida<\/td>T\u00edmido\/a<\/td>T\u00edmidos\/as<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Grande<\/Strong><\/td>Big<\/td>---------------<\/td>--------------<\/td>Grande<\/td>Grandes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Inteligente<\/Strong><\/td>Intelligent <\/td>--------------<\/td>--------------<\/td>Inteligente<\/td>Inteligentes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Leal<\/Strong><\/td>Loyal<\/td>--------------<\/td>--------------<\/td>Leal<\/td>Leales<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Joven<\/Strong><\/td>Young<\/td>--------------<\/td>--------------<\/td>Joven<\/td>Jovenes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

    As you can see in the chart above, there are a few small differences between the three different types of adjectives you\u2019ll find.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n
        \n
      1. Adjectives that end in \u201co\u201d\n
          \n
        1. Can be masculine or feminine<\/li>\n
        2. Can be singular or plural<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
          The shy boy<\/td>El chico t\u00edmido<\/td>Singular\/ Masculine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          The shy girl<\/td>La chica t\u00edmida<\/td>Singular\/ Feminine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
          The shy children<\/td>Los ni\u00f1os t\u00edmidos<\/td>Plural\/ Masculine**<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
            \n
          1. Adjectives that end in \u201ce\u201d\n
              \n
            1. Will only change between the singular and plural forms<\/li>\n
            2. To make the plural form, simply add an \u201cs\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
              The intelligent boy<\/td>El chico inteligente<\/td>Singular<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
              The intelligent girl<\/td>La chica inteligente<\/td>Singular (doesn\u2019t change gender)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
              The intelligent children<\/td>Los ni\u00f1os inteligentes<\/td>Plural (no gender)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

              3. Adjective that end in a consonant<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. \n
                  \n
                1. Will only change between the singular and plural forms<\/li>\n
                2. To make the plural form, add \u201ces\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
                  The loyal boy<\/td>El chico leal<\/td>Singular<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                  The loyal girl<\/td>La chica leal<\/td>Singular (doesn\u2019t change gender)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                  The loyal children<\/td>Los ni\u00f1os leales<\/td>Plural (no gender)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

                  **Note: When describing a group of something, the adjective will become masculine even if only one<\/strong> of the things in the group is masculine. For example- a group of 7 shy girls and only 1 shy boy will still be described using the masculine adjective (los ni\u00f1os t\u00edmidos). But if you have a group of 7 shy girls, you will make it feminine (las ni\u00f1as t\u00edmidas).<\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>\n

                  Of course, the exceptions\u2026<\/h1>\n

                  Like with almost everything when learning a language, this part of speech comes with its own little list of exceptions to the rules.<\/p>\n

                  Adjectives ending in -or, -\u00e1n, -\u00edn, -\u00f3n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

                  This group, although they end in consonant, will in fact still have a feminine form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t
                  Example<\/td>Meaning<\/td>Masculine<\/td>Feminine<\/td>Singular<\/td>Plural<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                  Hablador<\/td>Talkative<\/td>Hablador<\/td>Habladora<\/td>Hablador\/a<\/td>Habladores\/as
                  \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

                  Adjectives that go before<\/strong> the noun<\/h2>\n

                  There are some adjectives in Spanish that do, actually, go before the noun they are modifying.<\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. \n
                      \n
                    1. The first group of adjectives that you will find in front of the noun are what talk about a quantity<\/strong>. They speak to the amount of something.\n
                        \n
                      1. For example: There are a few people in the house. Hay poca gente en la casa<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
                      2. You may be able to put a descriptive adjective before the noun if you are not<\/strong> trying to differentiate (or single out) the noun you are describing.\n
                          \n
                        1. For example: If I were to say \u201cThe intelligent students\u201d (los estudiantes inteligentes) I\u2019m talking about a specific group of students within an even large group of not as bright students.<\/li>\n
                        2. However if I said \u201clos inteligentes estudiantes\u201d I\u2019m implying that ALL the students are intelligent.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                          Adjectives that change meaning when they change location<\/h2>\n

                          There are a handful of adjectives that can go before OR after the noun, but they will change their meaning depending on where you put them.<\/p>\n

                          The most common are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
                          Adjective<\/td>Meaning before<\/td>Meaning after<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                          Antiguo<\/td>Former, Ex-<\/td>Old, Ancient<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                          Pobre<\/td>Poor (as in unfortunate)<\/td>Poor (as in no money)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                          Gran\/Grande<\/td>Great<\/td>Big, Large<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                          Viejo<\/td>Old (as in long-standing)<\/td>Old (as in age)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
                          \u00danico<\/td>Only<\/td>Unique<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

                          This has just been a quick overview of the basics behind using adjectives in Spanish. At first glance, this very useful part of speech may seem strange and even intimidating to the native English speaker. But, the truth is, it\u2019s really not all that complicated! It just takes lots of practice and adjusting your mindset a little bit.<\/p>\n

                          Remember–your adjectives need to AGREE, AGREE! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                          Adjectives take a dull, plain thought and make it more exciting. They can make a boring sentence dynamic, a nice sentiment sweeter and a harsh word, well\u2026 even harsher. If you want to be able to do anything in terms of describing something, you need to be able to use this handy, and necessary, part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"

                          \"spanish<\/span><\/div>
                          \t

                          Adjectives take a dull, plain thought and make it more exciting.<\/p>

                          They can make a boring sentence dynamic, a nice sentiment sweeter and a harsh word, well\u2026 even harsher.
                          If you want to be able to do anything in terms of describing something, you need to be able to use this handy, and necessary, part of speech!<\/p>

                          In Spanish adjectives are a little more complicated than they are in English. But don\u2019t fret! Below you will find a quick guide to how you can spice up your conversations.<\/p>

                          The Basics<\/h1>

                          Let\u2019s start by first figuring out what is an adjective? It\u2019s simple, really. Adjectives are the words we add into a sentence to define our nouns. They describe<\/em><\/strong> a person, place, or thing.<\/p>

                          For example:<\/p>

                          The house- The red house<\/p>

                          The boy- The handsome boy<\/p>

                          The building The tall building<\/p>

                          So, let\u2019s look at how these parts of speech work in Spanish.<\/p>

                          Do you need a girl or a boy adjective?<\/h2>

                          All right, it\u2019s not really a \u201cgirl\u201d or \u201cboy\u201d adjective, but one thing about Spanish that is very different from English is that words have a gender. They can be \u201cfeminine\u201d or \u201cmasculine.\u201d<\/p>

                          If you\u2019re familiar with the Spanish language, even just a little bit, you\u2019ve realized that a lot of words end in O<\/em>\u2019s or A<\/em>\u2019s. Well, the \u201co\u201d words are masculine, and the \u201ca\u201d words a feminine.* Like the nouns they modify, the adjectives will need to be either masculine or feminine.<\/p>

                          For example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- here, the word \u201chouse\u201d in Spanish is feminine (casa<\/strong>) so you will need the feminine<\/em> form of the adjective \u201cred\u201d (roja<\/strong>).<\/p>

                          *Note- Not ALL nouns will end in either \u201co\u201d or \u201ca\u201d. But ALL nouns WILL have a gender! This means it\u2019s something you\u2019ll have to memorize. Example: coche<\/em>- (car) masculine; leche<\/em>- (milk) feminine<\/p>

                          And how many \u201creds\u201d will you need?<\/h2>

                          Just like agreeing in gender, your adjectives need to agree in number. If you have more than one house, you will have more than one \u201cred.\u201d<\/p>

                          For example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- here, we have only one, singular red house, so our adjective would be roja<\/em> (singular). But, if we were to say \u201cthe red houses\u201d our adjective would become the plural version rojas<\/em>. No matter if we have 2 or 23 red houses, if there is more than one, they will be rojas<\/em>.<\/p>

                          I know this seems a little weird, but it\u2019s really not all that difficult. Just remember your adjectives have to AGREE, AGREE!! (Two agrees, for two criteria- gender, number.<\/strong>)<\/p>

                          Almost time to put it all together<\/h2>

                          Just one last little detail to throw your way before we can dive in a little deeper to the really juicy technical stuff.<\/p>

                          In Spanish, the adjectives come after<\/strong> the noun. <\/strong><\/p>

                          Let\u2019s go back to our example: \u201cThe red house\u201d- In Spanish this little phrase would be \u201cLa casa roja<\/em>.\u201d So, literally you\u2019re saying \u201cThe house red.\u201d<\/p>

                          Examples:<\/p>

                          The handsome boy- El chico (the boy) guapo (handsome\/ attractive)<\/p>

                          The tall building- El edificio (the building) alto (tall)<\/p>

                          The handsome boys- Los chicos guapos<\/p>

                          The tall buildings- Los edificios altos<\/p>

                          The Technicalities<\/h1>

                          Some adjectives will be able to take ALL the possible forms we looked at briefly above (masculine, feminine, singular, plural) while some, actually, will only take a few of them.<\/p>

                          You will find, generally speaking, three different types of adjectives.<\/p>

                          1. Adjectives that end in \u201co\u201d<\/li>
                          2. Adjectives that end in \u201ce\u201d<\/li>
                          3. Adjectives that end in a consonant.<\/li><\/ol>

                            To make this a little easier, why don\u2019t we look at these in a chart.<\/p>

                            [table id=20 \/]<\/p>

                            As you can see in the chart above, there are a few small differences between the three different types of adjectives you\u2019ll find.<\/p>

                             <\/p>


                              1. Adjectives that end in \u201co\u201d
                                1. Can be masculine or feminine<\/li>
                                2. Can be singular or plural
                                  <\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

                                  [table id=21 \/]<\/p>

                                  1. Adjectives that end in \u201ce\u201d
                                    1. Will only change between the singular and plural forms<\/li>
                                    2. To make the plural form, simply add an \u201cs\u201d<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

                                      [table id=22 \/]<\/p>

                                      3. Adjective that end in a consonant<\/p>


                                        1. Will only change between the singular and plural forms<\/li>
                                        2. To make the plural form, add \u201ces\u201d<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

                                          [table id=23 \/]<\/p>

                                          **Note: When describing a group of something, the adjective will become masculine even if only one<\/strong> of the things in the group is masculine. For example- a group of 7 shy girls and only 1 shy boy will still be described using the masculine adjective (los ni\u00f1os t\u00edmidos). But if you have a group of 7 shy girls, you will make it feminine (las ni\u00f1as t\u00edmidas).<\/p>

                                          [thrive_leads id='2254']<\/p>

                                          Of course, the exceptions\u2026<\/h1>

                                          Like with almost everything when learning a language, this part of speech comes with its own little list of exceptions to the rules.<\/p>

                                          Adjectives ending in -or, -\u00e1n, -\u00edn, -\u00f3n<\/strong><\/h2>

                                          This group, although they end in consonant, will in fact still have a feminine form.<\/p>

                                          [table id=24 \/]<\/p>

                                          Adjectives that go before<\/strong> the noun<\/h2>

                                          There are some adjectives in Spanish that do, actually, go before the noun they are modifying.<\/p>

                                           <\/p>


                                            1. The first group of adjectives that you will find in front of the noun are what talk about a quantity<\/strong>. They speak to the amount of something.
                                              1. For example: There are a few people in the house. Hay poca gente en la casa<\/em>.<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
                                              2. You may be able to put a descriptive adjective before the noun if you are not<\/strong> trying to differentiate (or single out) the noun you are describing.
                                                1. For example: If I were to say \u201cThe intelligent students\u201d (los estudiantes inteligentes) I\u2019m talking about a specific group of students within an even large group of not as bright students.<\/li>
                                                2. However if I said \u201clos inteligentes estudiantes\u201d I\u2019m implying that ALL the students are intelligent.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

                                                  Adjectives that change meaning when they change location<\/h2>

                                                  There are a handful of adjectives that can go before OR after the noun, but they will change their meaning depending on where you put them.<\/p>

                                                  The most common are:<\/p>

                                                  [table id=25 \/]<\/p>

                                                  This has just been a quick overview of the basics behind using adjectives in Spanish. At first glance, this very useful part of speech may seem strange and even intimidating to the native English speaker. But, the truth is, it\u2019s really not all that complicated! It just takes lots of practice and adjusting your mindset a little bit.<\/p>

                                                  Remember--your adjectives need to AGREE, AGREE! <\/p><\/div>","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{"e":"1","font_cls":[]},"tcb2_ready":1,"tcb_editor_enabled":1,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"0","_tve_footer":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,27,15,9],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spanish-grammar","tag-beginner-grammar","tag-grammar-guides","tag-learning-tips","tag-parts-of-speech","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16075,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/16075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mydailyspanish.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}