Spanish adjectives: rules and exercises

Today we will talk about Spanish adjectives, those words through which we express a quality or a feature of a person, animal, or thing.

Unlike English, this category of words changes according to the noun the adjectives are attached to, under the rules of what we know as Spanish adjective agreement to match the noun’s genre (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).

SPANISH ADJECTIVES: HOW TO CREATE FEMININE AND PLURAL FORMS

Here we showcase the several types of Spanish adjetivos. Modeling after the adjective viejo (old), inteligente (intelligent, smart), azul (blue), and encantador (charming), the feminine and plural forms come from shifting the singular masculine forms’ ending:

SOME ADJECTIVE’S SPECIAL FEATURES

• If an adjective ends in -z, it turns the -z into -c when shifting to plural.

EXAMPLES: 

feliz (happy) → felices; capaz (able, skillful) → capaces.

• Placing a new ending can at times add a new syllable; however, the stress won’t move off the vowel it was placed originally, bringing upon the need to signify it by putting a tilde (´) on the said vowel.

EXAMPLES:

joven → jóvenes. Or, under the Spanish accent rules we may need to wipe this tilde off: cajón → cajones.

SPANISH ADJECTIVE AGREEMENT

The adjective needs to follow the same shape (masculine or feminine, singular or plural) of the person, animal, or thing it is attached to.

LET US SEE SOME EXAMPLES: 

• Alberto es bajo y rubio (Alberto is short and blond)
• Alberto y Juan son bajos y rubios (Alberto and Juan are short and blond)
• María es baja y rubia (Maria is short and blonde)
• Maria y Cecilia son bajas y rubias (Maria and Cecilia are short and blonde)

In Spanish, if we run into nouns from diverging genres, we will state all of them in the masculine form.

EXAMPLE: 

• Alberto y María son bajos y rubios (Alberto and Maria are short and blond)

HOW TO PLACE SPANISH ADJECTIVES

Unlike English, Spanish adjectives tend to come after the noun they are attached to. However, this is quite a flexible rule. Let us see some examples:

• NOUN + ADJECTIVE

Sofía tiene el pelo rubio y los ojos azules (Sofia has blond hair and blue eyes)

José lleva un reloj digital y zapatos negros (José is wearing a digital watch and black shoes)

• SER/ESTAR + ADJECTIVE

Creo que Marta no es interesante. Nunca está informada de nada (I think Marta is not interesting. She is never informed about anything at all)

Paco es muy majo y tranquilo (Paco is very nice and quiet).

KEEP IN MIND:

Although Spanish adjectives will generally come after the noun they are attached to, they may at certain times come before, but this will imply a complete change in the phrase’s meaning:

Una gran ciudad (A great city): a metrópolis, an exciting place to live

Una ciudad grande (A big, large city): one which a considerable physical extension

When adjectives such as bueno or malo are placed before a masculine noun, the last vowel tends to drop:

• Javier es un buen partido (Javier is a catch)
• Hace mal tiempo (Weather is terrible)

The same happens with grande: ciudad grande (large city), gran ciudad (exciting city).

As you may see, the Spanish adjective agreement rules are quite different from those for English. In this sense, Spanish is not different from “romance” languages like Italian and even French.

English speakers, though, might need to put some extra effort to get these rules through their heads, as they can be effortlessly spotted by making adjective agreement mistakes.

This is important to catch on the fly and correct immediately, as it can become engrained; the longer time we take to fix, the more it will no longer be a mistake to be an error. 

So, since our purpose is for you readers to learn Spanish adjectives seamlessly and, if not being mistaken for native speakers, you at least get to blend in best you can, we will leave you with some exercises that will be of use for sure.

We also hope this article has been enjoyable and enlightening!

EXERCISES

Time is Up!

Time's up

Follow us on YouTube and Facebook!