How to use adjectives in Spanish: rules and examples

Today, we will learn about a very important topic in the language. Spanish adjectives “Los Adjetivos”.

I will present the basic rules to use these words in simple sentences in spanish through multiple images
and examples.

What are adjectives in Spanish?

Just like adjectives in any other languages, are a part of speech the complements a noun, to qualify it or
describe such noun.

Adjectives are words we use to describe a person, thing or situation.

For instance, if we wanted to describe a house in Spanish, we would think of words like GRANDE,
SIMPATICA, MODERNA, and so on.

Those words that describe the house are adjectives and are often used this way in simple sentences.

Ex.

Maria tiene una casa simpatica.

Maria has a nice house.

Su casa es grande y moderna.

Her house is big and modern.

In these two sentences, the word bonita, grande and moderna are Spanish adjectives we need to
describe a house “la casa”

Where do we place adjectives in Spanish?

This is something really important. As you already know, English adjectives are placed before nouns,
which is why we say a beautiful house not a house beautiful. However, things work the opposite way
with Spanish adjectives as most of the time, they will be placed after the noun they are describing.

Pay attention to the following two examples:

Ella es una hermana flaco.

She is a thin girl.

Es una empressa importante.

Its an important company.

Its also very important to keep in mind that adjectives will be placed after the verbs ser and estar, that is
to be in Spanish, when describing things, people or states.

For example:

Carlos es inteligente.
Carlos is intelligent.

El clima esta frio.

The weather is cold.

There are some exceptions in this rule though. Numbers in Spanish, possessive adjectives demonstrative
adjectives and quantifiers will be placed before nouns.

For example;

Tengo diez anos

I am 10 years old.

Ellos son mis amigos.

They are my friends.

Me puedes prestart esos libros?

Can you lend me those books?

In the last three examples, diez, mis, and esos are special adjectives that will be placed before nouns,
just like in English.

Spanish adjectives are placed before nouns when we want to emphasize a quality or to sound more
formal

For example

Creo que es un buen plan. I think it is a good plan.

Usted tiene una maravillosa familia. You have a wonderful family.

Just remember that most adjectives in Spanish will be placed after nouns, except for numbers,
possessive adjectives and a few others.

Do adjectives change their gender in Spanish?

Yes they do.

Spanish adjectives follow the same rules for the gender of nouns. Basically, you need to change the
gender of adjectives from masculine to feminine, or a vice versa to make it agree with the noun they
modify.

In other words, if you want to describe masculine nouns like libro or camion, you need to use a
masculine adjectives like caro and Nuevo. To say things like “un libro Nuevo” or “un camion caro”.

With this in mind, you can infer you need to use a feminine adjectives like “moderna” to describe a noun
like “computadora”. Here are two more examples:

El futbol es divertibo. Football is fun.

Ella es bonita. She is pretty.

Just remember to make sure that the noun and adjective agree in gender.

Do adjectives have plural form in Spanish?

Yes they sure do.

Unlike English adjectives, Spanish adjectives change from singular to plural depending on the form of the
noun they modify. This means that if you are describing a dog you need to use a singular adjective such
as obediente, but if you are describing several dogs you need to use the same adjective in plural form, in
this case adding the letter – s to the adjective in singular form and saying obedientes.

Check out this two examples:

Mi perro es ebediente. My dog is playful.

Sus perros son juguetones. Your dogs are playful.

The rules to follow are the same we follow for singular and plural nouns in Spanish.

In the last example, we added –es to the adjective jugueton to make it plural.

Lets wrap up the rules for Spanish adjectives.

Remember that most adjectives in Spanish will be placed after the noun, unless they are possessive
adjectives, numbers or you want to emphasize something.

The rules for the gender of nouns also apply to adjectives. We must make sure adjectives agree in
gender with the nouns they modify.

Remember to make Spanish adjectives agree in number too.

We have reached the end of this video. I hope its content was very useful to you. Hasta pronto!

…..

You have probably learned the general rule that says Spanish adjective go after the nouns. Follow the
nouns they modify. BUT! We don’t always follow the basic rule.

Hola como esta. Mi nombre es Rochelle may lumanglas Castillo estoy estudiante. In todays video, were
talking about Spanish adjectives.

So first of all what is an adjectives?

- An adjective describes a noun. Modifies a noun. For instace,

El carro rojo – the red car
La mujer Hermosa – the beautiful woman
Tengo los ojos negros. – I have black eyes.
La camisa simpatica – the nice shirt.
La comida delicioso – the delicious meal.
El vino frances – the French wine.
So here, rojo, Hermosa, negros, simpatico, delicioso, and frances are the adjectives and carro,
mujer, ojos, camisa, comida and vino are the nouns.
As you can see all of these adjectives follow the nouns.