Spanish Adjectives

Spanish adjectives change according to the gender and quantity of the nouns they are describing.

Masculine nouns...

Feminine nouns ...

- Add an -s in the plural.

Spanish adjectives with other endings don't change in the feminine, so can be used for both genders.

Plurals

For Spanish adjectives ending in an unstressed vowel:

For Spanish adjectives ending in a consonant or stressed vowel:

Exception:

Spanish adjectives which describe nationality DO change in the feminine, regardless of ending:

When a Spanish adjective describes two nouns, one feminine and one masculine, the masculine plural form is used.

Where do you put them?

Spanish adjectives normally follow the noun they are describing:

However, Spanish adjectives can sometimes be used before a noun, when they describe something intrinsic or given.

Be aware of the following anomalies when Spanish adjectives are placed before the noun:

Some male singular adjectives drop the final –o:

bueno	good	un buen hombre	a good man
malo	bad	un mal hombre	a bad man
uno	one	un año	one year
primero	first	el primer hijo	the first child/son
tercero	third	el tercer coche	the third car

While some Spanish adjectives drop the –o and add an accent:

ciento 100 drops the –o before masculine or feminine plural nouns:

grande changes to gran before either a feminine or masculine noun.

And careful!

Some Spanish adjectives change their meaning depending on where they are placed - before or after the noun:

Spanish adjective	before noun	after noun
antiguo	old – former	old - ancient
algún/alguno	some	any at all
bajo	low, vile	low, short
caro	dear, beloved	dear, expensive
cierto	certain	sure, definite
dichoso	disagreeable, annoying	lucky, fortunate
grande, gran	great	large (size)
medio	half	average
mismo/misma	same, very	him/herself
nuevo	new, another	new, brand new
pobre	unfortunate	poor (no money)
proprio	own	proper, suitable
pura	sheer	pure
raro	rare (few)	strange, odd
único	only	unique
viejo	old (long-time)	old (age)

ser and estar - to be, in Spanish

You can also use an adjective with the verbs, ser and estar

El libro es grande. The book is big (permanently).
La chica está delgada. The girl is slim (temporarily).

ser + adjective / estar + adjective

Some Spanish adjectives can also change in meaning, depending on whether ser (to indicate a permanent state) or estar (to express a temporary condition) is used. For example:

Adjective	with ser	with estar
listo	es listo - he’s clever	está listo – he’s ready
alegre	es alegre – she's happy (by nature)	está alegre – she's happy (mood)
cierto	es cierto – it's true	está cierto – he's certain, assured

Note: es/está = he/she/it is

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