The correct use of adjectives in Spanish

The correct use of adjectives in Spanish

The correct use of adjectives in Spanish is not that difficult if you remember the essential rules. In this post, Mónica, our virtual Spanish teacher, will show you the "secret" behind the Spanish adjectives.

You should watch Mónicas teaching video first to get an idea about how to use the Spanish adjectives correctly. After the video, you can keep reading the additional explanations and try our ultimate adjective quiz.

Plus, you will find a list of Spanish adjectives in alphabetical order and additional exercises at the end of this post.

Learning video: The Spanish adjectives

The basic rule of the use of Spanish adjectives

At first, it's essential always to remember the correct article of the noun the Spanish adjective refers to (el / la / los / las).

It's LA cerveza, that's because you need to say "La cerveza está rica." And it's EL vino, so you need to say "El vino está rico." And it works with nouns in the plural in the same way. If the noun is in the plural, you add "-os" or "-as" at the end of the Spanish adjective.

By the way: you should remember that if there are masculine AND feminine persons or things, the adjective in Spanish is always masculine. For example:

Mónica y Pedro son muy simpáticos.

Even if Mónica is female and Pedro male, you have to use the masculine form of the Spanish adjective.

So in general, it's pretty easy to remember the following rules for the correct use of adjectives in Spanish:

The correct position of the adjective in Spanish

As you might have noticed, the adjective in Spanish is almost always following the noun. But sometimes, the meaning of the whole sentence can change if you put the Spanish adjective in front of the noun.

Pedro es un viejo amigo. 

(= Pedro is an old friend of mine. I know him since I was a child.)

Pedro es un amigo viejo.

(=Pedro is a friend who is old.)

"Pedro es un amigo viejo." In this case, Pedro is an old friend, not a young one, because he's already 76 years old. If the article comes behind the noun, it specifies it.

"Pedro es un viejo amigo."

Here, the meaning of the sentence changes completely. It means that someone knows Pedro for a long time (since 20 years). So Pedro is a "good old friend" to this person, but the Spanish adjective "viejo" doesn't really refer to Pedro's age. He could be 30 years old and you could still say "Pedro es un viejo amigo." Because they know each other since they were 10 years old.

Exceptions: "Neutral" adjectives in Spanish

Some adjectives in Spanish don't change their endings according to the noun. In general, all adjectives that end with a consonant don't change their ending. For example:

It's just "azul" (blue), not "azula" or "azulo." But in the plural, you would add an "-s," of course. You would say: "Tengo tres pantalones azules." (I have three blue trousers.) There're other exceptions for adjectives in Spanish that don't change. It would help if you remembered them. Another example is "amable" (nice). All adjectives in Spanish that end with an "-e" doesn't change in the singular.

Spanish adjectives list

We want to offer you a list of the most common adjectives in Spanish. It would help if you remembered them.

Spanish adjectives quiz!

Learn more Spanish

If you find this article interesting, you might be interested in our other post about learning Spanish:

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THE ULTIMATE “SER VS ESTAR QUIZ”: 20 CHALLENGING EXERCISES

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