An adjective is a word that describes a noun. Adjectives can describe shape, color, size, and many other things about a noun.

Spanish adjectives are very different from English adjectives, for two reasons:

1. Whereas in English, adjectives are always found in front of the noun, Spanish adjectives usually follow the noun that they modify.

2. Spanish adjectives change to agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify. This means that there can be up to four forms of each adjective: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural. But not to worry, we'll go over everything right here. If you've already studied the noun lesson, some of these rules will look familar to you.

I. Most Spanish adjectives end in o. To make them feminine, change the o to an a. To make them plural, add -s.

II. When the adjective ends in a or e, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms, and the plural is created by adding -s.

III. When the adjective ends in any consonant except n, r, or z, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms, and the plural is created by adding -es.

IV. When the adjective ends in z, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms, and the plural is created by changing the z to a c and adding -es. (Why is this?)

V. For adjectives that end in n or r, the feminine is created by adding an a, the masculine plural by adding -es and the feminine plural by adding -as. Peor and mejor are exceptions; they follow rule III.

Position of Spanish Adjectives     Spanish adjectives

More Spanish Grammar     Spanish for Beginners

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