Adjectives: agreement and position

Adjectives agree with the noun in gender and number and usually come after it: una casa blanca.

Position

• After the noun (normal): un coche rojo, una película interesante.
• Before the noun: quantity and some common adjectives: mucho dinero, otra vez, una buena idea.
• bueno, malo, primero, tercero drop -o before a masc. singular noun: un buen día, el primer piso.
• grande → gran before any singular noun, meaning “great”: una gran ciudad.

Examples

• Mi hermana es alta y simpática.My sister is tall and nice.
• Tengo unos amigos ingleses.I have some English friends.
• Hace buen tiempo.The weather is nice.
• Madrid es una gran ciudad.Madrid is a great city.
• Tienen una casa blanca y grande.They have a big white house.

Common mistakes

• ✗ un rojo coche✓ un coche rojoMost adjectives come after the noun. English puts them before it, so this is the most common word-order slip.
• ✗ los coches rojo✓ los coches rojosSpanish adjectives agree in number with the noun. English adjectives never change, so the -s is easy to forget.
• ✗ una casa blanco✓ una casa blancaCasa is feminine, so the adjective ends in -a. English “white” stays the same for every noun.
• ✗ Mi madre es alto.✓ Mi madre es alta.The adjective agrees with the person described, not with the speaker or the verb, so a woman is alta.
• ✗ Los libros son interesante.✓ Los libros son interesantes.Adjectives ending in -e do not change for gender but they still add -s in the plural.