Adjectives in Spanish: Gender and Number Adjetivos en Español: Género y Número
Adjectives in Spanish work in a similar manner as their English equivalents.
They are the part of the sentence that say something about a noun.
Adjectives have both a gender and a number in Spanish.
Gender of Adjectives in Spanish
The gender of adjectives in Spanish is either masculine or femenine.
Adjectives ending in -o in the masculine singular change the -o to -a to form the femenine: blanco - blanca white.
Adjectives of nationality ending in a consonant inthe masculine singular add -a to form the feminine: español - española (Spanish), inglés, inglesa (English), aleman - alemana (German).
Most other adjectives have the same form in both genders: verde (green), fácil (easy), amable (kind, gentle), feliz (happy), mejor (better), peor (worse).
Exception to this Rule:Spanish adjectives ending in -ón, á, -or (but not comparatives ending in -or) add -a to form the feminine: hablador - habladora (talkative), juguetón - juguetona (playful), holgaz&an - holgazana (harag&aamp;n - haragana) (lazy).
Number of Adjectives in Spanish
The number of adjectives is either singular or plural:
To make adjectives plural when the singular ends in a vowel, add -s: blanco - blancos, blanca - blancas, verde - verdes, español - españoles, española - españolas.
To form the plural whenthe singular ends in a consonant add -es(change z to c and add -es): fácil - fáciles, feliz - felices, español - españoles.
An adjective in Spanish modifying 2 or more singular or plural nouns of different genders is in the masculine plural: el hombre y la mujer altos (the tall man and woman).
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with teh noun or pronouns: La casa blanca, el hombre alto, los edificios altos (the white house, the tall man, the tall buildings).
Position of Adjectives in Spanish
When an adjective distinguishes a noun (person or thing) from others of its class, it is called a descriptive adjective.
This kind of adjective is placed after the noun: un hombre alto, una muchacha bonita y un muchacho pobre. (a tall man, a pretty girl and a poor boy).
Some descriptive adjectives are placed before the noun to denote an inherent or logical quality in the person of thing: ¡Pobre muchacho! (Poor boy!), la blanca nieve (the white snow).
When an adjective does not describe a noun, it is called a limiting adjective. This kind of adjective is placed before the noun: dos casas, mi libro y este hombre (two houses, my book and this man).
Before a masculine singular noun, the adjecties bueno (good), malo (bad), alguno (some), ninguno (no one), uno (one), primero (first), and tercero (third) drop the ending -o like this: el primer día (the first day), un buen muchacho (a good boy).
The adjective grande (big, large) can drop it -em, but then it means "great": Un gran hombre (a great man), una gran mujer (a great woman).
Ciento (a hundred) drops its -to before a noun: cien hombres y cien mujeres (a hundred men and a hundred women).
Past participles used as adjecties agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify: el mes pasado (last month), la semana pasada (last week).
