Spanish Adjectives

Spanish Adjectives

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You will learn in this lesson: Spanish adjectives, adjectives ending, Spanish adjectives list.

An adjective (adjetivo) in Spanish or in English is a word used to describe a noun (like size, color, shape...). If you already have an idea about adjectives you can scroll down to the Summery to refresh your memory, otherwise you can start with us from here:

An adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Similar to nouns, an adjective usually end in (~o) for masculine (plural ~os), and (~a) for feminine (plural ~as):

Spanish Adjectives
	singular	plural	singular	plural
masculine	blanco	blancos	alto	altos
feminine	blanca	blancas	alta	altas

-Un hombre alto (a tall man) -Unos hombres altos ( tall men) -Muchos libros (many books)

-Una casa pequeña (a small house) - Unas chicas peligrosas (some dangerous girls) - Muchas cosas (many things)

There are also some adjectives whose masculine singular ends in a consonant and form the feminine by adding -a:

Un amigo frances (a French friend - male-)

Una amiga francesa (a French friend -female-)

Some other adjectives ending in a consonant take the same form for both masculine and feminine:
un chico joven (a young boy)
una chica joven (a young girl)
unos cantantes populares (some popular singers)
unas canciones populares (some popular songs)

Usually descriptive adjectives follow the nouns they modify:
una ciudad limpia (a clean city).

But the tricky part is that Spanish adjectives are different from English adjectives, in English adjectives are found before the noun they modify, while in Spanish usually they're found after the noun they modify. And also because in Spanish the adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.

When they precede the noun, such adjectives change meaning, acquiring a less literal sense:
El mendigo es un hombre pobre. (A beggar is a poor man.)
But: El pobre hombre tiene muchos problemas (The poor guy has many problems)

See how the position can define the meaning intended in the sentence. The first “pobre” means someone who doesn’t have money, but the second “pobre” means someone who deserve pity, and has nothing to do with money.

In most cases adjectives precede the nouns they modify whenever they:
- Express an essential quality:
la dulce miel (the sweet honey)
las verdes hojas (the green leaves)
- Point out, limit or quantify:
este perro (this dog)
su hija (his/ her daughter)
menos caliente (less hot)
tres manzanas (three apples)

Adjectives can be used as nouns, in that case they take a definite article:
Los pobres tienen muchos problemas. (Poor people have many problems.)

Adjectives are occasionally used adverbially:
Jose vive feliz en su granja. (Jose lives happily in his farm.)

So in short these are some rules to follow about the Spanish Adjectives:

Most Spanish adjectives end in (-o), and in order to make them feminine, change the o to an (-a), to make them plural, add -os (plural masculine); or -as (plural feminine).

When the adjective ends in (-a) or (-e), no difference will be made between the masculine and feminine form, and the plural is created by adding (–s).

- pobre ( for both masc & fem singular) - pobres ( for both masc & fem plural)

- egoísta ( for both masc & fem singular) - egoístas ( both genders in plural)

When an adjective ends in any consonant except r, or z, there will be no difference between the masculine and feminine forms, and the plural can be created by adding -es.

- débil (for both genders in singular) - débiles (for both genders in plural).

When an adjective ends with z, no difference will be made to both genders in singular, but in the plural we have to switch z to c and then add the usual -es.

- feliz ( for both genders) - felices ( for both genders in plural)

When an adjective ends in r, the feminine is formed by adding an (-a), the masculine plural by adding -es and the feminine plural by adding -as.

- encantador ( masc singular) - encantadora (fem singular) - encantadores (masc plural) - encantadoras (fem plural)

At the end of this page you will find a list of the most used 101 adjectives.

Summery of Spanish Adjectives:

This is basically what you need to remember about adjectives, and the four forms they take:

Most Spanish adjectives end in o. To make them feminine, change the o to an a. To make them plural, add -os (plural masculine) or -as (plural feminine).

Spanish Adjectives
	singular	plural	singular	plural
masculine	blanco	blancos	alto	altos
feminine	blanca	blancas	alta	altas

This is a list of some adjectives that you might find useful:

List of Adjectives in Spanish
ambitious	ambicioso
American	americano/ americana
annoying	pesado
argumentative	discutidor
bad	malo/ mala
bad-tempered	malhumorado
beautiful	hermoso/ hermosa
big, large	grande
blonde	rubio/ rubia
boring	aburrido
brave	valiente
brunette, tanned skin	moreno/ morena
carefree	despreocupado
careless	descuidado, poco cuidadoso
cautious	prudente, cauteloso, cauto;
certain	cierto
charming	encantador
cheerful	alegre, jovial
Chinese	chino/ china
comical, funny	cómico
conceited	presumido
conservative	conservador
conventional	convencional
coward	cobarde
crazy, nuts	loco, chiflado
cruel	cruel
difficult, hard	difícil
disagreeable	antipático
dull, boring	soso, aburrido
easy	fácil
English	inglés/ inglésa
fat	gordo/ gorda
few, a little	poco
French	francés/ francésa
frequent	frecuente
friendly	amigable, agradable
fun, amusing	divertido
general	general
generous	generoso
German	alemán/ alemána
good	bueno/ buena
handsome	guapo/ guapa
hard-working	trabajador
high, tall	alto/ alta
honest	honesto
intelligent	inteligente
interesting	interesante
kind	amable
laid-back	tranquilo, relajado
lazy	perezoso, vago
little, small	pequeño/ pequeña
low, short	bajo/ baja
loyal	fiel
mean	tacaño
modest	modesto
moody	de humor cambiante
naive	ingenuo, inocentón
narrow-minded	de mentalidad cerrada, intolerante
new	nuevo/ nueva
nice (person)	simpático/ simpática
old	viejo / vieja
open-minded	de actitud abierta, sin prejuicios
perfect	perfecto
personal	personal
pious	piadoso
polite	cortés, educado
poor	pobre
possible	posible
pretty	bonito/ bonita
professional	profesional
proud	orgulloso
rapid, fast	rápido
realistic	realista
recent	reciente
reliable	fiable, confiable
rich	rico/ rica
sad	triste
self-confident	seguro de sí mismo
selfish	egoísta
sensitive	sensible
shy - introverted	tímido, vergonzoso - introvertido
silly, dumb	tonto/ tonta
skinny	flaco/ flaca
slender, slim	delgado/ delgada
slow	lento
small	chiquita
Spanish	español/ española
strict	estricto, severo, riguroso
strong	fuerte
stubborn	terco, testarudo, tozudo
sympathetic (understanding)	comprensivo
talkative	conversador, hablador
trustworthy	digno de confianza
two-faced, fake	falso
ugly	feo/ fea
various	diverso
weak	débil
weird	raro, extraño
white	blanco
young	joven

More Spanish adjectives can be found in the Vocabulary 4000 section.

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Spanish adjectives, adjectives ending, Spanish adjectives list.