The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (11 page)

The correct endings here are –a (feminine/singular), –es (masculine/plural), and –as (feminine/plural).

Switching Places

In English, adjectives always precede the noun they modify, but the same is not necessarily true in Spanish. Generally, qualifying adjectives come after the noun and determinant adjectives appear before the noun:

When a noun is modified by two kinds of adjectives, each adjective will stay in its designated place:

If both adjectives are qualifying adjectives, the two are connected with
y
(and):

However, if you wish to emphasize one of the adjectives, drop the
y
and place the more important adjective last:

Moving It Up

Sometimes a qualifying adjective may be moved to precede the noun it modifies. This is often the case when the adjective points to an inherent or obvious characteristic and may be thought of as part of a noun phrase, and it doesn’t add any new information to the phrase:

ESSENTIAL

However, if you wished to emphasize how hot the sun is or how sad the lament, you would move the adjective to the end:
el sol caliente, el lamento triste.
Adjectives indicating subjective judgment or describing abstract nouns may also be moved to precede the noun. This is especially true of
bueno, malo, mejor,
peor, grande,
and
pequeño
:

Some adjectives will have a slightly different meaning based on their location in relation to the noun. Eventually, you’ll be able to sense the difference in meaning, but for now it might be useful to commit the following examples to memory:

Adjectives of Nationality

One important subset of adjectives are the adjectives of nationality. These adjectives are formed from country names. Note that only adjectives that end in –a, –e, and –i in the masculine/singular form have two forms (singular and plural). The rest have four forms: add –a to feminine/singular adjectives, –os to masculine/plural, and –as to feminine/plural forms.

Making Comparisons

Adjectives in English as well as in Spanish may be presented in the comparative form. The following constructions may be used to indicate adjectival comparison:

Mi hermana es más simpática que la tuya.

My sister is nicer than yours.

Esta película es menos interesante que la de ayer.

This movie is less interesting than the one from yesterday.