logo
  • Programs
    • Preschool
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Adults
    • School Solutions
  • School Solutions
  • Pricing
  • How it Works
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • My Cart
  • Login
  • Try a Free Class

855-997-4652LoginTry a Free Class

  • Programs
    • Preschool
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Adults
    • School Solutions
  • School Solutions
  • Pricing
  • How it Works
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • My Cart
  • Login
  • Try a Free Class
logo
  • Programs
    • Preschool
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Adults
    • School Solutions
  • School Solutions
  • Pricing
  • How it Works
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • My Cart
  • Login
  • Try a Free Class

855-997-4652LoginTry a Free Class

  • Programs
    • Preschool
    • Elementary School
    • Middle School
    • High School
    • Adults
    • School Solutions
  • School Solutions
  • Pricing
  • How it Works
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • My Cart
  • Login
  • Try a Free Class
October 20, 2021 by Olga Put Spanish Grammar 0 comments

A Comprehensive Guide To Spanish Adjectives

Learning Spanish adjectives at an early stage of your Spanish journey is key. 

When you’re a brand-new beginner, nouns and verbs are enough to survive and get your message through. However, if you want to express yourself fully in your new language, Spanish adjectives are what you need.

Read this blog post to learn everything you need to know about Spanish adjectives at the beginner level. I’ll show you how to form them according to Spanish grammar rules. You’ll learn about the types of Spanish adjectives and how to place them in a sentence.

What Are Spanish Adjectives?

Spanish adjectives are one of the 9 parts of speech. Their role is to modify or describe nouns. They give you more information about the nouns, such as their size, color, origin, etc. 

He perdido una cartera negra.
I’ve lost a black wallet.

So far so good, just like in English. What’s different then?

The main difference that you’ll notice is that Spanish adjectives must agree in gender and number with nouns. Moreover, they usually come after nouns in a sentence. 

Gender and Number of Spanish Adjectives

Like Spanish nouns, all Spanish adjectives have gender and number. That’s why, at the beginning, you’ll need to watch out for some things.

When it comes to gender, there are two main endings for Spanish adjectives:

Adjectives That End in O 

For example:

  • alto – tall
  • bajo – short
  • malo – bad

Adjectives that end in o are masculine and will change the ending to a for feminine nouns

  • alto – masculine
  • alta – feminine

Un hombre alto
A tall man.

Una mujer alta
A tall woman.

example

Adjectives That End in Other Letters 

For example:

  • verde – green
  • ágil – agile 
  • común – common
  • popular – popular

The adjectives that end in other letters keep the same ending both for masculine and feminine nouns. 

Uno hombre popular
A popular man

Una mujer popular
A popular woman

Now, let’s look at three ways in which adjectives change their ending with plural nouns. 

1. For adjectives that end in a vowel, add –s to form the plural form

pobre (poor) – pobres

El hombre pobre
The poor man

Los hombres pobres
The poor men

2. For adjectives that end in z, replace z with c and add –es.

capaz (capable) – capaces

El hombre capaz
The capable man

Los hombres capaces
The capable men

3. For adjectives that end in a consonant other than z, just add –es.

 joven (young) – jovenes

El hombre joven
The young man

Los hombres jóvenes
The young men

Spanish adjectives

Types of Adjectives

Now, before you learn about adjective placement, you need to know about different types of adjectives.

Spanish adjectives are divided into two groups: 

  1. Descriptive adjectives (adjetivos calificativos)
  2. Limiting adjectives (adjetivos determinativos)

Let’s take a closer look at each of them. 

Descriptive Adjectives

Descriptive Spanish adjectives describe nouns and tell us about their quality: grande (big), pequeñoI (small), tonto (stupid), inteligente (intelligent), rojo (red), etc. 

El hombre es alto.
The man is tall.

El río está frío.
The river is cold.

Like in any language, there are positive adjectives (guapo – beautiful, inteligente) and negative adjectives (feo, tonto).

Placement of Descriptive Adjectives

1. After the noun

Un hombre alto
A tall man

2. Around the noun; the shorter or less important adjective comes before the noun

Un típico pastel italiano
A typical Italian cake

Un viejo perro callejero
An old street dog

Spanish adjectives

3. Preceding the noun (if the adjective indicates an inherent quality)

La dulce sonrisa de mi hermana
The sweet smile of my sister

La blanca nieve
The white snow

4. Before the noun (for most subjective descriptive adjectives)

El mejor caballo
The best horse

Una mala idea
A bad idea

Limiting Adjectives

Limiting adjectives, or determiners, specify the noun. They always come before the noun, except in two cases that I’ll mention later. They subdivide into the following 7 groups.

1. Demonstrative Spanish Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives in Spanish indicate a specific noun or nouns. There are 12 of them in total: 

  • este, esta, estos, estas – this
  • ese, esa, esos, esas – that
  • aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas – that

Me gusta esta falda.
I like this skirt.

Check out: A Comprehensive Lesson on Demonstrative Adjectives in Spanish 

2. Exclamative Spanish Adjectives

There are two Spanish exclamative adjectives: qué and cuánto. You use them to express strong feelings such as exclamation, admiration, or contempt. You always place an accent mark on them.

¡Qué guapa!
How beautiful!

¡Mira cuántas flores!
Look how many flowers!

Spanish adjectives

3. Indefinite Spanish Adjectives

Indefinite Spanish adjectives describe nouns in a non-specific or general way. They may indicate a vague quantity.

Here are some indefinite Spanish adjectives: 

EnglishSpanish
somealgún
eachcada
manymucho
otherotro
few, a littlepoco
alltodo

Todos los días como fruta.
Every day I eat fruit.

Cada gato tiene bigotes.
Every cat has whiskers.

Read more about indefinite Spanish adjectives here. 

4. Interrogative Spanish Adjectives

There are three interrogative adjectives in Spanish, all with an accent mark: qué (what?), cuál (which?), and cuánto (how many?). You’ll use them to ask questions. 

¿Qué idioma te gusta?
What language do you like?

¿Cuál libro quieres?
Which book do you want?

¿Cuántos zapatos tienes?
How many shoes do you have?

5. Numbers

All the numbers in Spanish are adjectives—both cardinal and ordinal.

As with limiting adjectives, they usually precede the noun. However, some ordinal numbers, if they are part of a name, go after the noun.

Juan Pablo Segundo
John Paul the Second

6. Possessive Spanish Adjectives

Possessive adjectives tell us to whom or to what the noun belongs. You use them instead of the articles. They can come in short and long forms: 

  • mi, mío – my
  • tu/tuyo – your
  • su/suyo – his, her, your 
  • nuestro – our

Short possessives come before the noun like all the other limiting adjectives, but the long-form follows the noun.

Es mi libro.
It’s my book.

Este libro mío fue caro.
This book of mine was expensive.

See also: A Simple Guide to Possessive Adjectives in Spanish

7. Relative Spanish Adjectives

Only two relative adjectives exist in Spanish: 

  • cuyo – whose, of whom 
  • cuanto – as many, as much

Acabo de ver un perro cuya cola era peluda.
I just saw a dog whose tail was fluffy.

Pídeme cuanta ayuda necesites.
Ask me for as much help as you need.

To learn more, check out How to Use Relative Adjectives in Spanish.

Meaning-Changing Adjectives

Last but not least, let me tell you about some adjectives that change the meaning depending on their position in the sentence. 

The meaning will be different if you put an adjective before the noun versus after the noun.

Usually, these adjectives have an objective meaning when they follow a noun, and a more subjective one if they precede it.

Es un gran amigo.
He is a great friend.

Es una casa grande.
It’s a big house.

Es un libro viejo.
It’s an old book.

Es un viejo amigo.
He is a long-time friend.

example

Here are some other adjectives that change meaning depending on their position.

  • alto – top/high class – tall
  • bajo – of low quality – short
  • dulce – good, nice – sweet
  • pobre – unfortunate – poor

If you want to see more meaning-changing adjectives and other Spanish adjectives, take a look at this Massive List of Adjectives. See how many of them you already know and can use!

Practice Spanish Adjectives

Now that you’ve learned so much about Spanish adjectives, it’s time to practice. Theoretical knowledge is useful, but you’ll only remember what you’ve learned if you practice it in a conversation. 

Practice makes perfect and if you’re persistent enough, you’ll get on the bilingual level faster than you think. And being bilingual is not only about knowing another language. Being bilingual helps your brain to sustain cognitive skills in older age!

Don’t wait any longer! Sign up today for a free trial class at Homeschool Spanish Academy. Let our friendly and professional teachers from Guatemala help you reach your fluency goals and practice all types of Spanish adjectives in a 1-to-1 conversation! Check out our affordable pricing and flexible programs!

earn school credit spanish classes online for kids
Sign up for your FREE TRIAL CLASS today!

Ready to learn more Spanish grammar? Check these out!

  • 50 Useful Spanish Transition Words for Everyday Speech and Writing
  • Master the 18 Spanish Tenses (and Take Our Cheat Sheet With You)
  • All About Adverbial Clauses in Spanish
  • The Ultimate Guide to the Differences Between ‘Pero’ and ‘Sino’ in Spanish
  • A Guide to Double Negatives in Spanish
  • Ver Conjugation: Free Spanish Lesson, Exercises, and PDF
  • Common Irregular Informal Commands in Spanish
  • Dialect vs Accent: Is It a Language, Dialect, or Accent?
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Olga Put
Olga Put
Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy
I'm a Spanish philologist, teacher, and freelance writer with a Master's degree in Humanities from Madrid. I speak Polish, Spanish, and English fluently, and want to get better in Portuguese and German. A lover of literature, and Mexican spicy cuisine, I've lived in Poland, Spain, and Mexico and I'm currently living and teaching in Madeira, Portugal.
Olga Put
Latest posts by Olga Put (see all)
  • All About Adverbial Clauses in Spanish - January 8, 2025
  • The Ultimate Guide to the Differences Between ‘Pero’ and ‘Sino’ in Spanish - December 26, 2024
  • Common Irregular Informal Commands in Spanish - November 29, 2024
grammar spanish grammar
1

Related Posts

Spanish for dummies

Spanish for Dummies [Greetings, Questions, Small Talk, and More]

March 10, 2022
Read More
spanish pronouns

3 Types of Spanish Pronouns to Perfect Your Fluency

May 16, 2021
Read More
you formal in Spanish

How to Say ‘You’ in Formal and Informal Spanish

September 21, 2021
Read More
filler words in Spanish

The Ultimate Guide to Filler Words in Spanish for More Natural Conversations

September 27, 2021
Read More

Leave a Comment! Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top 10 Restaurants in Madrid Serving the Best Patatas Bravas EverPrevious Post
13 Ways Halloween is Different From Day of the DeadNext Post

About Us

With over 10 years of experience, HSA is where your goals merge with our teachers’ passion: to improve your Spanish fluency. Custom-tailored to fit your needs, you choose your program, schedule, favorite teachers, pace of learning, and more.. Learn More

Resources

  • About
  • Get a Transcript
  • FAQs
  • How it Works
  • Partners

Recent Posts

  • What to Expect in Your Preschooler’s First Spanish Class
    What to Expect in Your Preschooler’s First Spanish Class
    April 25, 2025
    Nervous about starting Spanish? Here’s...
  • Spanish Songs Your Preschooler Will Love (and Learn From!)
    Spanish Songs Your Preschooler Will Love (and Learn From!)
    April 24, 2025
    Music makes Spanish stick. Here are the...

Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Contact Us© 2022 HSA. All rights reserved.