Spanish Adjectives: Types, Placement, and Examples

Spanish adjectives describe nouns, and using them correctly rests on two rules: agreement and position. Unlike English adjectives, they change form to match the noun they describe.

Agreement (Gender and Number)

Every adjective matches the gender and number of its noun:

• Masculine singular: the base form (alto for tall, rojo for red).
• Feminine singular: adjectives ending in -o change to -a (alta, roja).
• Plural: add -s after a vowel and -es after a consonant.

Two exceptions are worth noting. Adjectives ending in -e or a consonant are gender-neutral and only change for number (un coche grande becomes unos coches grandes). Adjectives of nationality ending in a consonant add -a for the feminine (un hombre español becomes una mujer española).

Examples: un coche rojo (a red car), una casa roja (a red house), unos coches rojos (some red cars), unas casas rojas (some red houses).

Position

The default rule is that descriptive adjectives follow the noun (un libro interesante), the opposite of English. Certain groups precede the noun instead: quantifiers such as mucho (a lot) and poco (few); cardinal and ordinal numbers (tres libros, el primer día); and short-form possessives such as mi (my) and tu (your). Demonstratives such as este and ese also go before the noun and agree with it, covered in full on the demonstratives page.

Shortened Forms (Apocopation)

A few adjectives drop their final vowel or syllable directly before a masculine singular noun: bueno becomes buen (un buen día), malo becomes mal (un mal momento), primero becomes primer (el primer día), tercero becomes tercer (el tercer piso), uno becomes un (un libro), ninguno becomes ningún (ningún problema) and alguno becomes algún (algún día). The adjective grande is the exception: it shortens to gran before any singular noun, whether masculine or feminine (un gran hombre, una gran mujer).

Comparatives

Comparisons follow regular patterns:

• Superiority (more than): más + adjective + que. María es más alta que Juan.
• Inferiority (less than): menos + adjective + que. Juan es menos alto que María.
• Equality (as ... as): tan + adjective + como. Juan es tan alto como Pedro.

Note that más que is used for standard comparisons, while más de is required before numbers (Tengo más de veinte libros). Four adjectives have irregular comparatives that do not use más: bueno becomes mejor (better), malo becomes peor (worse), grande becomes mayor (older or greater) and pequeño becomes menor (younger or lesser).

Superlatives

The relative superlative expresses the highest degree within a group, using a definite article with the comparative structure: María es la más alta de la clase (María is the tallest in the class). The absolute superlative expresses extreme intensity without comparison, formed by dropping the final vowel and adding -ísimo, -ísima, -ísimos or -ísimas (alto becomes altísimo). Spelling adjusts to preserve pronunciation: rico becomes riquísimo, largo becomes larguísimo and feliz becomes felicísimo.

The Neuter Article Lo

The neuter article lo turns an adjective into an abstract noun: Lo difícil es empezar (The difficult part is starting) and Lo importante es la salud (The important thing is health). The phrase lo que translates to "what" or "the thing that", as in No entiendo lo que dices (I don't understand what you are saying).