Adjectives in Spanish are words that are used to describe people, objects, etc.
Like nouns, adjectives follow some grammatical rules. We are going to look at the order and placement of Spanish adjectives in sentences.
Characteristics and order of Spanish adjectives
Adjectives are words that are used to describe nouns and give more information about them.
For example, the adjective "bonito/a" is an adjective that can be used to talk about someone's physical appearance like this: "She is a pretty girl". As you can see in the example above, the adjective "pretty" was placed after the noun, not before it. However, adjectives in Spanish can be placed before the noun in some cases and mean the same thing.
Adjectives that are always placed before the noun are numerals, possessive adjectives, demonstrative determiners and adverbs of quantity, such as "several, some, few".
One thing you should know is that when using more than one adjective in Spanish in the same sentence, you should separate them using commas. For example: "Él es inteligente, alto, ..." and use the conjunction "y" for the last pair of adjectives: "Él es inteligente, alto y amable".
- Adjectives are placed before the noun in the following situations:
To emphasize a quality: I think it is a good plan.
Using more formal language: You have a wonderful family.
With numbers and possessive adjectives: My house has three rooms.
When listing several adjectives: You have a big, beautiful house.
Types of adjectives
- Qualifying adjectives. These are adjectives that convey a quality of the noun they accompany. For example: The sky is blue; The house is big and comfortable.
Relational. They indicate a relationship between the adjective and the noun to which they refer. For example: School textbook (school); President's house (President); Family reunion (family) State debate (State).
Possessive adjectives, also called possessive determiners, tell us to whom something belongs. For example: That's my jacket. - Personality adjectives convey a person's qualities, emotions, values or behaviour.
- Explanatory adjectives indicate a quality of the noun that is proper to it by virtue of its condition. That is to say, they speak of qualities that are obvious.
