Think of tres palabras en español  that describe yourself.  Apúntalas. Think of tres palabras en español to describe your familia.  Apúntalas. Think of tres palabras en español to describe your escuela. Apúntalas. Think of cinco things en español that you have.  For each, think of a word en español that describes it.  Now write this en español.

What have you been doing?  You've been describing things (nouns) with adjectives.  By definition, adjectives are words that modify nouns.  In real life, that's exactly what they are.  How convenient that a grammatical definition reflects reality.

This page will speak specifically about adjectives- how they are used, where they are placed, when they are shortened, etc.   You probably already know the basics, but there are some specific things that I am certain will be new for you.
 

In this page Forms Placement Shortening Otras páginas mías sobre adjetivos: Possessives Demonstratives Comparisons

As we know, adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify.  Some adjectives agree in number (singular/plural) and gender(masculine/femenine), while other must agree in just number ( because they have no distinction masculine/femenine).

So how can you tell if an aadjective has to change gender?  Remember that all "base" words are expressed in the dictionary- or on tests- in the masculine, singular form.  So you can tell if the word will change by looking at its masculine,singular form.

• If it ends in "o", it will have 4 forms- ending in o, a, os, as
• If it ends in "dor", it will have 4 forms- dor, dora, dores, doras
• If it is a nationality, it will have 4 forms- change the "o" to "a" (mexicano>mexicana), or add an "a" if the word ends in a consonant (inglés> inglesa; alemán > alemana, etc.)  Note:  You may need to change the written accent if you do this!
• If the adjective does not end in "o", "dor" or is not a nationality, it will not have separate masculine/femenine forms.  (You know a bunch of these:  fácil, inteligente, feliz, bastante, difícil, etc.)  These must agree in number  only.
• Follow regular singular > plural rules for making adjectives agree (add "s" if it ends in a vowel, "es" if it ends in a consonant, and change "z" to "c" before adding "es")
• "CADA" has only one form.  You are looking at it.

As we know, most of the time adjectives in Spanish follow the noun.  You may have actually done this when you did the opening activity for this page.  What did you write for the five items you have that you described?  This rule will hold true, but we will also look at when adjectives preceed the noun.

First we have to break the topic of adjectives into two categories, and this is very important- but easy.  Adjectives generally fall into one of two categories:

• Descriptive Adjectives:  these describe characteristics or features of nouns.  Un libro interesante= An interesting book; Un árbol grande= A big tree.

• Limiting Adjectives:  These tell you which one or how many of something.  Mi libro= My book; Varios árboles= Several trees.

Descriptive adjectives can preceed the noun, but pay attention to why, or what happens.
 

• The meaning of the adjective can change:  Napoleon fue un gran hombre, pero no fue un hombre grande.  Napoleon was a great man, but he was not a big man.  What does "grande" mean?  In this sentence we can see that it has two meanings, one when it preceeds the noun and another when it follows.   The usual meaning of "grande" is "big", but it changed to "great" (=famous, outstanding) when it preceeded the noun.  There are a number of adjectives that can change meaning when their general placement is changed.

Some examples of the above:
 

• Vivo en una casa antigua.  I live in an old house.  Juan es un antiguo amigo mío.  Juan is an old friend of mine.
• El compró un coche nuevo.  He bought a new car.  Condujo su nuevo coche hoy.  He drove his new (to him) car today.
• No tiene dinero.  Es hombre pobre.  He doesn't have any money.  He's a poor man.  Está enfermo otra vez.  ¡Pobre hombre! He's sick again.  Poor  (unforunate) man!
• El ladrón mismo regresó.  The robber himself came back.  El mismo ladrón regresó.  The same robber came back.

• la blanca nieve- white snow
• las rojas manzanas- red apples
• las verdes hojas- green leaves

• Las verdes manzanas - green apples, like "Granny Smith" apples.
• Las manzanas verdes- green apples, not yet ripe

Es un hombre bueno (malo).  or  Es un buen (mal) hombre.  = He's a good (bad) man.
 

This might be a good time to look at some "limiting" adjectives.  Again, these tell you which one or how many or how much of something.
Here are some of the more common ones:

• Ordinal numbers: primero, segundo, tercero, cuarto, quinto, sexto, séptimo, octavo, noveno, décimo
• Quantity: algunos, cada, ningunos, mucho, poco, varios, unos, menos, más, todo, tanto, numerosos
• Demonstratives: este, ese, aqUEL
• Possessives: mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro; mío, tuyo, suyo, nuestro, vuestro

Some adjectives shorten their forms, and you've seen this happen.  Es buen día.  Hace mal tiempo.  Algún día...
There are specific words, and specific rules to follow.
 
 

• bueno > buen  buen hombre, but buena mujer
• malo > mal mal hombre, but mala mujer
• primero > primer primer día, but primera persona
• tercero > tercer  tercer día, but tercera persona
• uno > un un día, but una persona

• alguno > algún algún día, but alguna persona
• ninguno > ningún ningún libro, but ninguna persona

Let's practice with some translations.  Translate the English adjective into SPanish, and write the correct phrase on your paper, being careful to place the adjective correctly and put it into its correct form.

• good libro
• talkative mujer
• bad día
• no disco
• first página
• one hundred personas
• some muchachas
• happy niños
• tall picos
• first planeta
• Saint Carlos
• third viaje
• Saint Bárbara
• good noticias
• some drama
• poor hombre (no tiene dinero)
• poor woman (unfortunate)
• bad versos