Descriptive adjectives

1
Descriptive adjectives

• Pluralization, gender, agreement, and meaning

2
Pluralization

• We add a s to adjectives that end with a
  non-accented vowel
• We add an es to adjectives that end in a
  consonant or an accented vowel
• If an adjective ends with the letter z, then we
  erase the z and add ces

ambicioso ambiciosos
interesante interesantes
egoísta egoístas
trabajador trabajadores
marroquí marroquíes
laboral laborales
capaz capaces
falaz falaces
feliz felices
3
Gender

• The majority of the adjectives that end with a
  are feminine.
• Una gente diversa
• Una persona honesta
• The majority of the adjectives that end with o
  are masculine.
• Un país muy diverso
• Un hombre honesto
• Adjectives ending in ista o ta can be
  masculine or feminine.
• Un hombre idealista, la mujer idealista
• Los países capitalistas, las compañías
  capitalistas
• El político demócrata, la organización demócrata
• Adjectives ending in e or a consonant do not
  express genderthey only have two forms
  singular and plural.
• Una profesora inteligente, un profesor
  inteligente, las niñas inteligentes, los
  estudiantes inteligentes
• Una persona útil, un carro útil, unas
  herramientas útiles, unos trucos útiles
• A group of adjectives that ends with a consonant
  (those that express nationality or end with
  dor), have a special feminine ending.
• Una estudiante alemana
• Dos novelas españolas
• Una persona muy trabajadora

4
Agreement

• Adjectives and nouns agree in grammatical number
  and gender.
• Rosas rojas
• Clavel perfumado
• An adjective that refers to two or more nouns
  needs to be pluralized.
• Cielo, paisaje y mar sureños.  
• Canción y copla nostálgicas.
• An adjective that refers to two nouns with
  different genders has to take the masculine
  gender.
• Viento y lluvia huracanados.  
• Romance y balada antiguos.

5
Agreement Special Cases

• The adjective with two forms (the short preceding
  form and long suceding form).
• There is a group of adjectives that have two
  forms. We use the short form before a noun and
  the long form after the noun.
• Un buen hombre / un hombre bueno
• Un gran evento / un evento grande
• Un mal agüero / un agüero malo
• The adjective santo
• We use Santo only when the word procedes a name
  that begins with To o Do
• San Juan
• Santo Tomás
• Santo Domingo
• An adjective that modifies various nouns
• A suceding adjective agrees in singular with the
  collective noun or in plural with the complement
  of a noun.
• Tropel de palabras injusto, impropio.   (con el
  sustantivo colectivo)
• Tropel de palabras injustas, impropias. (con el
  complemento del sustantivo)
• A preceding adjective that modifies various
  nouns.
• The adjective agrees only with the noun that is
  closest to it in proximity.
• la preceptiva autorización y control médicos
• The adjective agrees in number with both nouns
  only when it refers to two people.
• los simpáticos Paco y Toni

6
Location and descriptive meaning

• Adjectives almost always follow the noun that
  they describe in Spanish, because they are
  restricted to describing its real or
  objectively observable characteristics.
• Un amigo bueno
• Una voz rara
• Unos carros verdes
• When we express quantity, however, we have to
  make sure the adjective precedes the noun it
  describes.
• Primer viaje
• Varios amigos
• Poco tiempo
• Otra lección
• Algún día
• Esta camisa / aquél sombrero
• Also, if we want to call attention to a noun for
  explicative or emotional reasons, we need to
  place the adjective before the noun.
• El extravagante negociante
• El mejor amigo
• La conocida escritora
• La blanca nieve (sentido poético)