How do Spanish adjectives agree with nouns?
Spanish adjectives agree with nounsNo definition set for nounsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. in gender and number. Nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine (in genderNo definition set for genderLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.) or singular or plural (in numberNo definition set for numberLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.), and the adjectives that describe these nouns must change their endings to agree with the gender and number of the noun. There are also different agreementNo definition set for agreementLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. rules depending on the type of adjective. This is different from English adjectives, which remain the same regardless of the nouns they describe. If you are curious about learning how adjectives agree with nouns in Spanish, read on!
Table of Contents
What is an adjective, and what is adjective agreement?
An adjective is a word used to describe a noun. Adjective agreement, then, is the process in which an adjective matches the gender and number of the noun it describes.
For example: el caballo blanco(The white horse), la manzana deliciosa(the delicious apple). There are two things you need to know about Spanish adjectives: a) how they agree with the noun they describe and b) and where Spanish adjectives are placed in the phrase. In this post we will discuss the first point.
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. This means that when you want to form a phrase that contains a noun and an adjective that describes it, you need to ask yourself:
Is the noun masculine or feminine?
Is the noun singular or plural?
So, if the noun that goes with the adjective is masculine singular, the adjective must also be masculine and singular. For example, in (1) below, the noun gato(cat) is masculine singular and the adjective that accompanies the noun loco(crazy) is also masculine and singular, as indicated by the ending –o. The same applies to (2): casas(houses) is a feminine plural noun and the adjective rojas(red) is feminine –a and plural –s.
- masculine
El gato loco
The crazy cat
- feminineplural
Las casas rojas
The red houses
To know how to identify the gender of nouns in Spanish, take a look at our post for a refresher. For now, let’s continue with exploring adjective agreement in more detail.
What are the forms of agreement?
The forms of agreement depend on the ending of the adjective, whether they end in –o, a different vowel, or a consonant, let's go over these endings next:
Adjectives that end in ‘–o’
The majority of Spanish adjectives end in –o in the masculine singular form. For these adjectives, these are the rules we need to follow:
In order to form the feminine singular form, we must replace the ending –o with –a.
In order to form the masculine and the feminine plural forms, we add an –s to the singular form.
Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
–o | –os | –a | –as |
el niño simpático the nice boy | los niños simpáticos the nice boys | la niña simpática the nice girl | las niñas simpáticas the nice girls |
This little rule covers the majority of the cases, but if you are curious for more details, let’s move on!
Adjectives that end in a vowel other than ‘-o’
Some Spanish adjectives end in a vowelNo definition set for vowelLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. other than –o. For instance, we can find adjectives ending in:
–a → lila(lilac, purple)
including the ending –ista → optimista(optimistic)
–e → interesante(interesting)
–i → cursi(cheesy)
–u → zulú(Zulu)
If we have an adjective ending in a vowel other than –o, this is the easiest case because:
These adjectives have the same masculine singular and feminine singular form, for example:
el perro inteligente
the intelligent dog
la experiencia interesante
the interesting experience
el pantalón lila
the purple pants
la puerta lila
the purple door
The plural is formed by adding -s to the singular forms.
Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ending | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
– | –s | – | –s | |
–a | el niño belga the Belgian boy | los niños belgas the Belgian boys | la niña belga the Belgian girl | las niñas belgas the Belgian girls |
–e | el libro interesante the interesting book | los libros interesantes the interesting books | la novela interesante the interesting novel | las novelas interesantes the interesting novels |
–i | el poema cursi the cheesy poem | los poemas cursis the cheesy poems | la novela cursi the cheesy novel | las novelas cursis the cheesy novels |
–u | el estudiante hindú the Indian student | los estudiantes hindús* the Indian students | la comida hindú the Indian food | las comidas hindús the Indian foods |
*If an adjective ends in -i or -u and this vowel is stressed, then both plural forms are accepted in Spanish (hindús-hindúes).
Check out our post on plural noun forms in Spanish to learn more.
Adjectives that end in a consonant (other than a stressed vowel + n/–or)
Some other adjectives end in a consonant (difícil, "difficult"; azul, "blue"). As a general rule, these adjectives work almost the same as the adjectives ending in a vowel (other than -o):
They have the same singular masculine and feminine form.
The plural is formed by adding -es.
Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
– | –es | – | –es |
el mar azul the blue sea | los mares azules the blue seas | la pregunta difícil the difficult question | las preguntas difíciles the difficult questions |
There are two important aspects for adjectives ending in a consonant that require special mention:
Adjectives that end in –z (feliz, "happy"; capaz, "capable") change to –c (felices, "happy" ; capaces, "capable") in the plural form.
Nationality adjectives that end in a consonant form the feminine by adding an –a to the masculine form: español - española ("Spanish"), alemán - alemana ("German").
Adjectives that end in a stressed vowel + ‘n’ / ‘–or’
Adjectives that end in a stressed vowel + n/-or do not work like the adjectives mentioned in the previous section, even though they end in a consonant. For adjectives that end in “-or” or in a stressed vowel “+ n” (catalán, "Catalan"; cabezón, "large-headed"), the masculine follows the rules for adjectives that end in a consonant, while the feminine follows the rules for adjectives that end in –a. That is:
The feminine singular is formed by adding –a.
The masculine plural form is created by adding –es to the singular form.
The feminine plural form is created by adding –s to the singular form.
Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
– | –es | –a | –as | |
–or adjectives | el equipo ganador the winning team | los equipos ganadores the winning teams | la pareja ganadora the winning couple | las parejas ganadoras the winning couples |
–stressed vowel + n adjectives | el hombre cabezón the large-headed man | los hombres cabezones the large-headed men | la mujer cabezona the large-headed woman | las mujeres cabezonas the large-headed women |
el niño chiquitín the little boy | los niños chiquitines the little boys | la niña chiquitina the little girl | las niñas chiquitinas the little girls | |
As you may have noticed, the adjectives cabezón or chiqutín in the examples above change spelling when they are in the plural: cabezón → cabezones, chiquitín → chiquitines. This is a general rule for “stressed vowel + n” adjectives: they drop the accent mark when they are used in the plural.
Summary
To sum everything up, adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. There are different adjective agreement rules depending on the adjective (i.e., adjectives that end in –o/–a behave one way; adjectives that end in vowels other than –o or in consonants behave another way). Take a look at the table below, to see all of the different adjective agreement rules at a glance!
Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
–o, –a adjectives | –o | –os | –a | –as |
el niño simpático the nice boy | los niños simpáticos the nice boys | la niña simpática the nice girl | las niñas simpáticas the nice girls | |
Adjectives that end in vowel (other than –o) | – | –s | – | –s |
el libro interesante the interesting book | los libros interesantes the interesting books | la novela interesante the interesting novel | las novelas interesantes the interesting novels | |
Adjectives that end in consonant | – | –es | – | –es |
el mar azul the blue sea | los mares azules the blue seas | la pregunta difícil the difficult question | llas preguntas difíciles the difficult questions | |
–or adjectives | – | –es | –a | –as |
el equipo ganador the winning team | los equipos ganadores the winning teams | la pareja ganadora the winning couple | las parejas ganadoras the winning couples | |
–stressed vowel + n adjectives | – | –es | –a | –as |
el hombre cabezón the large-headed man | los hombres cabezones the large-headed men | la mujer cabezona the large-headed woman | las mujeres cabezonas the large-headed women | |
That’s it! It may sound overwhelming, but remember that in the majority of cases you only need to change the -o to -a to make the adjective feminine, and add an -s to make the adjective plural! As always, “practice makes perfect” and if you want to put into practice the rules you just learned, feel free to check out these activities we created on adjective agreement, they also come with a key. Enjoy!
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