Spanish adjectives
Spanish adjectives are similar to those in most other Indo-European languages. They are generally postpositive, and they agree in both gender and number with the noun they modify.
Inflection and usage
Spanish adjectives can be broadly divided into two groups: those whose lemma ends in -o, and those whose lemma does not. The former generally inflect for both gender and number; the latter generally inflect just for number. Frío, for example, inflects for both gender and number. When it is used with a masculine singular noun, the masculine singular form frío is used. When it is used with a feminine singular noun, it becomes fría; -a is generally the feminine singular ending for adjectives that inflect for gender. When it is used with a masculine plural noun, it becomes fríos, and when it is used with a feminine plural noun, it becomes frías; -s is the plural marker for both the masculine and feminine with adjectives that inflect for gender. Thus:- frío → frío, fría, fríos, frías
- pequeño → pequeño, pequeña, pequeños, pequeñas
- rojo → rojo, roja, rojos, rojas
- caliente → caliente, caliente, calientes, calientes
- formal → formal, formal, formales, formales
- verde → verde, verde, verdes, verdes
Spanish adjectives are very similar to nouns and are often interchangeable with them. Bare adjectives can be used with articles and thus function as nouns where English would require nominalization using the pronoun one. For example:
- El rojo va aquí/acá, ¿no? = "The red one goes here, doesn't it?"
- Tenemos que tirar las estropeadas = "We have to throw away the broken ones"
- lo extraño = "the strange thing, the strange part"
- lo inusual = "the unusual thing, the unusual part"
Spanish adjectives are generally postpositive, that is, they come after the noun they modify. Thus el libro largo, la casa grande, los hombres altos, etc. There are, however, a small number of adjectives, including all ordinal numerals as well as words such as otro and todo, that must be placed before the noun they modify. There are also a small number that can be placed both before and after the noun and that change meaning according to that positioning, and some adjectives, especially those that form something of a fixed phrase with the noun, alta montaña ), can be placed before or after the noun with little change in meaning.
Apocope
A small number of adjectives have apocopic forms: forms in which the final sound or two is dropped in certain environments. They are:Base form | Apocopic form | Environment |
alguno | algún | before masculine singular nouns |
bueno | buen | before masculine singular nouns |
ciento | cien | before nouns and, in composite numbers, before numbers greater than or equal to mil |
cualquiera cualesquiera | cualquier cualesquier | before the noun |
grande | gran | before singular nouns |
malo | mal | before masculine singular nouns |
ninguno | ningún | before masculine singular nouns |
primero | primer | before masculine singular nouns |
tercero | tercer | before masculine singular nouns |
uno | un | before masculine singular nouns; also used in place of una in certain environments |
Apocopic forms are used even when the word does not come immediately before the noun: algún fresco pan, el primer gran árbol, ningún otro hombre, etc. In the case of grande, which is the only apocopic adjective with regular comparative and superlative forms, the comparative and superlative apocopate in the same manner as the positive: la más gran casa but la casa más grande, el más gran coche de los dos but el coche más grande de los dos, etc. If a conjunction intervenes between the adjective and the noun, however, apocopic forms are not used: esta grande y bella casa, el primero o segundo día, etc.
Words that change meaning
Several adjectives change meaning depending on their position: either before or after the noun. They are:Before noun | Word | After noun |
former | antiguo | ancient |
certain | cierto | certain |
darn | dichoso | lucky, happy |
great, impressive | grande | large |
half- | medio | middle, average |
same | mismo | itself |
another, different | nuevo | brand new |
unfortunate | pobre | poor |
own | propio | proper |
sheer | puro | pure |
only | único | unique |
former, long-standing | viejo | old, aged |
Comparatives and superlatives
Comparatives are normally expressed with the adverbs más and menos followed by the adjective; the object of comparison is introduced with the particle que. For example, X es más grande que Y. Superlatives are also expressed with the adverbs más and menos, but this time with a definite article preceding the noun: la persona más interesante ; the object of comparison is introduced with the preposition de. The adjectives bueno, malo, joven, and viejo have irregular comparative forms: mejor, peor, menor, and mayor, respectively. Mejor and peor are placed before the nouns they modify: la mejor cosa,, el peor libro, etc.Because the definite article is, along with más or menos, the superlative marker, the comparative is grammatically indistinguishable from the superlative when used with it; an additional qualifier phrase such as de los dos must therefore be used to indicate that the adjective is the comparative and not the superlative.
The superlative
Instead of putting muy, "very" before an adjective, one can use a special form called the superlative to intensify an idea. This consists of the suffix -ísimo. This form derives from the Latin superlative, but no longer means "the most...", which is expressed in the ways explained above. Nevertheless, the name is retained for historical reasons.;Regular forms:
- muy rápido → rapidísimo
- muy guapas → guapísimas
- muy rica → riquísima
- muy lento → lentísimo
- muy duro → durísimo
- muy antiguo → antiquísimo
- muy inferior → ínfimo
- muy joven → jovencísimo
- muy superior → supremo
- muy bueno → óptimo
- muy malo → pésimo
- muy grande → máximo*
- muy pequeño → mínimo*
- muy amigo → amicísimo/amiguísimo
- muy áspero → aspérrimo/asperísimo
- muy benévolo → benevolentísimo/not used
- muy célebre → celebérrimo/not used
- muy cruel → crudelísimo/cruelísimo
- muy fácil → facílimo/facilísimo
- muy fiel → fidelísimo/fielísimo
- muy frío → frigidísimo/friísimo
- muy íntegro → integérrimo/integrísimo
- muy libre → libérrimo/librísimo
- muy magnífico → magnificentísimo/not used
- muy mísero → misérrimo/not used
- muy munífico → munificentísimo/not used
- muy pobre → paupérrimo/pobrísimo
- muy sabio → sapientísimo/not used
- muy sagrado → sacratísimo/not used
- muy agrio → acérrimo
As in English and other languages influenced by it, a teenspeak superlative can be formed by the prefix super-, or sometimes hiper-, ultra-, re- or requete-. They can also be written as adverbs separate from the word.
- Superlargo or súper largo = "super-long", "way long"
Suffixes
The suffix -''dor'', -''dora''
Many terms suffixed in -dor, -dora are nouns formed by other nouns or verbs. Usually adjectives correspond to verb + dor/a derived from the three conjugations:-ar verbs | -er verbs | -ir verbs |
agotar → agotador | acoger → acogedor | contribuir → contribuidor |
inspirar → inspirador | merecer → merecedor | corregir → corregidor |
revelar → revelador | poseer → poseedor | medir → medidor |
Examples:
- Los bailes fueron agotadores = "The dances were exhausting"
- Una biografía inspiradora = "An inspiring biography"
-''sitor'', -''sitora''
-poner verbs |
componer → compositor |
exponer → expositor |
oponer → opositor |
Example:
- El lado opositor = "The opposing side"
-''tor'', -''tora''
-ducir verbs | -venir verbs |
conducir → conductor | contravenir → contraventor |
introducir → introductor | intervenir → interventor |
Example:
- Capacidad interventora = "Intervening capacity"