Adjective Agreement
Adjective Agreement
Spanish adjectives change their ending to match the gender and number of the noun they describe — something English adjectives never do at all, since English adjectives are completely invariant regardless of what they modify.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
-o/-a adjectives change for gender — English adjectives never change at all
el niño alto (tall boy) / la niña alta (tall girl)
tall boy / tall girl — 'tall' never changes in English
Adjectives ending in -o switch to -a to agree with a feminine noun — alto becomes alta. English 'tall' stays exactly the same word no matter what it describes — a tall boy, a tall girl, tall boys — so remembering to actually change the adjective's ending is a genuinely new habit for an English speaker to build.
Plural nouns need plural adjectives too — another layer English skips entirely
los niños altos / las niñas altas
tall boys / tall girls — still just 'tall'
Adjectives also add -s or -es to match a plural noun, on top of matching its gender — so a single adjective can take four different forms (alto/alta/altos/altas) depending on what it's paired with. English's 'tall' stays fixed through all four of those situations, so this is one of the more mechanical habits to drill until it's automatic.
Word order: Spanish usually puts the adjective after the noun; English puts it before
un libro interesante (an interesting book — adjective after)
an interesting book (adjective before, as in English)
English always places descriptive adjectives before the noun. Spanish usually reverses that order for descriptive adjectives — un libro interesante, not un interesante libro — though a handful of common adjectives (like bueno, malo, gran) can go before the noun with a slightly different nuance. Default to putting the adjective after the noun unless you've specifically learned an exception.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| Spanish | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| alto / alta | AHL-toh / AHL-tah | tall |
| bajo / baja | BAH-hoh / BAH-hah | short |
| grande | GRAHN-deh | big |
| pequeño / pequeña | peh-KEH-nyoh / peh-KEH-nyah | small |
| bonito / bonita | boh-NEE-toh / boh-NEE-tah | pretty |
| interesante | een-teh-reh-SAHN-teh | interesting |