Adjectives and Nouns Agreement in Spanish

Adjectives and Nouns Agreement in Spanish

Noun/Adjective Agreement

En español, the noun and adjective must agree in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural).

Plural Adjectives

En inglés adjectives are not plural. But en español, if the noun is plural, so is the adjective.

En inglés, one boy is tall, and two boys are tall. Two boys aren't talls (plural adjective).

But en español, two boys are "talls" - altos.

You gettin' this?

Multiple Choice

el chico _____

• guapo

• guapos

Multiple Choice

los chicos _____

• guapo

• guapos

Multiple Choice

la clase _____

• grande

• grandes

Multiple Choice

unas clases _____

• grande

• grandes

Gender - Masculine and Feminine

En inglés, adjectives (words in general) do not have gender. A boy is tall, and a girl is tall. The word "tall" does not change.

En español, of course, the word does change. A boy is alto, and a girl is alta because the gender of the adjective agrees with the noun.

However, the adjective doesn't always change. Generally, only the adjectives that end in "o" or "a" change. Otherwise, the same word can describe a boy and a girl. For example, a boy is inteligente and a girl is inteligente (because inteligente doesn't end in "o" or "a").

You gettin' this?

Multiple Choice

la profesora _____

• inteligentes

• inteligente

Multiple Choice

un chico _____

• bajo

• baja

Multiple Choice

una chica _____

• baja

• bajo

Noun/Adjective Agreement

So ... en español, the noun must agree with the adjective in number and gender.

A boy is alto, but two boys are altos. However, two girls are altas. Boys and girls are both interesantes (plural, but the word ends in "e" so it works for boys and girls).

If you have a mixed group of masculine and feminine things (like boys and girls), then you use the masculine adjective to describe them all. So the boys are bajos, and the girls are bajas. But the boys and girls are bajos.

You gettin' this?

Multiple Choice

la profesora _____

• bonita

• bonito

• bonitas

• bonitos

Multiple Choice

unas profesoras

• bonita

• bonitas

• bonitos

• bonito

Multiple Choice

los chicos _____

• guapo

• guapas

• guapos

• guapa

Multiple Choice

los estudiantes _____

• inteligente

• inteligentas

• inteligenta

• inteligentes

Multiple Choice

los chicos y chicas _____

• serias

• serios

• serio

• seria

Noun/Adjective Word Order

Lastly, Spanish often feels like it is backwards for English speakers. En inglés, when you have a noun and adjective right next to each other in a sentence, the adjective is first, and the noun is second - short boy or old woman.

En español, the noun comes first - chico bajo (boy short) or mujer vieja (woman old).

You gettin' this?

Multiple Choice

el _____ _____

• chico serio

• serio chico

Multiple Choice

el _____ _____

• profesor cómico

• cómico profesor

Multiple Choice

la _____ _____

• estudiante inteligente

• inteligente estudiante

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