Adjective Agreement

Spanish: La concordancia de los adjetivos

Level: A1 Beginner

Category: adjectives

Explanation

In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. This means they change their form according to the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun. For example, we say "el chico alto" (the tall boy) but "la chica alta" (the tall girl), and "los chicos altos" but "las chicas altas". Most adjectives end in -o in their masculine form. To form the feminine, we change the -o to an -a: "rojo" becomes "roja". For the plural, we add -s if the word ends in a vowel ("altos", "altas") or -es if it ends in a consonant ("azules", "fáciles"). Some adjectives do not change according to gender. Those ending in -e (grande, inteligente, verde) or in a consonant (azul, joven, fácil) have the same form for masculine and feminine. They only change in the plural: "el coche verde" and "la casa verde", but "los coches verdes" and "las casas verdes". Agreement is fundamental in Spanish. A mistake in the gender or number of an adjective sounds strange to native speakers, so it is important to practice this concept from the very beginning.

Examples

• El café está muy caliente. - The coffee is very hot.
• Quiero una habitación grande, por favor. - I want a big room, please.
• Las manzanas rojas son muy dulces. - The red apples are very sweet.
• El museo tiene unas salas enormes. - The museum has some enormous halls.
• Necesito dos billetes baratos para Madrid. - I need two cheap tickets to Madrid.