dado que - Notes from ¿Qué tal? - Placement of Adjectives

Notes from ¿Qué tal? - Placement of Adjectives

As you have probably noticed, adjectives do not always precede the noun in Spanish as they do in English. Note the following rules for adjective placement.

Adjectives of quantity like numbers, precede the noun, as do the interrogatives

cuanto/a

cuantos/as

muchas

dos

otro

[1]

Cuánto

Adjectives that describe the qualities of a noun and distinguish it from others generally follow the noun. Adjectives of nationality are included in this category.

bueno

delgada

morena

trabajador

español

The adjectives bueno and malo may precede or follow the noun they modify. When they precede a masculine singular noun, they shorten to buen and mal respectively.

buen

bueno

buena

mal

malo

mala

The adjective grande may also precede or follow the noun. When it precedes a singular noun--masculine or feminine--it shortens to gran and means great or impressive. When it follows the noun, it means large or big.

grande

large

gran

great

impressive

[1] Otro by itself means another or other. The indefinite article is not used with otro.

by Thalia Dorwick, Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Marty Knorre, William R. Glass and Hildebrando Villarreal
Contributed by JB

Verb Conjugator

Please enter a Verb (e.g. comer):

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BabelFish Instant Translation Firefox Addon
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Español Podcast | Spanish Podcast
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Spanish Verb Conjugator (123TeachMe)
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University of Texas at Austin Spanish Proficiency Exercises
WordReference.com
Yabla - Language Immersion Through Online Video

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