Adjectives and Subject Agreement On this lesson you will learn how adjectives changed based on what they are describing. In Spanish, adjectives have two specific rules that are very different from English: 1) Adjectives must agree with the gender and the number of the noun they describe. 2) Adjectives are generally placed after the noun. Adjectives-adjetivos What are adjectives? Adjective – a word that describes a noun or distinguishes it from a group of other nouns. Adjective Agreement 1) Adjectives that ends in an “o” have four forms: masculine, feminine, singular and plural. Use these chart to help: Let’s look at the word for “short” Singular Plural bajo- masculine bajos-masculine baja-feminine bajas-feminine 2) The article, noun, and adjective must match in gender and number. Examples: The short boy = el chico bajo The short girl = la chica baja The short boys = los chicos bajos The short girls = las chicas bajas 3) Adjectives that end in an “e” or a consonant have two forms: singular and plural. Singular popular -masculine/feminine el chico popular-masculine la chica popular- feminine el chico inteligente- masculine la chica inteligente- feminine Plural populares -masculine/feminine (pl.) los chicos populares-masculine plural las chicas populares-feminine plural los chicos inteligentes- masculine or mix group(pl.) las chicas inteligentes-feminine (pl.) Gender/Number We learned that all Spanish adjectives have four forms: masculine, singular; feminine, singular; masculine, plural; and feminine plural. The following are the rules for creating each form: 1) Masculine singular: generally, you will be given the masculine, singular form of an adjective in the dictionary, so you make no changes. Examples: alto-tall listo-smart/ready 2) Feminine singular: In order to make a masculine adjective feminine, you simply drop the “o” and add an "a." Examples: alta-tall lista-smart/ready 3) Masculine and Feminine plural: you will add an "s" to the end of your masculine or feminine singular form, when it ends in a vowel (a,e,i,o or u). Examples: Singular The intelligent girl= la chica lista The intelligent boy= el chico listo Plural The intelligent girls= las chicas listas The intelligent boys= los chicos listos 4)Masculine and feminine plural: Adjectives that end in “e” or a consonant have only two forms. They only agree in number (singular/plural) with the nouns they modify. Examples: Singular The intelligent boy = el muchacho inteligente The intelligent girl = la muchacha inteligente Plural The intelligent boys = los muchachos inteligentes The intelligent girls = las muchachas inteligentes Singular The popular boy = el chico popular The popular girl = la chica popular Plural The popular boys = los chicos populares The popular girls = las chicas populares 5) Masculine and feminine plural: Adjectives that end in –z change the –z to –c, then add –es Examples: feliz > felices Singular el chico feliz=the happy boy la chica feliz=the happy girl Plural los chicos felices = the happy boys las chicas felices = the happy girls 6) Masculine and feminine plural: Adjectives that end in -ista ONLY agree in number with the nouns they modify. Singular Mirna es realista. (singular) Timoteo es idealista. (singular) Plural Ellos son realistas. (pl.) Ellos son optimistas.(pl.) Remember if an adjective ends in a vowel, simply add an “s” to make if plural. If it ends in a consonant, you add an “es”. Placement In English an adjective comes before the word it is describing and has one form. Examples: the red car -Before car the red cars- it has the same form even though there are more cars 1) The general rule for adjective placement in Spanish is the opposite of English, meaning that adjectives will normally go after the noun. Examples: a blue car = un carro azul a tall girl= una chica alta a tall boy=un chico alto some tall students=unos chicos altos 2) Adjectives of quantity are placed before the modified noun. Examples: Hay muchos estudiantes en la clase. There are a lot of students in the classroom. Hay dos estudiantes. There are two students. This video explains adjectives in Spanish This adjective chart is a great review Gender/Number We learned that all Spanish adjectives have four forms: masculine, singular; feminine, singular; masculine, plural; and feminine plural. Here is a good example Interactive Online Activities
2 Comments
Mireya Mancera
10/3/2021 05:22:50 pm
Mirna,
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