Spanish adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number. Nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine (in gender) or singular or plural (in number), and the adjectives that describe these nouns must change their endings to agree with the gender and number of the noun. There are also different agreement rules depending on the type of adjective. This is different from English adjectives, which remain the same regardless of the nouns they describe. If you are curious about learning how adjectives agree with nouns in Spanish, read on!
What is an adjective, and what is adjective agreement?
An adjective is a word used to describe a noun. Adjective agreement, then, is the process in which an adjective matches the gender and number of the noun it describes.
For example: el caballo blanco meaning The white horse, la manzana deliciosa meaning the delicious apple. There are two things you need to know about Spanish adjectives: (a) how they agree with the noun they describe, and (b) and where Spanish adjectives are placed in the phrase. In this post we will discuss the first point.
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. This means that when you want to form a phrase that contains a noun and an adjective that describes it, you need to ask yourself:
Is the noun masculine or feminine?
Is the noun singular or plural?
So, if the noun that goes with the adjective is masculine singular, the adjective must also be masculine and singular. For example, in (1) below, the noun gato meaning cat is masculine singular and the adjective loco meaning crazy is also masculine and singular, as indicated by the ending –o. The same applies to (2): casas meaning houses is a feminine plural noun and the adjective rojas meaning red is feminine (–a) and plural (–s).
- masculineEl gato locoTranslation: The crazy cat
- femininepluralLas casas rojasTranslation: The red houses
To know how to identify the gender of nouns in Spanish, take a look at our post for a refresher. For now, let’s continue with exploring adjective agreement in more detail.
What are the forms of agreement?
The forms of agreement depend on the ending of the adjective, whether they end in –o, a different vowel, or a consonant, let's go over these endings next:
Adjectives that end in ‘–o’
The majority of Spanish adjectives end in –o in the masculine singular form. For these adjectives, these are the rules we need to follow:
In order to form the feminine singular form, we must replace the ending –o with –a.
In order to form the masculine and the feminine plural forms, we add an –s to the singular form.
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
–o | –os | –a | –as |
el niño simpático Translation: the nice boy | los niños simpáticos Translation: the nice boys | la niña simpática Translation: the nice girl | las niñas simpáticas Translation: the nice girls |
This little rule covers the majority of the cases, but if you are curious for more details, let’s move on!
Adjectives that end in a vowel other than ‘-o’
Some Spanish adjectives end in a vowel other than –o. For instance, we can find adjectives ending in:
–a → lila meaning lilac, purple
including the ending –ista → optimista meaning optimistic
–e → interesante meaning interesting
–i → cursi meaning cheesy
–u → zulú meaning Zulu
If we have an adjective ending in a vowel other than –o, this is the easiest case because:
These adjectives have the same masculine singular and feminine singular form, for example:
- el perro inteligenteTranslation: the intelligent dog
- la experiencia interesanteTranslation: the interesting experience
- el pantalón lilaTranslation: the purple pants
- la puerta lilaTranslation: the purple door
The plural is formed by adding -s to the singular forms.
| Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
–a | el niño belga Translation: the Belgian boy | los niños belgas Translation: the Belgian boys | la niña belga Translation: the Belgian girl | las niñas belgas Translation: the Belgian girls |
–e | el libro interesante Translation: the interesting book | los libros interesantes Translation: the interesting books | la novela interesante Translation: the interesting novel | las novelas interesantes Translation: the interesting novels |
–i | el poema cursi Translation: the cheesy poem | los poemas cursis Translation: the cheesy poems | la novela cursi Translation: the cheesy novel | las novelas cursis Translation: the cheesy novels |
–u | el estudiante hindú Translation: the Indian student | los estudiantes hindús* Translation: the Indian students | la comida hindú Translation: the Indian food | las comidas hindús Translation: the Indian foods |
*If an adjective ends in -i or -u and this vowel is stressed, then both plural forms are accepted in Spanish (hindús-hindúes).
Check out our post on plural noun forms in Spanish to learn more.
Adjectives that end in a consonant (other than a stressed vowel + n/–or)
Some other adjectives end in a consonant (difícil meaning difficult; azul meaning blue). As a general rule, these adjectives work almost the same as the adjectives ending in a vowel (other than -o):
They have the same singular masculine and feminine form.
The plural is formed by adding -es.
| Masculine | Feminine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
– | –es | – | –es |
el mar azul Translation: the blue sea | los mares azules Translation: the blue seas | la pregunta difícil Translation: the difficult question | las preguntas difíciles Translation: the difficult questions |
There are two important aspects for adjectives ending in a consonant that require special mention:
Adjectives that end in –z (feliz meaning happy; capaz meaning capable) change to –c (felices meaning happy ; capaces meaning capable) in the plural form.
Nationality adjectives that end in a consonant form the feminine by adding an –a to the masculine form: español - española meaning Spanish, alemán - alemana meaning German.
Adjectives that end in a stressed vowel + ‘n’ / ‘–or’
Adjectives that end in a stressed vowel + n/–or do not work like the adjectives mentioned in the previous section, even though they end in a consonant. For adjectives that end in –or or in a stressed vowel + n (catalán meaning Catalan; cabezón meaning large-headed), the masculine follows the rules for adjectives that end in a consonant, while the feminine follows the rules for adjectives that end in –a. That is:
The feminine singular is formed by adding –a.
The masculine plural form is created by adding –es to the singular form.
The feminine plural form is created by adding –s to the singular form.
| Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
–or adjectives | el equipo ganador Translation: the winning team | los equipos ganadores Translation: the winning teams | la pareja ganadora Translation: the winning couple | las parejas ganadoras Translation: the winning couples |
–stressed vowel + n adjectives | el hombre cabezón Translation: the large-headed man | los hombres cabezones Translation: the large-headed men | la mujer cabezona Translation: the large-headed woman | las mujeres cabezonas Translation: the large-headed women |
el niño chiquitín Translation: the little boy | los niños chiquitines Translation: the little boys | la niña chiquitina Translation: the little girl | las niñas chiquitinas Translation: the little girls | |
As you may have noticed, the adjectives cabezón or chiqutín in the examples above change spelling when they are in the plural: cabezón → cabezones, chiquitín → chiquitines. This is a general rule for “stressed vowel + n” adjectives: they drop the accent mark when they are used in the plural.
Summary
To sum everything up, adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. There are different adjective agreement rules depending on the adjective (i.e., adjectives that end in –o/–a behave one way; adjectives that end in vowels other than –o or in consonants behave another way). Take a look at the table below, to see all of the different adjective agreement rules at a glance!
| Masculine | Feminine | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
–o, –a adjectives | –o | –os | –a | –as |
el niño simpático Translation: the nice boy | los niños simpáticos Translation: the nice boys | la niña simpática Translation: the nice girl | las niñas simpáticas Translation: the nice girls | |
Adjectives that end in vowel other than –o | – | –s | – | –s |
el libro interesante Translation: the interesting book | los libros interesantes Translation: the interesting books | la novela interesante Translation: the interesting novel | las novelas interesantes Translation: the interesting novels | |
Adjectives that end in consonant | – | –es | – | –es |
el mar azul Translation: the blue sea | los mares azules Translation: the blue seas | la pregunta difícil Translation: the difficult question | las preguntas difíciles Translation: the difficult questions | |
–or adjectives | – | –es | –a | –as |
el equipo ganador Translation: the winning team | los equipos ganadores Translation: the winning teams | la pareja ganadora Translation: the winning couple | las parejas ganadoras Translation: the winning couples | |
–stressed vowel + n adjectives | – | –es | –a | –as |
el hombre cabezón Translation: the large-headed man | los hombres cabezones Translation: the large-headed men | la mujer cabezona Translation: the large-headed woman | las mujeres cabezonas Translation: the large-headed women | |
That’s it! It may sound overwhelming, but remember that in the majority of cases you only need to change the –o to –a to make the adjective feminine, and add an –s to make the adjective plural! As always, “practice makes perfect” and if you want to put into practice the rules you just learned, feel free to check out these activities we created on adjective agreement, they also come with a key. Enjoy!
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