Adjectives: Gender, Number, and Position

Before we talk about adjectives, we must know what they are and what is their job in Spanish. An adjective, un adjetivo, is a word that it is used to describe people, things or places. They can also tell us whether something is tall or short or how many there are: few or several.

 Remember that in Spanish we have words in two genders: masculine and feminine. As a result, when we want to describe someone, those words need to match in gender and number. Also, the words that do the description have to be placed in the right place to have the right meaning. Do you understand it so far? If not please ask.

Here, I have an example to see if it can help you
 
Mi amiga es fiel, amable. inteligente y simpática. 
                                                (My friend is loyal, gentle, intelligent and nice.)
Mi amigo es fiel, amable, inteligente y simpático. 
                                                (My friend is loyal, gentle, intelligent and nice.)

As you can see, the sentences in Spanish have differences between genders- that which applies to a female friend and that which applies to a male friend. Also, note that in English, there is only one sentence to  describe both genders: female and male.

ADJECTIVES WITH SER

As I explained in the post dedicated to the verb SER, it is used with describing words ( adjectives) to tell us about the qualities or characteristics of words (nouns) and pronouns they modify.
The verb Ser tells us what it is known to be true, like snow is cold and water is wet.

Graciela es interesante. (Graciela= noun; es= verbo Ser; interesante= adjective)
Ella es interesante. (Ella= pronoun used instead of Graciela; es= verbo Ser;
                                   interesante=adjective)
In English, both sentences say the same thing: Graciela is interesting. She is an interesting person.
The examples that come to mind are:

Sonia es amable. Ella es amable.(Sonia is nice. She is nice person.)
El libro es barato. ( the book is cheap; the book is inexpensive.)

FORMS OF ADJECTIVES

So, what do I mean when I say that each adjective has more than one form? It means that in addition to agreeing in gender and number, adjectives endings will tell us how many forms they have.

1. Adjectives that end in -e ( inteligente=intelligent) and  in most consonants (fiel=loyal) have only two forms: a singular form and a plural form.NOTE: Like the plural of nouns (casa, amigo, amiga,etc), the plural of adjectives is formed by adding s to words ending in a vowel and es to words ending in a consonant: Los papeles son verdes. (The green papers.); Las luces azules. (The blue lights.)

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	amigo inteligente amigo fiel	amiga inteligente amiga fiel
Plural	amigos inteligentes amigos fieles	amigas inteligentes amigas fieles

2. Adjectives that end in -o (alto) have four forms, showing gender and number. Also, words used to describe that end in -dor (trabajador=worker), -ón (glotón, glotona =gluttonous ) , -án and -in also have four forms.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	amigo alto	amiga alta
Plural	amigos altos	amigas altas

3. Most adjectives of nationality have four forms, but  nacionalities that end in -e have only two forms (singular and plural) like in canadiense(s) and estadounidense(s). 

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	el doctor mexicano español alemán inglés	la doctora mexicana española alemana inglesa
Plural	los doctores mexicanos españoles alemanes ingleses	las doctoras mexicanas españolas alemanas inglesas

The names of many languages, which are masculine in gender, are the same that the name of the language like el español, el inglés, el alemán.

REMEMBER
 1. -o adjectives have four forms: alto, alta, altos, altas
 2. Adjectives that end in -e have two forms: inteligente, inteligentes
 3. Most nationality adjectives have four forms.
 3. Most other adjectives have two forms: fiel, fieles

PLACEMENT OF ADJECTIVES 

 If you are describing the qualities of a person or something then the adjective goes generally after the noun.

Un libro rojo. (A red book.)

Common adjectives like bueno, malo, pequeño, grande, mucho, and numberals generally go before the noun.

El pequeño sombrero (The little hat.) 
cinco hombres (five men)


Later, I will talk more about adjectives and their position. For now, let's practice what you have learned so far:

1. Most often adjectives are used to describe a noun or distinguish the noun from a group of similar objects:
     
 Un carro rojo. (or un coche rojo)  

  A red car. 

2. Most adjectives change form, depending on whether the word they modify is masculine or feminine. 

      The tall friend. 

       La amiga alta.
       El amigo alto.

3.Adjectives change form depending on the word they modify and if it is singular or plural. 

The tall friend. The tall friends

El amigo alto. Los amigos altos.
La amiga alta. Las amigas altas.

4. Do you see it now? The correct form of the adjective depends on the noun it modifies and whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.

libro rojo; libros rojos

5. Adjectives that end in -e add an -s to make it plural. This adjective is the same for masculine and feminine noun.


La amiga inteligente.
Las amigas inteligentes.
El amigo inteligente.
Los amigos inteligentes.

6. Adjectives that are descriptive usually go after the word they describe:

                              El amigo alto
                              La amiga alta.
                              Los libros pequeños.
                              Las camisas rojas.

7. Adjectives of quantity most of the time go before the noun and tell us how much or how many.
                   
                 pocos libros
                 mucha alegría
                 mucho trabajo
                 poco dinero

Later on, I'll have a part two about adjectives usage and position not mentioned in this post.  If you think you need more info please feel free to ask. In the meantime, I'll try to build upon what we have learnt so far. Remember have fun learning Spanish!