As in English, Spanish adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number. In Spanish, however, unlike English, adjectives come after nouns, not before them. Let’s look more closely at the rules for the use of adjectives in Spanish.
By the way, if you want to know how to learn Spanish from scratch, read the article at the link.
As a rule, adjectives in Spanish follow nouns, but there are some exceptions
Spanish adjectives are usually placed after a noun:
“la mesa negra” – a black table
“el centro económico” – the economic center.
But in some cases, a qualitative adjective can come before a noun:
When it is an epithet:
“una gloriosa victoria” – a glorious victory.
“el lindo árbol” – a beautiful tree.
“Las claras fuentes y corrientes ríos, en magnífica abundancia, sabrosas y transparentes aguas les ofrecían.” (Cervantes)
The bright springs and fast rivers offered them in extraordinary abundance their clear and delicious waters. (Cervantes)
When an adjective refers to a quality permanently inherent in a given object or its most characteristic feature:
“la blanca nieve” – white snow
“el profundo mar” – the deep sea.
Some qualitative adjectives have a different linguistic meaning depending on their position in relation to the noun:
“un gran país” – a great country.
“un país grande” – a great country.
“un buen hombre” – a good man.
“un hombre bueno” – a good man.
Relative adjectives come only after the definite name:
“una capa superficial” – surface layer
“la madriguera lobuna” – the wolf’s den.
“la escuela musical” – a music school.
A peculiar substitute for relative adjectives is combinations consisting of the preposition “de” plus a noun that names a material, phenomenon, attribute, etc. In these cases, they are used without an article:
“la escultura de mármol” – sculpture
“el vaso de cristal” – a glass beaker.
“la mesa de madera” – a wooden table
“el cristal de aumento” – magnifying glass
Sometimes, as a stylistic device to emphasize, an adjective is put before a noun, especially in poetry or literature.
Adjectives to describe taste in Spanish
Let’s talk about taste and what adjectives we can use to describe the taste of food.
Keep the list in your bookmarks. At each meal, try to mentally recall these words and describe what you are eating.
“El gusto” and “el sabor” are two tastes, but with a big difference of definition.
“El gusto” is taste as a sensation, the ability to taste.
“El sabor” is taste as the quality of food.
- “dulce” – sweet
- “empalagoso” – sugary
- “azucarado” – sugary
- “amargo” – bitter
- “salado” – salty
- “agrio” – sour
- “soso” / “de poco sabor” / “insípido” – bland, tasteless
- “picante” – spicy
- “rico” / “sabroso” – tasty
- “asqueroso” – disgusting
- “suave” – soft, light
- “blando” – soft, delicate
- “agridulce” – sweet and sour
- “sazonado” / “condimentado” – spicy, flavored
- “fresco” – fresh
- “afrutado” – fruity
- “almendrado” – nutty
- “fuerte” / “concentrado” – strong
- “avinagrado” – vinegary
- “cremoso” – creamy
- “crudo” – raw
- “exquisito” – refined
- “grasiento” – fat
- “jugoso” – juicy
- “maduro” – ripe
- “meloso” – honey (sweet and mild taste)
- “rancio” – rancid
- “áspero” – tart
How not to get caught up in the use of adjectives in Spanish: 9 examples
Let’s talk a little bit about adjectives in Spanish, specifically about their place in a sentence. Why is this important?
This is because, according to Spanish grammar, adjectives come predominantly after nouns. For example, “la casa blanca”, “la cinta roja”, etc.
But there are special cases where it is very important where you put the adjective. It can change the whole meaning of a sentence.
Here are some examples that show how the translation changes depending on where the adjective is placed.
- The first adjective is “antiguo”:
If it comes before a noun, it translates as “former.”
If it comes after, it translates as “ancient.”
- Second adjective “grande”:
Before a noun, it translates as “great.”
After: “large”
- Third adjective “dichoso”:
Before the noun, “cursed.”
After, “blessed.”
- Fourth adjective “menudo”:
Before the noun, “large.”
After, “small.”
- Fifth adjective “cierto”:
Before the noun, “some.”
After, “precise.”
- Sixth adjective “nuevo”:
Before the noun, “recently acquired.”
After, “recently made.”
- Seventh adjective “pobre”:
Before the noun, “miserable.”
After, “poor.”
- Eighth adjective “bueno”:
Before the noun, “good.”
After, “kind.”
- Ninth adjective “malo”:
Before the noun, “wicked.”
After, “bad.”
So be careful when using word combinations and sentences with adjectives and nouns.
The main challenges of learning Spanish
For people who speak English, learning Spanish can be quite easy. Both Spanish and English use the Latin alphabet, as do many other European languages, including Portuguese, French, and Italian, so they are almost identical in terms of the letters used. The plural also works in the same way, and there is a large common vocabulary.
Nevertheless, learning Spanish is fraught with difficulties. For example, the speed at which native Spanish speakers speak to each other and the pronunciation can be difficult for beginners. But if you plan to learn Spanish, you shouldn’t be embarrassed by the difficulty.
Tips for learning Spanish without dying of boredom
Decide on your motivation
There are many superstitions about the power of planning, and in the case of learning Spanish, they are true. In order to learn anything, especially quickly, you have to plan how you are going to do it and when. How long it takes to learn Spanish from scratch is entirely up to you. You should set yourself a goal to achieve milestones within a certain time frame. For example:
Goal: Learn to have a simple conversation with my colleagues in Spanish (without switching to English!) in four months.
Then you have to break down your goal into the results you need to achieve it.
Outcome: read one chapter of a book in Spanish each week
Outcome: enroll in Spanish lessons
Result:
- Listen to a Spanish podcast every morning for breakfast
- Write one page of Spanish a day
- Take Spanish lessons with a tutor three times a week.
Then break these results down into smaller milestones and schedule time to work on them. Look in your calendar and set aside a specific time for lessons.
Consistency and hard work are the secrets to effective study habits, and good old-fashioned planning makes it much easier to stay consistent. Try it, and you’ll be amazed!
Start learning Spanish now
If you’re trying to learn Spanish as quickly as possible, you’ll probably want to focus on your most important language skills. With that in mind, working on your accent may seem like a frivolous waste of study time or even a bit of a waste. However, there are (at least!) two good reasons why it’s wise to start improving your accent early on.
First, if you learn Spanish sounds in the first month, it will improve your pronunciation for the rest of your Spanish-speaking life! It’s much easier to learn good habits from the beginning than to go back and change the rules that are already embedded in your head. This is especially true for speech, which involves muscle memory. Moreover, Spanish is a phonetic language, so you only need to learn the rules once to understand how most words are pronounced.
Second, working on your accent can improve your listening comprehension. Many students struggle to understand conversational Spanish at the beginning stage because the speed of speech tends to be much faster than in English, and pronunciation can be difficult to understand.
As you work on your Spanish pronunciation, you will also learn how to highlight and identify the sounds in Spanish when you hear them. That’s two skills for the price of one! If you want to work on your Spanish accent, there are a number of online Spanish courses that are a great place to start.
About learning Spanish
Learning Spanish or any new language is a big deal. But the result can really change your life. As cliché as it sounds, you are embarking on a journey that can lead to self-actualization and allow you to connect with people from different cultures and countries.
What’s more, the process of learning can be fun. Everyone goes at their own pace, but once you start gaining momentum, learning through Spanish immersion becomes as much a part of your routine as working out or making dinner.
Learn new words
In this article, a lot of Spanish words and expressions have been introduced. Some of them were probably unfamiliar to you.
To memorize all these words, just reading them once is not enough, of course.
We recommend you to add all the unfamiliar words and phrases you come across here to your personal dictionary and learn them thoroughly.
For example, you can create a language card like this:
Click on the picture to add it to your own dictionary
Constant work on expanding your vocabulary is very important. Don’t ignore it.
This is the only way you can eventually learn a foreign language.
What else can help you to learn Spanish?
That was the article on Spanish adjectives, but how do you study the Spanish language in general? You need a system. Especially for these purposes, our team has developed a guide for learning any foreign language.
Why will this guide be useful for you? It’s a quick, clear and step-by-step way to study a foreign language at your own pace (as long as you practice regularly, of course). Everything is written as simply as possible and is suitable for those who are just taking their first step in learning the language (and those who’ve been learning a language for years).
Best of all, the mini-book is completely free and you can receive it immediately.
Click the “get it now” button and get your version of this guide right in the mail.
