Spanish Adjectives

In this lesson of the Learn Spanish course, you'll learn how to use adjectives in the Spanish language. You'll also learn some useful Spanish sentence templates that you can use with adjectives to increase your ability to describe people and objects in Spanish.

This lesson also contains a list of some very common Spanish adjectives. Online flashcards and a quiz are included at the end of the lesson to help you learn the adjectives.

Spanish Grammar

Adjectives are words that are used to describe or provide extra information about a noun or pronoun. Some adjectives describe how much or how many of a noun there is, such as poco, alguno, mucho, and todo.

Adjectives in Spanish are a bit more complicated than in English. Whereas in English there is only one form of an adjective, in Spanish an adjectives has different forms depending on the gender of the noun it describes, and whether the noun is singular or plural. Adjectives in Spanish usually follow the noun they describe.

The following rules will help in using Spanish adjectives correctly.

Many adjectives end in o when referring to a singular masculine noun and a when referring to a singular feminine noun.
Adjectives that end in an e or a consonant, have the same form for masculine and feminine nouns.
When referring to a plural noun, adjectives add an s or es to the end.

Examples

El hombre enojado	The angry man
Los hombres enojados	The angry men
La mujer enojada	The angry woman
Las mujeres enojadas	The angry women
La mujer feliz	The happy woman
Las mujeres felices	The happy women
El hombre feliz	The happy man
Los hombres felices	The happy men
Tu amiga está cansada.	Your friend (female) is tired.
Tu amigo está cansado.	Your friend (male) is tired.

A few adjectives precede the noun they modify, such as mucho (much) and poco (few, little). Alguno (some) and ninguno (not any, no) also often precede the noun they modify. When preceding a singular masculine noun, they are shortened to algún and ningún.

Examples

pocas personas	few people
pocos niños	few children
mucho trabajo	a lot of work
muchas mujeres	many women
un gran hombre	a great man
una grande mujer	a great woman
una taza grande	a big cup
el primer piso	the first floor
algunas personas	some people
ningún hombre	no man
ningunos hombres	no men

The adjective grande means great when it precedes a noun and big when it follows a noun. When preceding a singular, masculine noun, grande is shortened to gran.

Spanish Vocabulary

Here is a list of some very common Spanish adjectives. Since these are very common words, it is a good idea to memorize them.

agradable	kind, nice
alto	tall
amable	friendly, nice
ancho	wide
áspero	rough
bajo	low
blando	soft
brillante	bright
bueno	good
caliente	hot
cansado	tired
claro	light (not dark)
cómodo	comfortable
correcto	right (correct)
corto	short, brief
delgado	thin
difícil	hard (difficult)
duro	hard
enojado	angry
estrecho	narrow
fácil	easy
feliz	happy
frío	cold
fuerte	strong, loud
grande	big
grueso	thick, course
hermoso	beautiful
incorrecto	wrong
interesante	interesting
joven	young
largo	long
lento	slow
ligero	light (not heavy)
limpio	clean
liso	smooth
lleno	full
malo	bad
mojado	wet
nuevo	new
oscuro	dark
pequeño	small
pesado	heavy
rápido	fast
ruidoso	noisy
seco	dry
sucio	dirty
tranquilo	quiet
triste	sad
vacío	empty
viejo	old

Spanish Phrases

Here are some useful sentence templates that you can use with adjectives. Learning these along with some common Spanish adjectives will greatly increase your ability to communicate in Spanish. Practice combining these sentence templates with the adjectives included in this lesson to help you remember them.

Note: All questions start with a ¿ and end with a ?.

Estoy ___.	I am ___. (emotional state, temporary condition)
Soy ___.	I am (more permanent attributes)
Estoy muy ___.	I am very ___.
Estoy demasiado ___.	I am too ___.
¿Estás ___?	Are you ___? (familiar)
Es ___.	It is ___.
Es muy ___.	It is very ___.
Es demasiado ___.	It is too ___.
Ella es ___.	She is ___. (more permanent condition)
Él está ___.	He is ___. (emotional state, temporary condition)
Me siento ___.	I feel ___.
Se siente muy ___.	He/She feels very ___.
Parece tan ___.	It seems so ___.
Parece demasiado ___.	It seems too ___.

Examples

Estoy feliz.	I am happy.
Estoy muy frío.	I am very cold. (male)
Soy vieja.	I am old. (female)
Soy demasiado viejo.	I am too old. (male)
¿Estás cansado?	Are you tired? (to a male)
Ella está demasiado ruidosa.	She is too noisy.
Él es alto.	He is tall.

Adjective Flashcards

Here are some flashcards to help you learn the adjectives included in this lesson.

Practice

For each question, write out the sentence using the Spanish word for the adjective in parentheses.

El río es muy ___. (wide)

El río es muy ancho.

¿Por qué está tan ___? (sad)

¿Por qué está tan triste?

El viento se siente tan ___. (cold)

El viento se siente tan frío.

Encontré una playa ___. (beautiful)

Encontré una playa hermosa.

Estoy leyendo un libro ___. (interesting)

Estoy leyendo un libro interesante.

Esa casa es muy ___. (old)

Esa casa es muy vieja.

La mesa es demasiado ___. (small)

La mesa es demasiado pequeña.

Lucas parece muy ___. (happy)

Lucas parece muy feliz.

Quiz

Here is a quiz to help you learn the Spanish adjectives included in this lesson.