Descriptive Adjectives

Video Transcription

[MUSIC PLAYING] "Los Adjetivos Descriptivos." Descriptive Adjectives. These adjectives don't tell you what it is. It tells you what the noun is like. So these describe nouns. In Spanish descriptive adjectives almost always come after nouns, which is very different from English. So they would not say new car. They would say "carro nuevo," or "el carro nuevo," which is kind of strange at first, but it will become more natural feeling after a while.

In Spanish, the default form of any adjective is the masculine singular. For most adjectives that means that it will end in the letter "o," for the masculine singular. You can change the "o" to an "a," which would change it to its feminine form. And then to make either plural, simply add the letter "s." So "nuevo" would become "nueva," for feminine and "nuevos" and "nuevas" would be the plural.

The nice male friend would be, "amigo simpatico," sympathetic or nice. The nice female friend, "amiga simpatica." The nice male friends, "amigos simpaticos." And finally, the nice female friends, "las amigas simpaticas."

The word for tall in Spanish is "alto." So how would you say tall friend, if your friend is a guy? "Amigo alto." What about a tall friend who's a girl? "Amiga alta."

How about the tall friends, if the friends are all boys or a mixed group of boys and girls? "Amigos altos." Remember that the masculine plural form is also the gender neutral form. So that means it can be either all males or a mixed group of males and females.

How do you say tall female friends, and all of the friends in this group are females? "Amigas altas." If your adjective ends in the letter "e" instead of "o," you will not change the ending to agree with the gender. Remember that I said earlier, "e" stands for either. It's gender neutral. So it works for masculine and feminine nouns. However, you still need to add an "s" to make it plural.

So intelligent male friend would be, "amigo inteligente." Intelligent female friend, "amiga inteligente." So both the masculine and feminine forms end in an "e," or in Espanol, "eh" for "inteligente."

Intelligent male friends would be "amigos inteligentes." Just add an "s." Intelligent female friends, "amigas us inteligentes." Just add an "s" to "inteligente."

Finally, a few adjectives end in a consonant, not a vowel. Therefore, the form that ends in the consonant is the masculine singular form or the default form. For some, this also happens to be the feminine form. So "joven," which means young, actually works for both genders. "El chico joven," "la chica joven." It works for both masculine and feminine.

For others, you'll need to add an "a" to make the feminine form. So as an adjective needs an "a" added to it, you'll see it listed in this course like this-- parentheses around the "a" at the end of the adjective. So it would be listed as "trabajador" with an "a" in parentheses at the end.

"Trabajador" becomes "trabajadora." The feminine plural is "trabajadoras." Just add an "s," because you have a word that ends in a vowel-- "trabajadora." But remember, if you have an adjective that ends in a consonant, to make the masculine plural form, you have to add an "es." So "trabajadores."

So a Spanish male friend, not necessarily one who speaks Spanish, but one who is from Spain-- in other words, a Spaniard-- would be "amigo Espanol." The Spanish female friend would be "amiga Espanola."

Some Spanish male friends, "amigos Espanoles." You have to add "es" to Espanol to make it plural, because the "l" is a consonant. The Spanish female friends would be "las amigas Espanolas." Simply add an "s" to "Espanola," which is the feminine singular form.

Now you'll learn some descriptive adjectives. I'm going to give you the masculine singular form, which is the default form. By the way, this is also the form you would find if you were to look up the word in an online dictionary. You must know how to change the endings according to the rules that we just covered to make the adjectives agree with the nouns you want to describe. In a later section, you'll learn more about when to use these adjectives.

Repeat after me, "grande." It means big. The opposite, small is "pequeno." Good is "bueno." Bad is "malo." Tall, you know already, "alto." The opposite is short, "bajo." Sweet, "dulce." Sour is "agrio."

Young is "joven." Old, as in a person who is old, "anciano." To describe something that is new, you would use the word "nuevo." To describe an old object or an old place use "viejo." Although some uses to describe a person, as well. Thin or skinny is "delgado." You may also hear "flaco," f-l-a-c-o. The opposite, fat, is "gordo." Expensive is "caro," with one "r." Inexpensive or cheap is "barato."

While the previous adjectives described permanent characteristics, these are describing temporary characteristics. In other words, these are conditions subject to change. Healthy, "sano." Sick, "enfermo." Better, "mejor." "Mejor." Worse is "peor." "Peor," like poor. Strong, "fuerte," like a fort. Weak or debilitated, "debil." Relaxed, "relajodo." Worried or preoccupied, "preocupado."

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