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3.2: Adjectives

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    415626

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    Adjectives

    Adjectives add information about nouns or pronouns. They can either limit the quantity or describe. There are many more adjectives that describe than those that limit.

    In Spanish, adjectives that limit the quantity of a noun or pronoun precede the noun. Adjectives that describe go after the noun or pronoun.

    Some common examples of adjectives that limit are: definite articles, indefinite articles, demonstratives, numbers, possessive pronouns, and words that quantify. Adjectives that quantify are words like alguien, bastante, cada, cierto, demasiado, mucho, ningún, otro, poco, todo, varios.

    The definite articles: are el, la, los, las.

    The indefinite articles: are un, una, unos, unas.

    The demonstrative adjectives: are este, esta, estos, estas, ese, esa, esos, esas, aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas.

    The possessive pronouns: are mi, mis, tu, tus, su, sus, nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras, vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, vuestras.

    Some common descriptive adjectives are:

    abierto open

    aburrido boring

    alegre happy

    alto tall

    bajo short

    barato inexpensive

    bonito pretty

    bueno good

    caliente hot

    caro expensive

    cerrado closed

    claro light

    débil weak

    despacio slow

    divertido fun

    feliz happy

    feo ugly

    frío cold

    fuerte strong

    grande big

    guapo handsome

    interesante interesting

    joven young

    limpio clean

    malo bad

    nervioso nervous

    nuevo new

    ocupado busy

    oscuro dark

    peligroso dangerous

    pequeño small

    perezoso lazy

    pobre poor

    rápido fast, quick

    rico rich

    seguro safe

    sucio dirty

    tarde late

    temprano early

    tranquilo calm

    triste sad

    viejo old

    Colors are descriptive adjectives and are placed after nouns, like the other descripitive adjectives.

    amarillo yellow

    anaranjado orange

    azul blue

    blanco white

    gris grey

    morado purple

    marrón brown

    negro black

    rojo red

    rosado pink

    verde green

    The adjectives claro mean light and oscuro mean dark and can be combined with other adejctives. Since they describe descriptive adjectives, they are placed after the color.

    azul claro light blue

    verde oscuro dark green

    Prácticas.

    A. Read through the list of descriptive adjectives. Then, write the antonym for each one.

    1. triste

    2. aburrido

    3. pequeño

    4. temprano

    5. feo

    6. bajo

    7. viejo

    8. pobre

    9. sucio

    10. peligroso

    11. oscuro

    12. tranquilo

    13. alegre

    14. frío

    B. Translate the following descriptive adjectives into Spanish.

    1. interesting

    2. fast, quick

    3. fun

    4. early

    5. handsome

    6. new

    7. clean

    8. inexpensive

    9. rich

    10. good

    C. Translate the following phrases into Spanish.

    1. my happy friend

    2. a good dog

    3. the fun book

    4. her blue shoe

    5. that new phone

    6. the hot taco

    7. a closed door

    8. our good university

    9. those green shoes

    10. each new morning

    11. all the new information

    12. too many busy people

    13. all the old words

    14. many interesting pages

    15. your calm mom

    D. Use a descriptive adjective to describe the following nouns.

    1. La profesora es

    2. Mi mejor amigo(a) es

    3. Mis padres son

    4. Bad Bunny es

    5. Penelope Cruz es

    6. Shakespeare es

    7. Simone Biles es

    8. Chicago, IL es

    9. La universidad es

    10. El aeropuerto es

    11. La biblioteca es

    12. Taco Bell es

    E. La música. The song María by Ricky Martin uses limiting and descriptive adjectives. Listen the song and then write examples of the limiting and descriptive adjectives in the song.

    F. What is an adjective? Why do we use them? How many types of them are there? Which type is more common? Write three phrases that include adjectives.


    This page titled 3.2: Adjectives is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by .

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