Placement of adjectives in Spanish

La colocación de los adjetivos en español

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. For example ‘black hat’, ‘black’ is an adjective and in the sentence ‘It makes her sad’, ‘sad’ is an adjective.

In English language adjectives usually come before a noun whereas in Spanish language, an adjective can either come before or after a noun, thereby giving a particular meaning and function to the noun and the entire sentence. Therefore, one can say that the placement of adjectives in Spanish really depends on the meaning and function it gives to the noun or by extension, the sentence.

So in order to get down to business, you just have follow some simple steps or rules.

Here they are:

Spanish adjectives are placed after the noun when expressing certain characteristics of the noun it describes. For example:

A- Color (Color) Por ejemplo: un coche negro (black car), ojos azules (blue eyes), pantalones grises (brown trousers), guantes verdes (green gloves), etc.

B- Physical and non physical characteristics or qualities of a person or thing. (Caractéristicas de una persona o cosa) Por ejemplo: una chica guapa (beautiful girl), un chico guapo (handsome boy), un vestido largo (a long dress 👗), una falda corta (a short skirt), un pelo largo (long hair), una chica simpática (charming girl), un chico simpático (pleasant boy), un hombre gordo (fat man), una mujer delgada o flaca (slim woman), la isla bonita (beautiful island), una mujer amable (kind woman), piso mono (gorgeous apartment), piso pequeño (small apartment), etc.

C- Shape (forma o aspecto) Por ejemplo: mesa redonda (round table), cara redonda (round face), el despacho oval (the Oval office), cara ovalada (oval face), una caja rectangular (a rectangular box), etc.

D- State (Estado): Por ejemplo: una mujer soltera (a single woman or an unmarried woman), un hombre soltero (a single man or an unmarried man), una silla rota (a broken chair), una casa sucia/limpia (a dirty/clean house), una puerta abierta/cerrada (an open/closed), un vaso vacío/lleno (an empty/full glass), etc.

E- Origin (Origen): la guitarra española (Spanish 🎸 guitar), un cantante español (Spanish singer), el baile latino (Latin dance), la comida nigeriana (Nigerian dish), la cocina francesa (French cuisine), el partido internacional (international match), etc.

Adjectives are placed before the noun in Spanish when the adjectives are:

A- Possessive (posesivo) Por ejemplo: Mi casa es su casa (My house is your house), nuestros hermanos (our siblings), tu bolígrafo (your pen), etc.

B- Demonstrative (Demonstrativo) Por ejemplo: Esta casa es grande (This house is big), Esa mujer es tacaña (That woman is stingy), Compré aquel zapato (I bought that shoe), etc.

C- When the adjectives are numerical or limiting adjectives. Like: mucha, demasiado, poco, suficiente, bastante, dos, etc. Por ejemplo: Muchas gracias (Thanks a lot), Tengo muchas cosas que hacer (I have a lot of things to do), El hombre bebió demasiado vino (The man drank a lot of wine), Tengo dos coches (I have two cars), Tiene suficiente dinero para comprar todo lo que le da la gana ( He has sufficient amount of money to buy whatever he feels like), Te queda poco tiempo (You have a little time left), He puesto bastante agua (I have put enough water), etc.

D- When adjectives are ordinal numbers. Like: primer/primero, segundo/a , próximo/a, futuro, siguiente, etc. Por ejemplo: el primer trabajo (the first job), el próximo jueves (the following Thursday), etc.

E- Also some descriptive adjectives like buen, mal, gran, buena, etc. Por ejemplo: un buen hombre (a good man), un mal chico (a bad boy), un gran autor (a great author), unas buenas noticias (some good news), buenas noches (good night or good evening), etc.



Fíjate: 
There are some adjectives that can be placed before and also after a noun but with different meanings. Por ejemplo: un pobre hombre - an unfortunate man, un hombre pobre - a poor man, mi viejo amigo - my former friend, mi amigo viejo - my old friend ( that is aged), es la única falda - it is the only skirt, es una falda única - it is a unique skirt, etc. However there's an exception like: el hijo único - the only child, etc.

Adjectives like buen, mal, etc.are used before masculine singular nouns, while gran is used before singular nouns (both masculine and feminine).

Adjectives like siguiente, primero/a, segundo/a, etc. can be placed before or after the noun depending on the context. Por ejemplo: los siguientes jugadores - the following players, el capítulo siguiente - the next chapter, la primera fila - the front row, Isabella primera (Isabella I) - Isabella the first, el segundo piso - the second floor, Juan Pablo segundo (Juan Pablo II) - Juan Pablo the second.