ADJECTIVES

(SPANISH RULES)

Definition

According to Bradley (2004) adjectives in Spanish as in English give a feature or quality to a

noun. He states that adjectives can be placed besides a noun e.g. una niña hermosa, or after a
verb like the verb “ser estar” e.g. la niña es hermosa.

Adjectives´Agreement

Batchelor(2006) claims that adjectives in Spanish fluctuate their form to take gender and
number of the noun they are qualifying or featuring.

Example: Los coches rojos. rojos / La rosa roja.

In these two sentences the adjective is “rojo” but as in the firsts sentence there is a plural
masculine noun therefore the adjective changes into a plural masculine adjective “rojos”. In the
second sentence there is a singular feminine noun so the adjective changes into a singular
feminine adjective “rojas”.

According to Batchelor there are two main rules to form plurals in masculine and feminine. The
first principle is “The greater number of adjectives end in o in the masculine, and a in the
feminine singular, and they both take s in the plural” Batchelor (2006). Here are some
examples:

Rojo – rojo (masc. Sing.), roja (fem. Sing.), rojos (masc. plural), rojas (fem. Sing.)

The second principle is “Those which do not end in o in the masculine singular have the same
ending for both genders, and the plurals are the same for both genders” Batchelor (2006).

Examples:

• La casa azul. / El techo azul. (adjectives in singular masc./fem.)

• Las casas azules. / Los techos azules. (adjectives in plural masc./fem.)

Batchelor (2006) states others principles for specific types of adjectives. For example adjectives
that signify nationality and end in a consonant you have to add an “a” to form the feminine
form. E.g. Francés – Francesa. This rule is also applicable to adjectives which ending is –án
or –ón. E.g. platicón – platicona , holgazán – holgazana.

Shortened Adjectives

Batchelor (2006) mentions that this shortened form of adjectives is called apocopation. He says
that there are only six adjectives with apocopation. These six adjectives are shortened when they
are placed right away before specific nouns.

These four adjectives lose their ending letter –o when they are placed just before masculine
singular nouns.

1. Bueno-e.g. Pedro es un buen niño.

 2. Malo –e.g. Es un mal papá.

3. Tercero –e.g. Llegó en tercer lugar.

4. Primero-e.g. El primer hijo.

This adjective loses its ending –de when it is placed before a feminine or masculine noun.

5. Grande-e.g. La gran batalla. El gran batallón.

This adjective loses its ending –to when it is placed before masculine singular nouns. This rule
has some exceptions mentioned by Batchelor (2006): Santo Tomás, and Santo Domingo.

6. Santo-e.g. San José, San Martin.

In addition to these six adjectives, Bradley (2004) brings up in his book these three more
shortened adjectives: uno, ninguno and alguno. They lose their ending letter –o when are placed
straight away before a masculine singular noun.

• Uno-e.g. un moño.

• Ninguno-e.g. ningún perro.

• Alguno-e.g. algún perro.

Adjective´s Position

There are adjectives with an unchanging position. According to Bradley (2004) “Adjectives that
indicate nationality, regional origin, religious, ideological and political beliefs also usually
follow their noun” e.g. bebidas españolas, comida china, mujeres democráticas. Besides this
types of adjectives, he states other unchangeable ones: numerals and indefinite adjectives, they
come first their nouns. E.g. cinco lunas, algunos niños.

Adjectives that are more flexible regard their position to the noun can appear before or after it.
But according to Bradley (2004) the position of an adjective is able to change the meaning of a
sentence. When you place first the adjective and then the noun, this adjective is signifying a
feature or property of the noun and it is not restricting the noun on its orientation. On the other
hand; when you place a noun first and then the adjective you are emphasizing the adjective, so
you are stating what is unique of that noun. That is why when an adjective is placed after a
noun, then this adjective is restricting the noun´s orientation.

ADVERBS

(SPANISH RULES)

Definition

In Spanish as in English adverbs are the part of speech that modify, “tint”, define, or magnify a
verb, an adverb, or an adjective. There are some adverbs that can modify a complete sentence.
This definition is according to Microsoft Encarta (2007).

Examples:
 • Rosa estudia bastante. (bastante is modifying the verb –estudia-)

• Lo hizo bastante mal. (bastante is modifying the adverb –mal-)

• La niña es bastante inteligente. (bastante is modifying the adjective –inteligente- )

Also is mentioned in Microsoft Encarta (2007) that adverbs modify a complete sentence as a
linguistic resource of the speaker.

Example:

• Increiblemente, Luis vino.

Microsoft Encarta(2007) states that there are adverbs that are used as a link in sentences.

Example:

• Lo harás como ella quiera.

• Irás cuando yo quiera.

Formation

According to Microsoft Encarta (2007) adverbs in Spanish don´t have a morphological unity.
There are simple adverbs (e.g. hoy, mañana), compound adverbs (e.g. anteayer) and complex
adverbs like: a lo grande, de vez en cuando. Microsoft Encarta mentions that adjectives
adverbialized are adverbs too. To transform an adjective into an adverb you have to take the
feminine ending of the adjective and add the ending –mente, but if the adjective just has one
ending then you just add the ending –mente to it. For example:

Adjective with masc. and fem. ending Adverb formation

claro (masc.) – clara (fem.) ---------------------------clara (fem) + -mente = claramente.

lento (masc.) – lenta (fem.)---------------------------lenta (fem.) + -mente = lentamente.

Adjective with one ending Adverb formation

triste ------------------------------------------------------ triste + -mente = tristemente.

veloz ------------------------------------------------------ veloz + -mente = velozmente.

Microsoft Encarta (2007) states that there are adverbs, many adverbs that admit a suffixation
lexeme to form superlatives, augmentatives and diminutives. Superlatives are formed adding
the –ísimo ending and taking off the last vowel of the adverb. For example:

Adverb Superlative

Pequeño Pequeñisímo
Lejos Lejisímos

lento lentisímo

Here are some examples of augmentatives:

Adverb Augmentative

grande grandote

lejos lejotes

abajo abajote

arriba arribota

Diminutives are formed by adding the ending –ito or –ito to the adverb. The ending –ito is
added to masculine adverbs, and the ending –ita is added to feminine adverbs. When the adverb
has just one ending, then the ending –ito is added to form the diminutive. For example:

Adverb Diminutive

Temprano Tempranito

Pequeño (masc) – pequeña (fem) Pequeñito (masc) – pequeñita (fem)

Cerca Cerquita

Microsoft Encarta(2007) mentions that there are adverbs that accept quantifier words to grade
them. Quantifier words: más, menos, poco, mucho, poco, muy. Here are some examples:

Adverb Graded adverb

antes mucho antes

después poco después

abajo muy abajo

lejos más lejos

REFERENCES

Bradley, P.T., & Mackenzie, I.(2004). Adjectives, & Adverbs. In (No Ed.) Spannish an
Enssential Grammar (pp. 52-69). New Fetter Lane, London: Routledge.

Batchelor, R. E. (2006). Adjectives, & Adverbs. In (No Ed.) A Student Grammar of Spanish
(pp. 189-197, & pp. 227-237). New York, U.S.A.: Cambridge University Press.

Microsoft Encarta (2007). Microsoft Corporation.