LoginAdjective Placement For Intermediate learners
Where Are Adjectives Placed?
In Spanish, adjectives mostly come after nouns, but sometimes they might appear before nouns to reflect a in change meaning, emphasis, or style. So, placement of adjectives (colocación de adjetivos) affects the sense of the sentence.
The General Rule
The default position of descriptive adjectives in Spanish is after the noun or after linking verbs (like "ser"). This is the only possible position for most of the adjectives that specify an essential or distinguishing quality of the noun, for example its shape, color, origin, etc. For example:
un coche amarillo
a yellow car
una mesa redonda
a round table
un vino francés
a French wine
energía solar
solar energy
Adjectives before Nouns
Sometimes, descriptive adjectives can come before nouns to show emphasis or create a specific literary effect.
un largo libro
a big book
using the adjective before the noun emphasizes its size
la blanca nieve
the white snow
el oscuro bosque
the dark forest
mi querido amigo
my dear friend
Change in Meaning
The meaning of some adjectives changes based on whether they come before or after the noun. In such cases, if the adjective come after the noun, it expresses an objective, literal meaning, and if it comes before the noun, it expresses a subjective or figurative meaning. Compare the examples:
una persona grande/una gran persona
a big/tall person/a great person
el hombre pobre/el pobre hombre
the poor man (without money)/the unfortunate man
una esposo antiguo/mi antiguo esposo
an old husband/my former husband
mi amigo viejo/mi viejo amigo
my elderly friend/my long-time friend
Tip!
As you can see in the first example above, some adjectives change their form when used before nouns. Examples of such adjectives include grande, bueno, malo, primero, and alguno. Except for "grande" which changes to "gran" before both feminine and masculine nouns, the other adjectives on this list become shorter when used before masculine nouns but remain in their original form before feminine nouns.
primer día/primera hora
first day (masculine)/first hour (feminine)
buen hombre/buena mujer
good man/good woman
mal olor/mala película
bad smell (masculine)/bad movie (feminine)
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