The Spanish language uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. Spanish adjectives usually go after the noun they modify, and they agree with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine). This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... There are two names given to the Spanish language: Spanish (español) and Castilian (castellano). ... The Spanish language developed from vulgar Latin, with influence from Basque and Arabic, in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula (see Iberian Romance languages). ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension. ... The Spanish language uses determiners in a similar way to English. ... The Spanish language has nouns that express concrete objects, groups and classes of objects, qualities, feelings and other abstractions. ... The Spanish language has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. ... The Spanish language has a relatively large number of prepositions. ... Spanish verbs are one of the most complex areas of Spanish grammar. ... Main article: Spanish verbs This is a paradigm of Spanish verbs, that is, a set of conjugation tables, for the model regular verbs and for some of the most common irregular verbs (see the article on Spanish irregular verbs for common patterns of irregularity that may help understanding this paradigm). ... Spanish verbs are a complex area of Spanish grammar, with many combinations of tenses, aspects and moods (up to fifty conjugated forms per verb). ... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually describing it or making its meaning more specific. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ...

Spanish adjectives are very similar to nouns, and often interchangeable with them. A bare adjective can take an article and be used in the same place as a noun (where English would require nominalization using the pronoun one(s)). For example:

El rojo va aquí/acá, ¿no? = "The red one goes here, doesn't it?"

Hay que tirar las estropeadas = "We have to throw away the broken ones."

Agreement

Adjectives in Spanish can mostly be divided into two large groups: those that can be found in the dictionary ending in o, and the others. The former typically agree for number and gender; the latter typically agree just for number. Here are some examples:

Frío means "cold". This is the dictionary form, and it corresponds to the masculine singular form. When it agrees with a feminine noun, it becomes fría. When it agrees with a plural noun, it becomes fríos. When it agrees with a noun which is both feminine and plural, it becomes frías. Here is a list of a few common adjectives in their four forms:

• Frío = "cold"; → frío, fría, fríos, frías
• Pequeño = "small"; → pequeño, pequeña, pequeños, pequeñas
• Rojo = "red"; → rojo, roja, rojos, rojas

Identifying Adjectives Diagram

 Does Adjective End in "o"? /  /  Yes No /  /  /  /  Masculine? Feminine? Singular?  (No Change)("o" becomes "a") (No Change)  /   / Plural Plural /  (Add "s") /  End in Vowel?  (Add "s") End in Constanant? (Add "es") 

Here are a few common adjectives that agree only in number:

• Caliente = "hot" → caliente, caliente, calientes, calientes
• Formal = "formal" → formal, formal, formales, formales
• Verde = "green" → verde, verde, verdes, verdes

The division into these two groups is a generalisation however. There are many examples such as the adjective español itself which does not end in o but nevertheless adds an a for the feminine and has four forms (español, española, españoles, españolas). There are also adjectives that do not agree at all (generally words borrowed from other languages, such as the French beige (also Hispanicised to beis)).

Descriptive and attributive uses

The superlative

Instead of putting muy, "very" before an adjective, one can use a special form called the superlative to intensify an idea. This consists of the suffix -ísimo.

Regular forms

• muy rápido → rapidísimo
• muy guapas → guapísimas
• muy rica → riquísima
• muy lento → lentísimo
• muy duro → durísimo

Irregular forms

• muy antiguo → antiquísimo
• muy cursi → cursilísimo
• muy inferior → ínfimo
• muy joven → jovencísimo
• muy superior → supremo
• muy bueno → óptimo
• muy malo → pésimo
• muy grande → máximo *
• muy pequeño → mínimo *

(*) These two forms keep the original meaning of the superlative: not "very" but "the most".

Forms that are irregular in high literary style, and regular normally

• muy amigo → amicísimo / amiguísimo
• muy áspero → aspérrimo / asperísimo
• muy benévolo → benevolentísimo / not used
• muy célebre → celebérrimo / not used
• muy cruel → crudelísimo / cruelísimo
• muy fácil → facílimo / facilísimo
• muy fiel → fidelísimo / fielísimo
• muy frío → frigidísimo / friísimo
• muy íntegro → integérrimo / integrísimo
• muy libre → libérrimo / librísimo (familiar)
• muy magnífico → magnificentísimo / not used
• muy mísero → misérrimo / not used
• muy munífico → munificentísimo / not used
• muy pobre → paupérrimo / pobrísimo
• muy sabio → sapientísimo / not used
• muy sagrado → sacratísimo / not used

Forms that are not felt a superlative anymore

• muy agrio ("very bitter") → acérrimo ("strong, zealous, fanatic")

Applying -ísimo to nouns is not frequent, but there is the famous case of Generalísimo. A generalissimo is a commissioned officer of the highest rank; the word is often translated as Supreme Commander or Commander in Chief. It is an Italian superlative substantive, which grammatically would actually be disallowed in Italian (superlatives can be made with adjectives only). ...

As in English and other languages influenced by it, a teenspeak superlative can be formed by the prefix super-, or sometimes hiper-, ultra-, re- or requete-. They can also be written as adverbs separate from the word.

• Superlargo or súper largo = "super-long", "way long"
• Requeteguay = "totally cool"