Adjectives and agreement

A Spanish adjective agrees with the gender of the noun it describes:

• Adjectives ending in -o take a feminine form in -a: alto → alta, bonito → bonita.
• Adjectives ending in -e or in a consonant (except nationalities, see section 4) stay the same for both genders: grande (m/f), fácil (m/f), inteligente (m/f).

Adjectives follow the same pluralization rules as nouns (see lesson 3):

• Ends in a vowel → +s: alto → altos, inteligente → inteligentes.
• Ends in a consonant → +es: fácil → fáciles, joven → jóvenes.

So the adjective must agree with the noun in both gender and number.

Unlike Dutch or English, a descriptive adjective in Spanish usually comes after the noun:

una casa grande (a big house), un coche rojo (a red car), unos libros interesantes (interesting books).

A few common adjectives (like bueno, malo, gran/grande, numbers) can also go before the noun, sometimes with a slight shift in meaning — but as an A1 rule of thumb: noun + adjective.

Adjectives of nationality ending in a consonant — unlike regular adjectives ending in a consonant — do get a separate feminine form, usually with -a:

• español → española
• francés → francesa (note: the accent disappears in the feminine and plural forms, just like canción → canciones in lesson 3)
• alemán → alemana
• inglés → inglesa

Nationalities ending in -o or -e do follow the regular rule: italiano/italiana, belga (m/f, unchanged).