This Spanish Medium Review quiz will cover adjectives, especially those that come before nouns. In the Spanish Easy Review quizzes you learned that adjectives come after nouns. As in any language, there are always exceptions. So too does Spanish have exceptions to the rules. The exception here involves adjective that refer to a type of number. For example, each, many, few, some, any, both, the first, the second (etc.), the last and all. In addition, actual numbers such as two dogs in Spanish would be said and written as dos perros.
There are a few other exceptions when it comes to adjective. The adjectives for new, old, big, poor, good and bad can be used either before the noun or after. For example, 'buen gato' is 'good cat' and 'gato bueno' is also 'good cat'. Notice, however, that the word for good changed its spelling depending upon whether it came before the noun or after the noun.
Please make note of the vocabulary words listed below. The first group will be words that come before a noun and the second group will be words that can come either before or after a noun.
ADJECTIVES THAT COME BEFORE NOUNS
ENGLISH |
SPANISH |
each |
cada (does not change gender) |
many |
muchos / muchas (changes gender) |
few |
pocos / pocas (changes gender) |
both |
ambos / ambas (changes gender) |
first |
primer /primero / primera (changes gender) (When coming before a masculine noun, the 'o' is dropped off of the end of the word. When it stands alone, as in 'he is the first', then the 'o' would remain). |
second |
segundo / segunda (changes gender) |
last |
último / última (changes gender) |
ADJECTIVES THAT COME BEFORE AND AFTER NOUNS
ENGLISH |
SPANISH |
new |
nuevo / nueva (changes gender) |
old |
viejo / vieja (changes gender) (When used before a noun it means from a long time ago and when used after the noun it refers to age.) |
great/big/large |
gran / grande (When placed before a noun it means great. When placed after a noun it means big or large.) |
poor |
pobre (This spelling stays for either gender. When it is placed before a noun, however, it means ill-fated. When it is place after a noun, it refers to economic or financial condition.) |
good |
buen / bueno / buena (changes gender) (When coming before a masculine noun, the ‘o’ is dropped off. When coming after a masculine noun, the ‘o’ remains. When coming before or after a feminine noun, the ‘a’ remains both ways.) |
bad |
mal / malo / mala (changes gender) (When coming before a masculine noun, the 'o' is dropped off. When coming after a masculine noun, the 'o' remains. When coming before or after a feminine noun, the 'a' remains both ways.) |
EXAMPLES
Let’s look at just a few examples to make certain you understand adjectives before and after nouns. Let’s look at the adjective FIRST. If you wanted to say FIRST MAN in Spanish you would say, PRIMER HOMBRE. Notice that since HOMBRE is a masculine word, the adjective dropped off the ‘o’ at the end of primero.
Now let’s look at FIRST HOUSE. In Spanish that would be PRIMERA CASA. The adjective takes on the feminine form and since it is a feminine word, the ‘a’ remains at the end of the word.
Next, let’s look at GREAT/BIG/LARGE. As you learned, this word is spelled slightly different depending upon what you want it to say and its placement with a noun. The Spanish word for big and large is GRANDE. If you want to say it was a BIG BOOK or a LARGE BOOK, you would say, GRANDE LIBRO. But, what if you wanted to say it was a GREAT BOOK? Then you would simply say, GRAN LIBRO. Note that GRANDE can appear either before or after the noun it is describing. However, GRAN generally only appears before the noun it is describing. Rarely would you ever see LIBRO GRAN to say GREAT BOOK. On the other hand, GRANDE LIBRO and LIBRO GRANDE can both be used to say, BIG (or LARGE) BOOK.
Okay, it is now time to test this out in the quiz section below. For each group of words listed in all capitalized letters in the quiz, find the correct Spanish or English words that will mean the same thing. Those words will need to be in the correct order. Be careful to watch for spelling, gender, and plural or singular forms of the word(s).