Spanish: An Essential Grammar

This includes common adjectives ending in other consonants, or in the

vowels -eand -a(such as the endings -istaand -ita):

feliz happy fácil easy

cortés polite triste sad

realista realistic cosmopolita cosmopolitan

una chica feliz y cortés a happy and polite girl

Note: A common exception is burgués‘middle class’, with the feminine form

burguesa.

Adjectives of colour

Colours that are true adjectives usually follow the above guidelines:

una flor roja a red flower una hoja verde a green leaf

However, when nounsare used to designate colour they are invariable, since

their lone use represents the omission of the words (de) color orcolor de.

Amongst the most common are: café‘coffee-coloured’, cereza‘cherry’,

lila‘lilac’, paja‘straw-coloured’, rosa‘pink’, turquesa‘turquoise’,violeta

‘violet’.

un mantel naranja an orange tablecloth

una camisa (de) color lila y malva a lilac and mauve shirt

Furthermore, when compound colour adjectives are formed, these are also

invariable in respect of gender, even if the individual adjectives used on

their own have distinct feminine forms:

una gabardina azul marino a navy blue raincoat

una corbata rojo oscuro a dark red tie

Note: Single-word colour compounds formed from two adjectives follow the usual

patterns for gender formation (e.g. verdiblanco/a‘greenish white’, ‘light green’).

Gender agreement with nouns of mixed gender

When an adjective relates to two or more nouns of the same gender, the

adjective adopts the gender common to them, and is plural:

una camisa y una corbata bonitas a nice shirt and tie

6.1.5

6.1.4.2

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

6

Adjectives

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