Is it possible to speak a language without using any adjectives? Well, it is, but if you did, you would lose so much meaning. It would be like eating a flavorless meal; sure, you ingest food and all of its nutrients, but do you actually enjoy it? Not much, surely. Adjectives might not be essential for all kinds of communication, but they’re still very important and bring more meaning to your words.
In this article, you’ll find 100 of the most-used Spanish adjectives, as well as how to use them. Rest assured this will help you spice up your Spanish!
Table of Contents
- How Do Spanish Adjectives Work?
- Common Spanish Adjectives for Dimensions, Sizes, Distance, etc.
- Essential Spanish Adjectives for Describing Value
- Spanish Adjectives for Describing Feeling & Sense
- Spanish Adjectives for Describing Personalities and Behaviors
- Spanish Adjectives for Describing Speed, Difficulty, Importance, etc.
- Describing Colors in Spanish
- Describing Weather
- Spanish Adjectives for Describing Taste
- Best Spanish Adjectives for Describing Situations
- Describing Physical Traits or Physical Condition
- Spanish Adjectives for Describing Appearance & Condition
- How SpanishPod101.com Can Help You Learn More Spanish
1. How Do Spanish Adjectives Work?
Before we continue on with our top 100 list, it’s prudent that we go over the basic Spanish adjectives rules. Understanding Spanish adjectives is far more important than knowing them only by rote!
Spanish Adjectives Placement
In Spanish, we generally find adjectives after a noun, the opposite of where you find them in English. For example, un coche verde means “a green car,” but if we translated it literally, it would be “a car green,” which sounds really weird in English.
However, there are exceptions, for various reasons. For example, it’s common in literature to find the adjective before the noun, and you can also do this yourself when you want to emphasize the noun: una bonita flor is “a beautiful flower.”
Another common way of using an adjective works the same way as in English, and that is when it follows this structure: noun + “to be” verb + adjective. For example: El coche es verde means “The car is green.” Nevertheless, as you might already know, Spanish has two different verbs that can translate to the English verb “to be,” which are ser and estar. A true nightmare for a Spanish learner, as some might say.
We’re going to make it simple here, though. If the adjective you’re using is something perceived as permanent, use the verb ser. If it’s something temporary, use the verb estar.
Let’s see some examples:
When you tell a girl she’s pretty, you’re not thinking of it as a temporary state, but as a permanent thing. This means you’ll tell her something like Eres muy guapa, or “You’re very pretty.”
However, if what you want to tell her is that she looks good in that moment, perhaps because she’s wearing a nice dress, you might say: ¡Qué guapa estás!, which would translate to “You look so pretty!” Of course, there are exceptions, but don’t worry about that for now. We’ll see them shortly.
Spanish Adjectives Agreement
There’s something else you need to keep in mind: While adjectives in English only have one form and never change, in Spanish, they can change in a few ways. The most important variation is related to the fact that nouns can be either feminine or masculine. Because an adjective accompanies a noun, it also has a gender, and most of the important Spanish adjectives change a little bit according to its gender.
As you’ll see in the examples below, all the adjectives that end in -o in their masculine form, will end in -a in their feminine form. However, there are many that end in -e (and a few others that end in different letters) that have the same form whether they’re masculine or feminine. In this Spanish adjectives review, we’ve marked all the adjectives that do change, but you can also check this brief article on Invariable Adjectives in Spanish.
Spanish adjectives can also be singular or plural, depending on the noun they accompany, so one adjective might have up to four different forms. For example, guapo, or “handsome,” has the following forms: guapo, guapa, guapos, guapas.
There’s another variation that most adjectives can have, and this is something that doesn’t exist in English, or at least not in the same way. When you want to emphasize an adjective, instead of saying muy (“very” ) in front of it, you can add -ísimo or -ísima at the end. If you see a very tall building, you can say it’s altísimo, instead of just alto, or muy alto. If you’re very very happy, you might want to say that you’re contentísimo, instead of contento.
Now that you’ve refreshed your knowledge, it’s time for our Spanish adjectives list! But if you do still need some Spanish adjectives help, why not give our MyTeacher program a try or drop us a comment below?
2. Common Spanish Adjectives for Dimensions, Sizes, Distance, etc.
Let’s start with some basic adjectives, such as those to describe sizes, among others.
1- grande
Meaning: “big”
Example: Esta camiseta me va grande.
Translation: “This shirt is too big for me.”
Note: This adjective also has the form gran, which is only found in front of the noun and changes its meaning to “great.” It’s not the same to say una mujer grande (“a big woman” ) as it is to say una gran mujer (“a great woman” ). There are also some nouns that can only have this adjective in front of it. For example, “a great idea” is una gran idea.
2- pequeño
Meaning: “small”
Example: Mi hermana tiene los pies pequeños.
Translation: “My sister has small feet.”
3- ancho/a
Meaning: “wide”
Example: Es una habitación muy ancha.
Translation: “It’s quite a wide room.”
4- estrecho/a
Meaning: “narrow”
Example: Hemos pasado por una calle muy estrecha.
Translation: “We passed through a very narrow street.”
5- alto/a
Meaning: “tall”
Example: ¡Qué alto eres!
Translation: “You’re so tall!”
6- bajo/a
Meaning: “short”
Example: El techo es muy bajo.
Translation: “The ceiling is very low.”
7- pesado/a
Meaning: “heavy”
Example: Esta caja es demasiado pesada para mí.
Translation: “This box is too heavy for me.”
8- ligero/a
Meaning: “light”
Example: Coge este libro, es más ligero de lo que parece.
Translation: “Grab this book, it’s lighter than it looks.”
9- lejano/a
Meaning: “far”
Example: Ese bar es muy lejano. ¿Podemos ir a otro?
Translation: “That bar is too far. Can we go to a different one?”
10- cercano/a
Meaning: “close”
Example: Nací en un pueblo cercano.
Translation: “I was born in a close town.”
11- lleno/a
Meaning: “full”
Example: El vaso está lleno.
Translation: “The glass is full.”
12- vacío/a/
Meaning: “empty”
Example: Tengo el monedero vacío.
Translation: “My wallet is empty.”
3. Essential Spanish Adjectives for Describing Value
We tend to say that things are good or bad, but sometimes they might be better or worse. They could be amazing, they could be wonderful, or they could be awful… Let’s learn some of these adjectives!
13- bueno/a
Meaning: “good”
Example: Mi primo es una buena persona.
Translation: “My cousin is a good person.”
14- genial
Meaning: “great”
Example: ¡Eres genial!
Translation: “You’re great!”
15- maravilloso/a
Meaning: “wonderful”
Example: Tu abuela es maravillosa.
Translation: “Your grandmother is wonderful.”
16- increíble
Meaning: “incredible”
Example: Me ha regalado un videojuego increíble.
Translation: “He gave me an incredible video game.”
17- malo/a
Meaning: “bad”
Example: Esta película es muy mala.
Translation: “This movie is really bad.”
18- malísimo/a
Meaning: “awful”
Example: Ese actor es malísimo.
Translation: “That’s an awful actor.”
Note: Okay, we realize that here we only added the -ísimo ending to malo, but it’s just to show you that there’s nothing worse than this. However, when something really sucks, we don’t use an adjective; we say it’s una mierda, which means “a sh*t.” We might also add some swear words to that, but this isn’t the right time for that.
4. Spanish Adjectives for Describing Feeling & Sense
You might also want to know how to describe how it feels to touch something. Whether it’s smooth or rough, hot or cold… These adjectives always come in handy.
19- frío/a
Meaning: “cold”
Example: La sopa se ha quedado fría.
Translation: “The soup went cold.”
20- helado/a
Meaning: “ice cold”
Example: Siempre se me quedan las manos heladas.
Translation: “My hands always get ice cold.”
Note: helado also means “ice cream.”
21- caliente
Meaning: “hot”
Example: Cuidado, el café está muy caliente.
Translation: “Be careful, the coffee is really hot.”
22- ardiente
Meaning: “burning”
Example: No toques eso, está ardiente.
Translation: “Don’t touch that, it’s burning hot.”
23- suave
Meaning: “smooth”
Example: Siempre he tenido la piel suave.
Translation: “I’ve always had smooth skin.”
24- áspero
Meaning: “rough”
Example: Tienes las manos ásperas.
Translation: “Your hands are rough.”
25- rugoso
Meaning: “rugged”
Example: Esta pared es muy rugosa.
Translation: “This wall is very rugged.”
26- blando
Meaning: “soft”
Example: Esta almohada es muy blanda.
Translation: “This pillow is very soft.”
27- duro
Meaning: “hard”
Example: Esta tarta no se puede comer, está durísima.
Translation: “I can’t eat this cake, it’s really hard.”
5. Spanish Adjectives for Describing Personalities and Behaviors
We couldn’t write an article about adjectives without talking about how to describe someone’s personality. In this section, we’ve decided it would be a good idea to classify these words between positive and negative words. Some of these words aren’t that easy to classify, so we realize that not all of these words are entirely negative, but we hope that’s okay with you! Here are the top Spanish adjectives for personality.
Positive words
28- agradable
Meaning: “nice” and “friendly”
Example: He pasado una tarde muy agradable.
Translation: “I’ve had a very nice afternoon.”
29- amable
Meaning: “kind”
Example: Gracias, eres muy amable.
Translation: “Thank you, you’re very kind.”
30- contento/a
Meaning: “happy”
Example: Hoy estoy muy contento.
Translation: “I’m really happy today.”
31- educado/a
Meaning: “polite”
Example: Tu hijo es muy educado.
Translation: “Your son is very polite.”
32- extrovertido/a
Meaning: “extroverted”
Example: No soy demasiado extrovertida.
Translation: “I’m not too extroverted.”
33- feliz
Meaning: “happy”
Example: Nadie me hace tan feliz como mi gato.
Translation: “Nobody makes me as happy as my cat.”
34- gracioso/a
Meaning: “funny” (but it can also be used ironically)
Example: ¿Te crees gracioso?
Translation: “Do you think you’re funny?”
35- listo/a
Meaning: “smart”
Example: Tengo alumnos muy listos.
Translation: “I have very smart students.”
36- sincero/a
Meaning: “sincere”
Example: Gracias por ser sincero.
Translation: “Thank you for being sincere.”
37- valiente
Meaning: “brave”
Example: Tienes que ser valiente.
Translation: “You need to be brave.”
Check out our Top 20 Spanish Words for Positive Emotions!
Negative words
38- cansado/a
Meaning: “tired”
Example: Mi madre siempre está cansada.
Translation: “My mom is always tired.”
39- enfadado/a
Meaning: “angry”
Example: Sé que estás enfadado, pero escúchame.
Translation: “I know you’re angry, but listen to me.”
40- ingenuo/a
Meaning: “naïve”
Example: Mira que eres ingenua.
Translation: “You’re so naïve.”
41- loco/a
Meaning: “crazy”
Example: ¡Estás loco!
Translation: “You’re crazy!”
42- maleducado/a
Meaning: “rude”
Example: De pequeña era bastante maleducada.
Translation: “When I was little I was quite rude.”
43- malvado/a
Meaning: “evil”
Example: He soñado con una bruja malvada.
Translation: “I dreamed of an evil witch.”
44- serio/a
Meaning: “serious”
Example: Mi hermano es un chico serio.
Translation: “My brother is a serious boy.”
45- solitario/a
Meaning: “lonely”
Example: Siempre he sido algo solitario.
Translation: “I’ve always been somewhat lonely.”
46- tímido/a
Meaning: “shy”
Example: Mi amiga es un poco tímida.
Translation: “My friend is a little shy.”
47- torpe
Meaning: “clumsy”
Example: Es verdad que soy un poco torpe.
Translation: “It’s true that I’m a little clumsy.”
48- triste
Meaning: “sad”
Example: Me pone triste verte así.
Translation: “Seeing you like this makes me sad.”
49- vago/a
Meaning: “lazy”
Example: Hoy tengo un día vago.
Translation: “I’m having a lazy day today.”
For a few more words to describe personality, you can check out our list of Spanish adjectives.
6. Spanish Adjectives for Describing Speed, Difficulty, Importance, etc.
50- rápido/a
Meaning: “fast”
Example: Eres demasiado rápido para mí.
Translation: “You’re too fast for me.”
51- lento/a
Meaning: “slow”
Example: Qué lento es este coche.
Translation: “This car is so slow.”
52- fácil
Meaning: “easy”
Example: El examen me ha parecido fácil.
Translation: “I found the test easy.”
53- difícil
Meaning: “difficult”
Example: Es una pregunta difícil.
Translation: “That’s a difficult question.”
54- importante
Meaning: “important”
Example: Sé que este collar es importante para ti.
Translation: “I know this necklace is important to you.”
55- simple
Meaning: “simple”
Example: No es tan simple.
Translation: “It’s not so simple.”
56- complicado
Meaning: “complicated”
Example: Me gustaría que la vida no fuese tan complicada.
Translation: “I wish life wasn’t so complicated.”
7. Describing Colors in Spanish
No list of adjectives would be complete without a list of colors. Here we have selected some of the most basic Spanish colors as adjectives:
57- amarillo/a
Meaning: “yellow”
Example: Tengo un coche amarillo.
Translation: “I have a yellow car.”
58- azul
Meaning: “blue”
Example: Mi lámpara es azul.
Translation: “My lamp is blue.”
59- blanco/a
Meaning: “white”
Example: Me he comprado un vestido blanco.
Translation: “I bought a white dress.”
60- marrón
Meaning: “brown”
Example: No me había fijado en que tenías los ojos marrones.
Translation: “I didn’t notice you had brown eyes.”
61- negro/a
Meaning: “black”
Example: Mi primer perro era de color negro.
Translation: “My first dog was black.”
62- rojo/a
Meaning: “red”
Example: ¿Te gusta mi nuevo pintalabios rojo?
Translation: “Do you like my new red lipstick?”
63- verde
Meaning: “green”
Example: Me encantan los árboles, son tan verdes.
Translation: “I love trees, they’re so green.”
64- claro/a
Meaning: “light”
Example: Tengo la piel muy clara.
Translation: “I have really light skin.”
65- oscuro/a
Meaning: “dark”
Example: ¿Puedes encender la luz? Está muy oscuro.
Translation: “Can you turn on the lights? It’s really dark.”
8. Describing Weather
In general, there aren’t very many Spanish weather adjectives. As we saw before, we do say something is hot or cold, but not when we’re talking about us feeling hot. Instead, what we say is Tengo calor (literally, “I have heat” ) or Tengo frío (“I have cold” ). If you said Estoy caliente (“I’m hot” ) you would actually be saying that you’re horny, so that could be quite confusing to the person you’re talking to.
On a similar note, when you want to say that the weather is hot, you won’t use an adjective. You’ll have to say Hace calor, which literally translates to something like “It makes heat,” and you’ll say Hace frío when it’s cold.
Even if it’s not that common, we do use some adjectives. For example, if it’s a cloudy day, we can say Está nublado.
For more weather words in Spanish, check out our Spanish weather article.
9. Spanish Adjectives for Describing Taste
We now know how to describe the feeling of touching something, so now it’s time to see how to describe taste. When you eat Spanish food, we’re sure you’ll want to tell your host how delicious you think it is!
66- dulce
Meaning: “sweet”
Example: Estas galletas son muy dulces.
Translation: “These cookies are very sweet.”
67- salado/a
Meaning: “salty”
Example: La tortilla está demasiado salada.
Translation: “The omelette is too salty.”
68- agrio/a
Meaning: “sour”
Example: Creo que la leche tiene un sabor agrio.
Translation: “I think this milk has a sour flavor.”
69- picante
Meaning: “spicy”
Example: ¿Este plato es picante?
Translation: “Is this dish spicy?”
70- asqueroso/a
Meaning: “disgusting”
Example: Esta fruta tiene un sabor asqueroso.
Translation: “This fruit has a disgusting taste.”
71- delicioso/a
Meaning: “delicious”
Example: Las fresas son deliciosas.
Translation: “Strawberries are delicious.”
72- amargo/a
Meaning: “bitter”
Example: El café es demasiado amargo para mí.
Translation: “Coffee is too bitter for me.”
To explore taste while you’re traveling in Spain, here’s a list of the 20 best restaurants in Spain.
10. Best Spanish Adjectives for Describing Situations
73- peligroso/a
Meaning: “dangerous”
Example: ¡No vayas! ¡Es peligroso!
Translation: “Don’t go! It’s dangerous!”
74- seguro/a
Meaning: “safe”
Example: Esta casa es completamente segura.
Translation: “This house is completely safe.”
75- divertido/a
Meaning: “fun” or “funny”
Example: Esta película es tan divertida.
Translation: “This movie is so funny.”
76- aburrido/a
Meaning: “boring”
Example: Esta clase es aburridísima.
Translation: “This lesson is so boring.”
77- imposible
Meaning: “impossible”
Example: Este examen es imposible.
Translation: “This exam is impossible.”
78- posible
Meaning: “possible”
Example: Esa chica es una posible asesina.
Translation: “That girl is a possible killer.”
11. Describing Physical Traits or Physical Condition
79- viejo/a
Meaning: “old”
Example: Es solo un reloj viejo.
Translation: “It’s just an old watch.”
80- joven
Meaning: “young”
Example: Eres demasiado joven para entenderlo.
Translation: “You’re too young to understand it.”
Note: Even though being young isn’t permanent and it’s only temporary, we wouldn’t use the verb estar here: we use ser.
81- fuerte
Meaning: “strong”
Example: Tienes los brazos muy fuertes.
Translation: “You have really strong arms.”
82- débil
Meaning: “weak”
Example: Juan no es tan débil como parece.
Translation: “Juan isn’t as weak as he looks.”
83- enfermo/a
Meaning: “sick”
Example: Mi abuelo está enfermo.
Translation: “My grandfather is sick.”
84- nuevo/a
Meaning: “new”
Example: Me he comprado un anillo nuevo.
Translation: “I bought myself a new ring.”
12. Spanish Adjectives for Describing Appearance & Condition
And finally, another very common group of adjectives. These are the top Spanish adjectives to describe people’s appearance.
85- atractivo/a
Meaning: “attractive”
Example: Mi madre de joven era muy atractiva.
Translation: “When my mom was young, she was very attractive.”
86- bonito/a
Meaning: “beautiful”
Example: Me parece un cuadro muy bonito.
Translation: “I think it’s a very beautiful painting.”
Note: We can say a girl is bonita, or a thing, or a landscape, but we don’t use it to describe a boy. If we want to say a boy is good-looking, we’ll use the following adjective, guapo.
87- guapo/a
Meaning: “handsome” or “pretty”
Example: Mi novio es guapísimo.
Translation: “My boyfriend is so handsome.”
88- feo/a
Meaning: “ugly”
Example: Qué paisaje tan feo.
Translation: “It’s such an ugly landscape.”
89- calvo/a
Meaning: “bald”
Example: Mi padre ha sido calvo desde que nací.
Translation: “My father has been bald since I was born.”
90- peludo/a
Meaning: “hairy”
Example: No me gusta tener las piernas tan peludas.
Translation: “I don’t like having such hairy legs.”
91- rubio/a
Meaning: “blond”
Example: De pequeña tenía el pelo rubio.
Translation: “When I was little, I had blond hair.”
92- moreno/a
Meaning: “tanned” or “brown-haired”
Example: ¿Has visto qué morena me he puesto?
Translation: “Did you see how tan I got?”
93- pelirrojo/a
Meaning: “red-haired”
Example: Me gustan mucho las chicas pelirrojas.
Translation: “I really like red-haired girls.”
94- delgado/a
Meaning: “thin”
Example: Te has puesto muy delgada, ¿no?
Translation: “You got really thin, didn’t you?”
95- gordo/a
Meaning: “fat”
Example: Marta está un poco gorda.
Translation: “Marta is a little fat.”
96- obeso/a
Meaning: “obese”
Example: Si no te pones a dieta ahora, te vas a poner obesa.
Translation: “If you don’t go on a diet now, you’re going to become obese.”
97- mono/a
Meaning: “cute”
Example: Qué mona eres.
Translation: “You’re so cute.”
98- pobre
Meaning: “poor”
Example: Soy pobre, pero tengo orgullo.
Translation: “I’m poor, but I have pride.”
99- rico/a
Meaning: “rich”
Example: A veces pienso que me tendría que buscar un novio rico.
Translation: “Sometimes I think I should get a rich boyfriend.”
100- tatuado/a
Meaning: “tattooed”
Example: Mi hermano está todo tatuado.
Translation: “My brother is all tattooed.”
13. How SpanishPod101.com Can Help You Learn More Spanish
Do you feel more confident now using Spanish adjectives? Are there any Spanish adjectives you still want to know? Let us know in the comments! We always enjoy hearing from you!
We’re sure that these 100 Spanish adjectives will help you improve your level of conversation in Spanish. But let’s not stop there! There’s so much more to learn, so many new words to explore, so many friends to make! At SpanishPod101.com, you can learn so much more and really become fluent in Spanish.
You might want to take a look at our very useful vocabulary list of Spanish Adverbs and Phrases for Connecting Thoughts, or now that we’ve looked at Spanish adjectives, it might be good to check out these 25 Most Commonly Used Verbs.
If you’re here, you might be interested in moving to Spain. Why not read our article on How to Find Jobs in Spain?
Until next time, happy learning!
