Learn the answer to the question 'Should I use adjectives before nouns?'
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| Ask a teacher, lesson 18 - Why is the adjective sometimes written before the noun in Spanish? |
| Hi everybody! Rosa here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Spanish questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| Why is the adjective sometimes written before the noun in Spanish? |
| In Spanish, adjectives are usually placed after the noun. but sometimes adjectives precede the noun. |
| When that happens, some adjectives change their meaning. If we use these adjectives before the noun, the meaning is objective or descriptive. When it’s placed after the noun, as usual, the meaning is subjective or connotative. |
| Let’s go through some examples so you can learn how to use adjectives before nouns correctly in Spanish! |
| Let’s take the adjective pobre meaning “poor.” If you put the word pobre before the noun “man,” which is hombre, then the speaker would be implying that the pobre hombre “poor man” is someone he or she pities or someone who deserves sympathy. However, if you switch them, the phrase becomes hombre pobre. This would quite literally mean a man who has no money. |
| Let’s do another example with the adjective viejo meaning “old.” If you add viejo to the word “friend” which is amigo, you will get the phrase viejo amigo, “old friend.” In this case viejo represents the length of time the speaker has been friends with that person. The same way you would say “old friend” in English. However, if you were to reverse the phrase and say amigo viejo, then you would be literally talking about a friend who is elderly. |
| An important point to remember is that if the adjective is talking about the quality of a noun that’s always the same, the position of the adjective doesn’t change the meaning. For example, oscura noche or noche oscura both mean “dark night” because night is always dark. The same way that fría nieve or nieve fría both mean “cold snow” because snow is always cold. |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting, right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| ¡Hasta luego! “See you later!” |
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