In Spanish, adjectives agree in number and gender with the noun they modify. This means that the ending of the adjective changes to match the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun.
1. Gender agreement:
- Masculine nouns: Normally, adjectives ending in -o in their masculine singular form. For example: un chico inteligente (a intelligent boy).
- Feminine nouns: Adjectives ending in -a in their feminine singular form. For example: una chica inteligente (a intelligent girl).
2. Number agreement:
- Singular nouns: The adjective will also be in the singular form. For example: un libro interesante (an interesting book).
- Plural nouns: The adjective will be in its plural form. Generally, this involves changing the ending -o to -os for masculine nouns and -a to -as for feminine nouns. For example: unos libros interesantes (some interesting books), unas chicas interesantes (some interesting girls).
It's important to note that some adjectives have irregular forms when changing both number and gender. Furthermore, if a noun is of mixed gender or refers to a mixture of masculine and feminine beings, the adjective will be masculine plural.
For example, if we have a group of both male and female friends, we would say: unos amigos simpáticos (some friendly friends), using the masculine plural form simpáticos to agree with the mixed gender noun amigos.
How do number and gender affect adjectives in the spanish language?
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