Tengo un buen libro verde.

I have a good green book.

Breakdown of Tengo un buen libro verde.

• el libro: the book
• yo: I
• verde: green
• tener: to have
• buen: good

Questions & Answers about Tengo un buen libro verde.

Why is it buen instead of bueno?

In Spanish, bueno becomes buen when it appears directly before a masculine noun. Bueno is the full form, but we drop the final –o when it precedes a masculine singular noun (for instance, libro). You’ll see this pattern in examples like un buen amigo (“a good friend”) but un amigo bueno also exists, though it slightly changes the emphasis.

Why does buen come before libro instead of after?

Most descriptive adjectives in Spanish come after the noun. However, adjectives like buen (“good”), gran (“great”), mal (“bad”), and a few others often appear before the noun for emphasis or as a set expression. Saying un libro bueno would still be correct, but placing buen before libro emphasizes the quality in a slightly different way and is more natural in many contexts.

Why is libro masculine?

Spanish nouns are assigned genders, typically indicated by the article and the noun ending. Most nouns ending in -o are masculine, so el libro is masculine. This also affects the forms of adjectives and articles you use with it (buen instead of buena, un instead of una, etc.).

Why do we say Tengo instead of Yo tengo?

Tengo means “I have” and already contains the subject “I” in its ending. In Spanish, we often omit the subject pronoun because the verb ending makes it clear who’s performing the action. Yo tengo is grammatically correct and can be used for emphasis, but in everyday speech, people often drop the pronoun.

Does verde have to change form to match the noun?

Some colors in Spanish change form based on gender or number. Verde usually doesn’t change for gender, but it does take an -s for plural when describing multiple items (e.g. libros verdes for “green books”). Since you have only one book, verde remains in the singular form.

Why do we say un buen libro verde and not un libro buen verde?

In Spanish, if you choose to put two adjectives before the noun, the adjective with special placement (buen) goes before the noun. The more standard descriptive adjective (verde) typically goes after the noun. While Spanish adjective order can be flexible compared to English, placing both adjectives before the noun in this example would sound unnatural.