Adjective agreement

Adjective placement

In English, adjectives go before the noun (a red car). In Spanish, they usually come after the noun they describe.

I have a fast red car.
Yo tengo un carro rojo y rápido.

Matching gender

Spanish adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify. For regular adjectives that end in -o, change the ending to -a for feminine nouns.

The tall boy and the short girl eat an apple.
El niño alto y la niña baja comen una manzana.
She buys an expensive new computer.
Ella compra una computadora nueva y cara.

Matching number

Adjectives also match whether the noun is singular or plural. Just like with nouns, add -s to the adjective if it describes more than one thing.

Here are the four forms for a regular adjective like rojo (red):

MasculineFeminine
Singularrojoroja
Pluralrojosrojas

Notice how these adjectives match both the gender and number of their nouns:

The old books are cheap.
Los libros viejos son baratos.
The red flowers are beautiful.
Las flores rojas son bonitas.