Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿El perro negro es grande o pequeño?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives like negro (black) usually come right after the noun they describe. So, instead of 'black dog', you literally say 'dog black'.

Why do negro and pequeño end in -o?

Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since perro is masculine and singular, these adjectives take their masculine singular form, which typically ends in -o. If we were talking about a female dog (perra), they would change to negra and pequeña.

If the dog is masculine, why doesn't grande end in -o?

Adjectives that end in -e in their dictionary form, like grande (big), are gender-neutral. They use the exact same -e ending for both masculine and feminine nouns. We would only change it to grandes if we were talking about more than one dog!

Why do we use es here instead of está?

We use es (from the verb ser) because we are asking about the dog's physical characteristics. Size and color are considered defining traits of the animal, not temporary states, which would use estar.