156 Useful Spanish Adjectives With Tips To Use Them Correctly

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You might know the word bueno but how many other Spanish adjectives do you know? Bello, educado, and ruidoso just scratch the surface of the many adjectives you can use to describe nouns—people, places, things, and ideas—and give pizzazz to your writing and speaking.

It’s also important to learn about placement and adjective agreement in Spanish, so you can use adjectives correctly every time. Understanding changeable endings or how quantity affects the placement or spelling of adjectives will help you sound more natural as you learn Spanish.

How to use Spanish adjectives correctly

There are two key rules you’ll need to remember as you learn how to use adjectives in Spanish the right way. These rules apply to the vast majority of adjectives you’ll encounter, which is really handy!

Place adjectives after nouns

Unlike English, most adjectives in Spanish go after the noun. If we are talking about an attractive man, we’d say:

• un hombre guapo = a handsome man 

There are a few exceptions to this rule, but for now, just remember to place the adjective after the thing you’re describing.

Change adjective endings to match noun gender and number

All nouns are gendered (masculine/feminine), which means the parts of speech that modify them—both adjectives and articles—are often altered to agree with that gender in Spanish. Adjectives and articles must also agree in number (singular/plural). 

Let’s take a look at the examples below: 

• un hombre guapo = a handsome man 
• unas mujeres guapas = pretty women 

See how everything matches? Hombre, which is a masculine noun, is modified by guapo, an adjective in masculine, singular form. Mujeres, which is a feminine noun, is modified by guapas, an adjective in feminine, plural form. 

Most Spanish adjectives will end in “o” for their masculine form and “a” for their feminine form:

• un gato divertido = a fun male cat
• una gata divertida = a fun female cat

Adjectives will usually be listed in a dictionary with only the masculine form or with their feminine variant listed second like this: divertido, da.

What are the exceptions to using Spanish adjectives?

As with all language rules, there are exceptions to using adjectives correctly. While the majority of adjectives follow the rules above, note the various categories below so you can make sure you use them correctly.

Nationalities 

Adjectives for nationalities are not capitalized in Spanish. For those ending in a consonant, you add the “a” for the feminine form:

• un niño japonés = a Japanese boy
• una niña japonesa = a Japanese girl

Notice that in the feminine form it has no accent.

Adjectives that end in -or, -ón, -án, and -ín…

For adjectives that end in -or, -ón, -án, or -ín, you’ll add an “a” at the end for feminine nouns and drop the accent in the feminine but keep it in masculine.

• un hombre trabajador = a hard working man
• una mujer trabajadora = a hard working woman
• un hombre gruñón = a grumpy man
• una mujer gruñona = a grumpy woman 

Unchangeable endings

Some adjectives have endings that don’t change, namely, anything that doesn’t end in “o” or “a.” This rule applies to masculine and feminine singular nouns:

• un hombre inteligente = an intelligent man
• una mujer inteligente = an intelligent woman

Using bueno and malo

There are two commonly used masculine adjectives—bueno and malo—that drop the “o” when they’re before a masculine singular noun.

• un buen muchacho = a good young man
• un mal hombre = a bad man

These adjectives can also follow the noun, as in Es un muchacho bueno (He is a good young man). Be aware that it’s not common to say it this way, and it’s far less impactful.

Adjectives of quantity

Any adjectives of quantity generally go before the noun.

• Tengo mucho dinero. = I have a lot of money.
• Es otro problema. = It is another problem.

Using adjectives with definitive articles

In some cases, adjectives can function as nouns when paired with a definitive article, which include el, la, lo, los, and las.

• la bella = the beautiful one; the beautiful woman
• el flaco = the skinny one; the skinny man
• la roja = the red one (feminine noun)
• el verde = the green one (masculine noun)

The most commonly used adjectives in Spanish and their meanings

To get you going with your adjective vocabulary, here are some charts of adjectives in Spanish grouped by category. Start pairing them with common Spanish words and Spanish nouns!

Spanish adjectives to describe physical attributes

You can describe a person, home, objects, or places in so many different ways. Here are some useful adjectives to describe the physical characteristics of people and things in Spanish.