Introduction
This
post is about the use of describing words/ adjectives in general, and
more specifically about the use of
masculine/
plural form
of a describing word/ adjective.
SCENARIO
Imagine you and a group of friends meet someone else who doesn't know your friends. At some point the other person asks you: "where are your friends from?".
¿De
dónde son tus amigos*?
Alternatively, he/
she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿De
dónde son sus amigos*?
*NB The use of the word amigos (masculine/ plural) in the question implies that at least one individual in the group is a male. You need to choose the word “amigas” when all the friends in question are female.
OUR
TIP
This
is a straightforward question about your your friends (a third
person). When saying something about a third person (that are,
neither you nor the person asking the question) you DO NOT
need be concerned about the degree of formality in the original
question. You can just concentrate on answering the question.
Questions
like this one are usually answered by indicating:
- The nationality of your friends
- The country your friends come from
- The city/ town your friends come from
Here
are some sample replies:
- Mis amigos son ingleses* (my friends are English).
- Mis amigos son italianos* (my friends are Italian).
- Mis amigos son estadounidenses* (my friends are American).
- Mis amigos son vietnamitas* (my friends are Vietnamese).
- Mis amigos son de Inglaterra (my friends are from England).
- Mis amigos son de Londres (my friends are from London).
- Mis amigos son ingleses*, de Londres (my friends are English, they are from London).
Now
you should practise answering the question:
¿De
dónde son tus amigos?
*NB
See Grammar below
*Grammar-Adjectives
-
GenderNumberAdjectiveamigomasculinesingularinglésamigosmasculine/ mixedpluralinglesesamigafemininesingularinglesaamigasfemininepluralinglesas
Noun-Adjective
Agreement
See
notes below on Noun-Adjective agreement
Noun-Adjective
Agreement
As
you can see above, in Spanish you can also use a describing word/
adjective to indicate where someone comes from. Below follow some
notes on how to choose the correct form of the adjective for a given
noun.
Adjectives
-Gender
When
you use Spanish describing words/ adjectives, you need to bear in
mind that for each describing word in English, there are often two
related but different describing words/ adjectives in Spanish. The
reason being that Spanish describing words/ adjectives have to
'agree' with the gender (masculine or feminine) of the noun they
describe. Most Spanish describing words have similar but separate
words for each of the two genders (for example, americano/
americana). A few,
however have one single form (for example, canadiense).
Thus
when you come to use a describing word to indicate where someone
comes from, you need to check whether the corresponding Spanish
describing word/ adjective has:
- One single form (for example , estadounidense)
- Two separate forms (for example, inglés/ inglesa).- If the describing word/ adjective has two separate forms, then you need to choose the form which matches the gender (masculine/ feminine) of the noun it describes.
Adjectives
-Number
When
you use Spanish describing words/ adjectives, you also need to bear
in mind that Spanish describing words/ adjectives have singular and
plural* forms the same as nouns. A Spanish describing word/ adjective
must also to 'agree' with the number (singular/
plural) of the noun it
describes. For example, amigo inglés
(English friend -male) or amigos
ingleses
(English friends -males).
Thus
when you come to use a describing word/ adjective to indicate where
someone comes from, you need to choose the form of the Spanish
describing word/ adjective which matches the noun's number (singular/
plural).
*NB
View posts with details about the plural of Spanish words here.
Adjectives
-Use
All
the practical examples in this post refer to several friends, amigos.
Consequently, they require the masculine/ plural
form of a describing word/ adjective, for example, ingleses.
Spelling
Please
note that in Spanish, the names of countries, towns, cities, etc.
(for example, “Inglaterra” or “Londres”) are
capitalised. However, the nationality describing words/ adjectives
(for example “italiana”) are not.
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