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 talking about family/relatives to someone who doesn't know your parents. At some point the other person asks you: "where are your parents from?".
In Spanish, the
other person could choose to be less formal and ask you:
¿De
dónde son tus padres*?
Alternatively, he/
she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿De
dónde son sus padres*?
*NB
The Spanish word padres (masculine/ plural) may also mean
fathers.
OUR
TIP
This
is a straightforward question about your parents. If your answer does
not include a reference to 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 parents
- The country your parents come from
- The city/ town your parents come from
Here
are some sample replies:
- Mis padres son ingleses* (my parents are English).
- Mis padres son italianos* (my parents are Italian).
- Mis padres son estadounidenses* (my parents are American).
- Mis padres son vietnamitas* (my parents are Vietnamese).
- Mis padres son de Inglaterra (my parents are from England).
- Mis padres son de Londres (my parents are from London).
- Mis padres son ingleses*, de Londres (my parents are English, they are from London).
Now
you should practise answering the question:
¿De
dónde son tus padres?
*NB
See Grammar below
*Grammar-Adjectives
-
GenderNumberAdjectivepadremasculinesingularingléspadresmasculine/ mixedpluralinglesesmadrefemininesingularinglesamadresfemininepluralinglesas
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, padre inglés
(English father) or padres
ingleses
(English parents/ fathers).
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 parents (plural),
padres. 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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