This
post is about the use of describing words/ adjectives in general, and
more specifically about the use of
feminine/
singular form
of describing words/ adjectives.
Imagine you are talking to someone else who doesn't know your mother. At some point the other person asks you: "where is your mother from?".
In Spanish, the other person
could choose to be less formal and ask you:
¿De
dónde es tu madre?
Alternatively, he/
she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿De
dónde es su madre?
OUR
TIP
This
is a straightforward question about your your mother (a third
person). When saying something about a third person (that is, 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 mother
- The country your mother comes from
- The city/ town your mother comes from
Here
are some sample replies:
- Mi madre es inglesa* (my mother is English).
- Mi madre es italiana* (my mother is Italian).
- Mi madre es estadounidense* (my mother is American).
- Mi madre es vietnamita* (my mother is vietnamese).
- Mi madre es de Inglaterra (my mother is from England).
- Mi madre es de Londres (my mother is from London).
- Mi madre es inglesa*, de Londres (my mother is English, she is from London).
Now
you should practise answering the question:
¿De
dónde es tu madre?
*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, madre inglesa
(English mother) or madres
inglesas
(English mothers).
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 include the noun madre
which is a feminine/
singular
noun. Consequently, they require the feminine/
singular form of a describing word/ adjective, for example,
inglesa.
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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