Tuesday, 4 February 2014

What Is Your Best Male Friend Like?

Introduction
This post is about the use of describing words/ adjectives in general, and more specifically about the use of the masculine/ singular form of a describing word/ adjective.





SCENARIO



Imagine you talking to a relative or a work colleague. You are talking about your friends. The other person wants you to tell him/ her a little bit about your best male friend and says to you: "what is your best male friend like?".


In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and ask you:
¿Cómo es tu mejor amigo?

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿Cómo es su mejor amigo?


OUR TIP
This is a straightforward question about your best friend. 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.

Perhaps you want to describe your best friend in the following terms:
  • Name.
  • Age.
  • Marital status.
  • Profession/ occupation.
  • Nationality.
  • His appearance.
  • Other characteristics

Here are some sample replies:
  • Mi mejor amigo se llama Pedro (my best friend's name is Pedro);
  • Mi mejor amigo está soltero* (my best male friend is single);
  • Mi mejor amigo tiene treinta años (my best male friend is 30 years old);
  • Mi mejor amigo es maestro* (my best male friend is a teacher);
  • Mi mejor amigo no tiene hijos (my best male friend doesn't have any children);
  • Mi mejor amigo es alto* y delgado* (my best male friend is tall and thin);
  • Mi mejor amigo es muy guapo* (my best male friend is very good looking);
  • Mi mejor amigo es mexicano* (my best male friend is Mexican)
  • Mi mejor amigo es bajo*, un poco gordo* y lleva gafas (my best male friend is short and a little fat and wears glasses)
  • Mi mejor amigo es inteligente*, trabajador* y simpático* (my best male friend is intelligent, hard working and pleasant/ likeable);

Notes


See further practical examples of describing places/ people/ etc.





Now you should practise answering the question:
¿Cómo es tu mejor amigo?

*NB See Grammar below

*Grammar-Adjectives



Gender
Number
Adjective
amigo
masculine
singular
soltero
amigos
masculine/ mixed
plural
solteros
amiga
feminine
singular
soltera
amigas
feminine
plural
solteras
Noun-Adjective Agreement



See notes below on Noun-Adjective agreement

Noun-Adjective Agreement
As you can see above, in Spanish you can use describing words/ adjectives when describing people. Below follow some notes on how to choose the correct form of the adjective to describe a given person.

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 person they describe. Most Spanish describing words have similar but separate words for each of the two genders (for example, alto/ alta). A few, however have one single form (for example, inteligente).

Thus when you come to use a describing word to describe a person, you need to check whether the corresponding Spanish describing word/ adjective has:
  • One single form to describe both a male and female persons (for example , inteligente)
  • Two separate forms (for example, alto/ alta).- If the describing word/ adjective has two separate forms, then you need to choose the form which matches the gender (masculine/ feminine) of the person to describe.

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 person it describes. For example, amigo soltero (unmarried male friend) or amigos solteros (unmarried male friends).

*NB View posts with details about the plural of Spanish words here.

Adjectives -Use
All the practical examples in this post refer to one friend, amigo. Consequently, they require the masculine/ singular form of a describing word/ adjective, for example, soltero.

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