Introduction
This
post is about the use of describing words/ adjectives in general, and
more specifically about the use of the
feminine/
singular form
of a describing word/ adjective.
SCENARIO
Imagine
you talking to a friend or a work colleague. You are talking about
your family. The other person wants you to tell him/ her a little bit
about your mother and says to you: "what
is your mother like?".
In Spanish, the
other person could choose to be less formal and ask you:
¿Cómo
es tu madre?
Alternatively, he/
she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿Cómo
es su madre?
OUR
TIP
This
is a straightforward question about your mother. 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 mother in the following terms:
- Name.
- Age.
- Marital status.
- Profession/ occupation.
- Nationality.
- Her appearance.
- Other characteristics
Here
are some sample replies:
- Mi madre se llama María (my mother's name is Maria);
- Mi madre está casada* (my mother is married);
- Mi madre tiene sesenta años (my mother is 60 years old);
- Mi madre es maestra* (my mother is a teacher);
- Mi madre no tiene hermanos (my mother doesn't have any brothers);
- Mi madre es alta* y delgada* (my mother is tall and thin);
- Mi madre es muy guapa* (my mother is very good looking);
- Mi madre es mexicana* (my mother is Mexican)
- Mi madre es baja*, un poco gorda* y lleva gafas (my mother is short, a little fat and wears glasses)
- Mi madre es inteligente*, trabajadora* y simpática* (my mother is intelligent, hard working and pleasant/ likeable);
Now
you should practise answering the question:
¿Cómo
es tu madre?
*NB
See Grammar below
*Grammar-Adjectives
- GenderNumberAdjectivepadremasculinesingularcasadopadresmasculine/mixedpluralcasadosmadrefemininesingularcasadamadresfemininepluralcasadas
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 'agree' with the number (singular/
plural) of the person
it describes. For example, madre casada
(married mother) or madres
casadas (married mothers).
*NB
View posts with details about the plural of Spanish words here.
Adjectives
-Use
All
the practical examples in this post refer to one mother, madre.
Consequently, they require the feminine/ singular
form of a describing word/ adjective, for example, casada.
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