Capitulo 4

M.P. Thompson March 2002 <http://www.dur.ac.uk/m.p.thompson/adjectives.htm>
University of Durham - School of Modern European Languages - Department of Spanish

Position of adjectives in Spanish

1. English/Spanish differences

An adjective is a word that describes or classifies a noun. It may appear alongside the noun ('my friend, deep water') or after a copulative verb ('the water is deep'). In Spanish, most adjectives can also be used with an article (la pequeña, lo más importante) to stand for the combined idea of noun and adjective (the small one, the most important thing).
When an adjective appears alongside a noun in English, the required order is: adjective + noun (the big hat, the green hat, the first hat, your hat). Spanish, however, allows adjectives to come either before or after the noun.

2. Spanish: adjetivos determinativos

Certain types of adjective in Spanish which do a job of identifying what is referred to or specifying quantity or volume (rather than describing a noun) usually precede the noun. These include demonstrative (este, aquel), possessive (mi, tu), numeral (tres, tercero), indefinite (alguno, ninguno), relative (cuyo) and interrogative (qué) adjectives. Some can be used on their own as pronouns, and some can occasionally appear after the noun.

Adjective	Pronoun	Alternative adjective position
Toma esa copa	No ésa sino aquélla	El chico aquel me tiene desesperada
Es un imbécil tu amigo		Ese amigo tuyo es un imbécil
Llegaron dieciséis enanos	Dieciséis son muchos
Leamos el primer capítulo	Sí, el primero	Leamos el capítulo primero
¿Ves alguna estrella?	Yo no veo ninguna	No veo estrella alguna
No hay mucho hielo	A mí me parece muy poco
No comas tanta carne
Tal arrogancia nos ofende
Ha venido un chico cuyo padre es amigo del director
¿Qué día prefieren?	¿Qué prefieren? ¿Cuál prefieren?

3. Spanish: adjetivos calificativos

Other adjectives describe a noun, attributing a quality to it. They are normally placed after the noun they describe.

la enseñanza secundaria	un bicho peligroso
camareros italianos	la bandera roja

However, Spanish allows a degree of flexibility in the placing of adjectives, so that they sometimes precede the noun. The main principle governing this choice is to do with differentiation:

An adjective following a noun distinguishes that item from others that may have different qualities: secondary as opposed to primary, dangerous as opposed to harmless, Italian not Bulgarian, red rather than green or purple. La casa blanca implies an answer to the question '¿qué casa, la blanca o la azul?'.
Putting an adjective before a noun implies that the quality expressed is naturally associated with that noun. Rather than describing the noun in order to differentiate it from others, the adjective merely attaches an unsurprising epithet to it. La blanca nieve confirms the expected whiteness of the snow: it would be odd to say la nieve blanca, because we don't expect to have to differentiate between white snow and other kinds. If a house has already been described as whitewashed and is referred to again, then la blanca casa might be said (that house, which we all know is white): Vi por última vez la blanca casa de Sevilla en que había pasado toda mi niñez.

After the noun: differentiating	Before the noun: unsurprising epithet
Se dará el premio a un escritor famoso (whoever gets it will be a famous writer rather than an unknown one)	Se dará el premio a un famoso escritor (we know who is going to get it; we naturally think of him as famous)
En estos concursos siempre gana el escritor famoso (and the unknown one always loses)	Se levantó el famoso escritor para recibir su premio (an obvious way of characterizing Cela)
Empezaba a formarse un charco de pintura roja (paint could be any colour)	Empezaba a formarse un charco de roja sangre (poetically intensifying the image of blood)
Siempre nos recuerda que su familia tiene sangre azul (not the red that all the rest of us have)	Empezaba a borrarse la roja pintura de sus labios (lipstick can be assumed to be red)

Especially in literary texts, writers may at times place an adjective before the noun even when the issue of differentiating or not differentiating is not so clear-cut. Since this breaks the normal pattern of adjective following noun, it will usually have the effect of creating special emphasis or stylistic effect.

Progresivamente llegaba el sueño. Un descendente camino hacia una fuente.

Todo el paisaje estaba transformado en una fantasmagórica apariencia.

4. Descriptive adjectives that frequently precede the noun

Some common adjectives (bueno, malo, nuevo, viejo, grande) are often used before the noun, but the principle of differentiation still applies in most cases. The non-differentiating prenominal adjective usually has a more figurative meaning, while the postnominal one is more literal:

After the noun: differentiating, literal	Before the noun: figurative
obras grandes (large)	grandes obras (great, grand)
una moto nueva (brand-new)	una nueva moto (a replacement)
la chica pobre (penniless)	la pobre chica (pitiable)

5. Other factors

The overall balance of the phrase may also be a significant factor in the placing of an adjective. For example, more than one adjective or an adjective modified by an adverb may produce an awkward construction if all placed before the noun (or at least one that is marked for special emphasis or stylistic effect):

Non-differentiating adjective before noun	el hermoso paisaje del Sáhara
Still non-differentiating, but putting three words between the article and the noun makes the structure slightly awkward	el duro y hermoso paisaje del Sáhara
The non-differentiating principle is lost in favour of a more comfortable construction	el paisaje duro y hermoso del Sáhara
A ridiculously long adjectival phrase is forced between el and pintor, but this is obviously for extravagant stylistic effect	Apareció en el tejado el delirante pero incomparablemente paranoico-ingenioso pintor don Salvador Dalí

Back