Adjective Agreement

Level 1

An adjective agrees with its noun in gender and number.

How It Works

Start with the noun: masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Match the adjective even when it follows a verb: el pis és petit, les cases són petites. Some adjectives have two gender forms; others share one.

Compare petit/petita/petits/petites with gran/gran/grans/grans and feliç/feliç/feliços/felices. The feminine of pobre is pobra; both plurals are pobres. Learn these actual forms rather than assuming every adjective ending in -e is invariable.

Some stems change: bo/bona, sa/sana and dolç/dolça. Content/contenta, atent/atenta and dolent/dolenta also vary. Certain consonant clusters allow alternative masculine plurals, such as trists/tristos; -os is not obligatory after every cluster. When one adjective describes coordinated nouns of different genders, the usual agreement is masculine plural.

Examples (3)

  1. La meva veïna està contenta.

    My neighbor is happy.

  2. Són llibres nous i revistes noves.

    They are new books and new magazines.

  3. Una dona pobra viu en una casa petita.

    A poor woman lives in a small house.

Common Mistakes

  • Ignoring the feminine noun.

    La casa és petit.
    La casa és petita.

    Casa is feminine singular, so petit changes to petita.

How It Connects

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Adjective AgreementLevel 1

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