Using Adjectives to Describe: Adjective Agreement

Gender Agreement (pg 59) You already know that every word in Spanish has a gender: masculine or feminine. El chico = masculine El helado= masculine La galleta = feminine La maestra= feminine

Gender Agreement (pg 59) Adjectives describe nouns. Ex: the fast car, the red dress, the happy girl. Like the definite (el, la, los, las) and indefinite articles (un,unos, una, unas), the adjectives will also “agree” or “match” with the noun it describes based on two very important things:

Adjectives must agree in both: gender Masculine / feminine Number Singular (one) / plural (more than one)

In English, we describe nouns using adjectives In English, we describe nouns using adjectives. In English, the adjective comes before the thing you’re describing: Ex: The red shirt, the big house, the pretty cat. In Spanish, you put the adjective after the noun, and you also have to make it match the noun in gender and number. So instead of the big ugly dogs, you say something like “the dogs bigs uglies.”

Gender Agreement ADJECTIVE AFTER!!!! Here are your steps to use adjectives correctly: Decide the gender of the noun. (masc/fem) Decide the number of the noun. (sing./plur) Form the adjective to match. Put the adjective AFTER the noun. (This is almost always the rule in Spanish) ADJECTIVE AFTER!!!!

joven masculine, singular plural feminine, adjectives ending in –o   masculine, singular plural feminine, adjectives ending in –o serio adjectives ending in –e interesante adjectives ending in consonant joven adjectives ending in –ador, nationality trabajador

Gender Agreement To say “the serious girl” in Spanish: Step 1: gender? fem = _____________ Step 2: number? =_____________ Step 3: I need to form the adjective to agree with the noun. Make serio feminine =______________________ Step 4:Put the adjective after the noun: ________________________

Let’s try a plural one: number 12 in your paquete: 12. The lazy dogs. Gender = perro = masculine. Number = plural = add an S = perros. Make the adjective match = perezoso means lazy, and I need to add an S to the end. = perezosos Put the adjective after = The dogs lazies = los perros perezosos.

Gender Agreement (pg 59) Note: For adjectives that end in “e,” they usually match both genders: El chico inteligente, la chica inteligente. Many adjectives that end with a consonant match both genders: El chico joven, la chica joven Some add “a” to become feminine. These adjectives must be learned. El chico trabajador, La chica trabajadora.

Gender Agreement (pg 59) Your turn! Use your vocab lists to describe the following: The ugly man = ____________  ________________  _________________ 1. The thin dog. ___________________ 2. The big cookies. _________________ 3. The red-haired girl.___________________ 4. The fat cat. ________________________

5. The ugly woman. __________________________________ 6 5. The ugly woman. __________________________________ 6. The artistic boys. ___________________________________ 7. The hard-working students. _________________________________ 8.The serious man. _________________________________

9. The pretty, studious woman. ___________________________________ 10 9. The pretty, studious woman. ___________________________________ 10. The athletic girls. _________________________________ 11. The small pizza. _________________________________ 12. The lazy dogs. ________________________________

The black socks. __________________________________ 7.The purple blouse. _________________________________ 8.The yellow shoes. _________________________________ 9.The red jacket. ___________________________________ 10.The green T-shirt. _________________________________ 11.The strong boy. _________________________________ 12.The lazy woman. _________________________________

Gender Agreement with SER Using SER to describe something: You can use “ser” plus the adjective to describe a noun. You need to use SER if you want to say that someone IS something or some people ARE something else. Remember, you use “es” for one object, “son” for more than one.

Gender Agreement The form of SER you use should match your ___________________. Matt is tall = Mateo es alto. Why did we use ES to talk about Mateo? _______________________ What if you wanted to describe the students? ________________  How about my friends and I? _______________________

The man is short and ugly = El hombre es bajo y feo The man is short and ugly = El hombre es bajo y feo. The girls are nice but lazy = Las chicas son simpáticas pero perezosas. 1. The girls are short. _______________________________ 2. The ice creams are big! ____________________________

3. The men are hard-working and nice 3. The men are hard-working and nice. __________________________________ 4. Some girls are ugly. _________________________________ 5. A student (fem) is hard-working and studious. ____________________________________

What about if you want to talk about yourself? I am short and nice = _______________________________ You are tall and serious __________________________________ My friend and I are hard-working and smart. __________________________________

Gender Agreement (pg 59) Let’s throw in some indefinite articles: A brown jacket. __________________________ 2. Some white skirts. ____________________ 3. A green hat. 4. Some orange pants. ______________________

Gender Agreement (pg 59) Mix-up! Try these with a partner: The sweater is white. The girl is hard-working. The teacher (m) is boring. The blue pants. The jacket is purple. Some yellow sweaters.