Adjective Placement
Many factors influence the placement of adjectives in Spanish. A few of these are:
- Stylistic choices or psychological nuances: Subjectivity, etc - No son leyes sino tendencias
- Mode of language usage:
- Colloquial or formal spoken
- Casual or formal written
- Prosaic or poetic
- Contrastive or enhancing - Informational content of adjective – technical, nationality, contrastive, etc
- Single or multiple adjective(s)
- Parallel or Non-parallel adjectives
- Mobility factor – High or low mobility
- Rhythm and Mobility
- Courtesy formulas
- Length of adjective - esdrújulas, etc
- Whether we need a prepositional phrase or adjectival clause to do the job
It is difficult to reduce adjective placement to a formula as we can with prepositions and cops.
Note: articles, numbers, and demonstratives are also adjectives and their position is fixed:
La hermosa casa Dos hermosas casas Esta hermosa casa
Parallel
Parallel adjectives tend to be set off by commas and are connected by "y".
Mi generoso y leal amigo. Mi amigo generoso y leal. - My generous, loyal friend.
El gracioso y culto diplomático. - The witty, cultured diplomat.
Un administrador competente y experimentado. - A competent, experienced administrator.
Non-parallel
Nuestro sistema educativo actual. - Our present-day educational system.
El piloto australiano alto. - The tall Australian pilot.
Aparatos electrónicos japoneses. - Japanese electronic devices.
Mi generoso vecino mexicano. - My generous Mexican neighbor.
La literatura medieval española. or La literatura española medieval. - Spanish medieval literature.
El gracioso diplomático británico. - The witty British diplomat.
El santo imperio romano. - The Holy Roman Empire.
Una respetada universidad francesa. - A respected French university.
Two non-parallel joined by “and”:
Una obligación social y moral. - Social and moral obligation.
Non-parallel but Noun and adjective seen as a unit.
mármol africano negro or mármol negro africano - black African marble
Category: Study Spanish