Qualities
What is someone or something like?
Meaning
A quality tells us what someone or something is like. It can describe size, color, shape, age, or character. Languages use adjectives, verbs, or phrases for this, and some have no separate class of adjectives. State words highlights a current or resulting condition, while Qualities focuses on a feature of the person or thing.
How to spot it
Look for a word or phrase that describes what a person or thing is like, rather than how an action happens.
In your native language
English usually places a describing adjective before the noun. An adjective can also follow be or another verb such as seem to say what the subject is like. Adjectives do not change form for gender or number, either before a noun or after a verb.
They live in a small house.
The adjective comes before the noun.
Our neighbors are friendly.
Friendly stays unchanged even though neighbors is plural.
This bag is heavy.
The adjective follows is to describe the bag.
In your learning language
Spanish adjectives match the noun's grammatical gender, its masculine or feminine group, and its singular or plural form. Descriptive adjectives usually follow the noun, especially those for color and nationality. Some adjectives can come before the noun, where they may add the speaker's view or have a different meaning.
Lucía lleva una chaqueta roja.
Lucía is wearing a red jacket.
Roja follows the noun and has a feminine singular form to match chaqueta.
En esta calle hay casas pequeñas.
There are small houses on this street.
Pequeñas is feminine and plural to match casas.
Raúl es un viejo amigo de mi padre.
Raúl is a longtime friend of my father's.
Before amigo, viejo means longtime rather than old in age.
Learners whose language leaves adjectives unchanged may omit feminine or plural forms. Learners whose language normally puts adjectives before nouns may copy that order even when Spanish normally uses the adjective after the noun.