Generally speaking, in Spanish we put adjectives after the nouns, whereas in English we do exactly the opposite.
A brown dog, un perro marrón
A new house, una casa nueva
-However, in many cases we can decide. We can say “una manzana rica” or “una rica manzana” and the meaning is exactly the same, “a tasty apple”, “una experiencia interesante” or “una interesante experiencia” for “an interesting experience”. In some other cases, we cannot change the position. For example, with adjectives that refer to the origin: “comida italiana, ciudad mexicana, país europeo” for “Italian food, Mexican city, European country”.
-Ordinal numbers are the numbers that indicate order (first, second, third…). In Spanish, they go in front of nouns (primer coche, segunda casa, tercera clase).
-Things could be a little more interesting. Compare these two sentences:
Hay una sola persona en la cafetería. There is only one person in the coffee shop.
Hay una persona sola en la cafetería. There is a person who is alone in the coffee shop.
In this case, when we change the order we also change the meaning. This happens with some other adjectives:
Tengo un viejo amigo. I have an old friend (but he is not necessarily an old person).
Tengo un amigo viejo. I have a friend who is an old man.
Este año tenemos el mismo profesor. This year, we have the same teacher.
El profesor mismo me ha dicho esto. The teacher himself has told me this.
Es una escuela grande. It is a big school (the building is big).
Es una gran escuela. It is a great school.
Es un hombre pobre. He is a poor man.
Es un pobre hombre. It could be a poor man, but also a person who is suffering, but he could have a lot of money. We also say this in a pejorative way.
Aquí hay una única mujer. There is only one woman here.
Aquí hay una mujer única. There is a unique woman here.
Leí una parte buena del libro. I read a part of the book which is good.
Leí una buena parte del libro. I read a lot of pages.
Es un antiguo maestro. He is an old teacher (he was working as a teacher for many years)
Es un maestro antiguo. He is an old-fashioned teacher.
Es un funcionario alto. He is a tall civil servant.
Es un alto funcionario. He is an important civil servant.
Esta información es cierta. This information is true.
Cierta información no es relevante. Some information is not relevant.
Es una pregunta simple. It is an easy question.
Es una simple pregunta. It is only a question.
Es una mujer menuda. She is a tiny woman.
¡Menuda mujer! What a woman!
Vienes justo a tiempo. You come just in time. For example, exactly when I need you.
Vienes con el tiempo justo. No earlier, no later. You must be here at 10 and you arrive at 9:59.
-Depending on the order of the adjective, sometimes we shorten the forms to speak faster. This happens with some masculine forms, like “uno, alguno, ninguno”. In front of nouns, we say “un, algún, ningún”.
Tengo un perro. Tengo uno.
Tengo algún libro en francés. Tengo alguno.
No tengo ningún libro en japonés. No tengo ninguno.
The same happens with the masculine forms “bueno, malo” and “primero, tercero”:
Es un buen profesor. El profesor es bueno.
Es un mal restaurante. El restaurante es malo.
El primer coche es mío. Mi coche es el primero.
El tercer coche es de mi hermana. El coche de mi hermana es el tercero.
The adjective “santo” becomes “san” in front of the noun, except for “santo Tomás” and “santo Domingo”, due to the pronunciation:
La catedral de San Pablo. St Paul’s Cathedral.
La fiesta de San Juan. St John’s celebration.
The adjective “grande” becomes “gran” in front of the noun:
Es un hospital grande. Es un gran hospital.
Last but not least, “cualquiera” becomes “cualquier” in front of the noun. Notice that this word ends with an “a” but it is neutral, not feminine. The final “a” comes from a form of the verb “querer”. “Cualquiera” could be translated as “I want anyone”.
Cualquier coche me gusta. Me gusta cualquiera. I like any car.
Here you have a video to learn how to describe using adjectives:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwfO6UCt4Z0&t=17s
