Buen, bueno, mal, malo

Question

Hello helpers,

is there anyway to know when to use buen and when to use bueno, likewise, mal and malo in the masquline? I thought that maybe the O's were droped when following a noun starting with another vowel, but this seems to be specious reasoning.

Answer 1

Buen is the form used before a singular masculine noun.

1). ¡Que tengas buen viaje! - have a good journey!

2). Sería bueno que hablaras con ella - It would be a good idea if you spoke to her.

Malo/mal is similar to bueno/buen in this way but you might want to take notice of the fact that the word mal is also used as an adverb - poorly (see below) and as a noun - evil

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Don't get the adjective "malo" confused with the adverb "mal"

La comida es mala [adjective] porque cocina muy mal [adverb] - The food is poor/bad because she cooks very poorly.

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malo/mala - adj. of poor quality

mal - adv. poorly (done/made etc)

Answer 2

Therefore can you say that at school you used to do badly in mathematics?

"Hacía mal en matemáticas en la escuela" (I did bad in mathematics/I didn't do well in mathematics)

• Yes. This is a straightforward use of the adverb "mal". - samdie Jan 10, 2010

Answer 3

Bien = adverb bueno = adj

• Bueno isn't an adverb. Bien is an adverb. Buen is just a shortened form of bueno - Luciente Jan 9, 2010