Yet Another Gender Question: Bien, Mal, Triste, Feliz
I just joined the group and took my first lesson this morning. I see that we say "Estoy bien" (or "mal", "triste", "feliz"). Those adjectives do not appear to change with gender. You say "Estoy bien" whether you are male or female. Seems easy enough, but the other adjectives in the lesson, "enojada, consada, confundida, ocupada, aburrida", change according to gender. Did I understand correctly? Is there a rule for when adjectives remain gender neutral? I'm afraid I missed something in the very first lesson.
Gracias.
4 Answers
Under the learn heading click on spanish grammar then click on descriptive adjectives
You understood perfectly! Usually adjectives that end in an e or in a consonant don't change according to gender.
Hi. I would try to explain this, but I don't think I will do that well of a job. Here's a link to a SD article on it. I think you got the gist of it, more or less. Generally, if the adjective ends in an "o", you have it match the noun (if masc., use "o", if fem., use "a"); if it ends in an "e", leave it as it is; if it ends in a consonant, you leave it has it is for masculine nouns and for female nouns, you often add an "a" to the end (i.e., trabajador(a); inglés/inglesa, etc). This may not work in all instances, but it's the basic flow of things to my understanding. Don't forget to make the adjectives match the nouns, not only in gender but in number, too. (singular or plural)
I´ll give you a small tip, it may not always work, though:
See how the verbs in the second group end with an A? that is because they are written for a femenine subject, if you want to change them for masculine, just put an O instead of the final A.
