Shortening of adjectives The adjectives bueno ‘good’ and malo ‘bad’, primero ‘first’ and tercero ‘third’, uno ‘one’, ‘a’, alguno ‘some’ and ninguno ‘no’ drop the final -o before masculine singular nouns. In the case of alguno and ninguno a written accent is placed above the u in the shortened form: un buen libro a good book mal tiempo bad weather el tercer día the third day ningún hombre no man Shortening occurs even if another adjective immediately follows before the noun: el primer nuevo caso the first new case However, shortening does not occur when one of the above adjectives is joined to another adjective by a conjunction, or is otherwise separated from the noun: el primero y último caso the first and last case The singular form grande ‘big/large’ is usually shortened to gran before nouns of either gender: una gran pena a great un gran apetito a great sadness appetite However, grande is not shortened when preceded by más or menos, when used with another adjective to which it is linked by a conjunction, or is otherwise separated from the noun: la más grande ocasión the greatest occasion el grande aunque the great although unknown writer desconocido escritor The masculine form Santo ‘Saint’ is shortened to San except before names that begin with To- or Do-: San Marcos San Fernando Santo Tomás Santo Domingo Santo is never shortened when it means ‘holy’: el santo sacramento ‘the Holy Sacrament’.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:39:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015