Short-Form Adjectives in Spanish

RELEVANT LESSON:

1. Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns: Short-Form Adjectives

Explanation

Quick Answer

Some Spanish adjectives need to be shortened when they come before a noun. The fancy term for this shortening process is apocopation.

For example:

Original Adjective	Shortened Adjective	Example
bueno	buen	Nico es un buen chico.
malo	mal	No seas un mal amigo.

Common Shortened Adjectives

Quite a few common adjectives are shortened when they are used before a noun, especially if that noun is singular and masculine. Here's a list of some you're likely to come across.

Original Adjective	Shortened Adjective	English
bueno	buen	good
malo	mal	bad
uno	un	one, a
primero	primer	first
tercero	tercer	third
cualquiera	cualquier	any, whatever
alguno	algún	some
ninguno	ningún	none

Cualquier or Cualquiera?

The adjective cualquiera is always shortened to cualquier when it comes before a singular masculine noun.

Cualquier hombre haría lo mismo.(Any man would do the same.)

Cualquiera hombre haría lo mismo.(Any man would do the same.)

When it comes before a singular feminine noun, cualquiera can be shortened to cualquier or left as is. Latin American speakers tend to use the shortened form, while speakers of Peninsular Spanish tend to leave the adjective in the original long form.

No soy cualquier mujer.(I'm not just any woman.)

No soy cualquiera mujer.(I'm not just any woman.)

Santo Cielo

Santois an adjective that is shortened only before certain nouns. It is not shortened with names that begin with Do- or To- or when it precedes a common noun.

examples
San Francisco Saint Francis
San Miguel Saint Michael
Santo Domingo Saint Dominic
Santo Tomás Saint Thomas
el santo templo the holy temple
todo el santo día all day long (literally: the whole sainted day)

Grande

Big Changes

Grandeis shortened when it precedes both masculine and feminine singular nouns.

examples
Vive en una gran casa. She lives in a great house.
Es un gran músico. He is a great musician.

Big Exceptions

The short form of grande is not used when

it's used in the comparative or superlative
it's used in an exclamatory sentence with the word cuán
when it appears in coordination with other adjectives

examples
Soy más grande que tú. I'm bigger than you.
Es el festival más grande del mundo. It's the biggest festival in the world.
Todavía no se sabe cuán grandes serán las pérdidas. How great the losses will be is still unknown.
La grande y noble nación mexicana superará esto. The great and noble Mexican people will rise above this.

Ciento or Cien

The adjective ciento(one hundred) becomes cienbefore a noun when it means exactly one hundred. You'll also see the shortened form used before numerals like mil(thousand) and millón(million).