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Spanish grammar lessons › Level A1 › Spanish articles, gender and agreement

Shortened adjectives: buen, mal, gran, primer

bueno → buen, malo → mal, grande → gran, primero → primer before a noun

Part of the free A1 Spanish course. Press the speaker next to an example to hear it.

What happens

An adjective is a describing word (good, bad, big, first). You already know that most Spanish adjectives come after the noun and agree with it (Adjectives agree and usually follow the noun). A few very common adjectives can also go before the noun, and when they do, some of them lose their last letters. This is called shortening (grammar books call it apocope).

Full formBefore a masculine singular nounExample
bueno (good)buenun buen libro
malo (bad)malun mal día
primero (first)primerel primer día
tercero (third)tercerel tercer piso
uno (one)unun chico
  • Es un buen libro.It's a good book.
  • Hoy hace buen tiempo.The weather is good today.
  • Hace mal tiempo en el norte.The weather is bad in the north.
  • Es el primer día de clase.It's the first day of class.
  • Vivo en el tercer piso.I live on the third floor.

Only masculine singular

The short form is used only directly before a masculine singular noun. Feminine and plural forms never shorten:

  • Es una buena idea.It's a good idea.
  • Es la primera vez.It's the first time.
  • Buenos días, señora.Good morning, madam.

After the noun or after a verb: full form

If the adjective comes after the noun, or after ser or estar, use the full form:

  • Este café es bueno.This coffee is good.
  • Es un día malo para mí.It's a bad day for me.

Grande → gran, for both genders

Grande is different: it shortens to gran before any singular noun, masculine or feminine. And the position changes the meaning:

  • before the noun, gran means great, important, impressive;
  • after the noun, grande means big, large (physical size).
  • Madrid es una gran ciudad.Madrid is a great city.
  • Mi casa es muy grande.My house is very big.

In the plural there is no short form: grandes ciudades (great cities), casas grandes (big houses).

Coming later: alguno → algún and ninguno → ningún follow the same rule (Something and nothing: algo, alguien, algún and their negatives), and you will meet all the ordinal numbers in Ordinal numbers: primero, segundo….

Common mistakes

  • un bueno amigo → un buen amigo. Before a masculine singular noun, bueno must shorten.
  • una buen amiga → una buena amiga. Feminine nouns never take buen.
  • Buenos día / Buen días → Buenos días. The plural never shortens.
  • un grande hombre → un gran hombre (a great man) or un hombre grande (a big man). Choose by meaning.
  • El libro es buen. → El libro es bueno. After a verb, always the full form.

Practice

  1. Pablo es un _____ estudiante.
    Pablo is a good student.
    Options: buen · bueno · buena
    Show the answer

    buen — Bueno shortens to buen directly before a masculine singular noun.

  2. Ana es una _____ profesora.
    Ana is a good teacher.
    Options: buena · buen · bueno
    Show the answer

    buena — Feminine nouns never shorten: una buena profesora.

  3. Este restaurante es muy _____.
    This restaurant is very good.
    Options: bueno · buen · buenos
    Show the answer

    bueno — After the verb ser the adjective keeps its full form.

  4. Hoy es un _____ día para ir a la playa. (malo)
    Today is a bad day to go to the beach.
    Show the answer

    mal — Malo shortens to mal before a masculine singular noun.

In the app, this lesson is taught one idea at a time with the examples read aloud, followed by questions that explain the rule when you get one wrong. It then comes back for review on later days, until you've answered it correctly on three separate days.
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