Basic Adjectives in Catalan

In Brief

Catalan adjectives normally agree with the noun they describe in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural): un gat negre, una gata negra, uns gats negres, unes gates negres. Unlike English adjectives, they usually come after the noun. Some adjectives have separate masculine and feminine forms, while others, such as gran, use the same form for both genders.

Overview

An adjective is a word that describes a noun—that is, a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. In una casa blanca (“a white house”), casa is the noun and blanca is the adjective. Basic adjective agreement is introduced at A1 because you need it almost immediately to describe people, food, clothes, places, and everyday objects.

English usually puts an adjective before its noun and leaves it unchanged: “a new book,” “two new books,” “a new house.” Catalan works differently. The neutral order is generally noun + adjective, and the adjective often changes to match the noun: un llibre nou, dos llibres nous, una casa nova. The form depends on the noun being described, not on the speaker or owner.

The beginner rule is simple: learn an adjective’s masculine singular form, identify whether it has a separate feminine form, and then make the required plural. The details below show the most useful patterns first; less predictable spellings and changes in meaning caused by adjective position are separated into later sections.

How It Works

Agreement: four possible combinations

A Catalan noun is grammatically masculine or feminine, and it can be singular or plural. An agreeing adjective follows those same features.

Noun type	Article + noun	Adjective	Complete phrase
Masculine singular	el gat	negre	el gat negre
Feminine singular	la gata	negra	la gata negra
Masculine plural	els gats	negres	els gats negres
Feminine plural	les gates	negres	les gates negres

Notice that negres serves as both plural forms. Agreement does not always produce four visibly different words.

When one adjective describes nouns of different genders, standard Catalan normally uses the masculine plural:

• un jersei i una camisa nous — a new sweater and shirt
• el pare i la mare cansats — the tired father and mother

Pattern 1: adjectives with four distinct forms

Many common adjectives have a masculine singular form, add -a for the feminine, and then form separate masculine and feminine plurals.

Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural	Meaning
alt	alta	alts	altes	tall, high
nou	nova	nous	noves	new
verd	verda	verds	verdes	green
català	catalana	catalans	catalanes	Catalan
bo	bona	bons	bones	good

The change is not always just a matter of attaching letters. For instance, nou becomes nova, and bo becomes bona. Treat frequent irregular-looking pairs as vocabulary units.

Pattern 2: masculine -e, feminine -a

Some adjectives ending in unstressed -e change that ending to -a in the feminine. Their two plural forms can look identical.

Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural	Meaning
negre	negra	negres	negres	black
ample	ampla	amples	amples	wide, spacious

Do not turn this into a rule for every adjective in -e. Common words such as jove, alegre and amable do not change for gender.

Pattern 3: one form for both genders

An invariable-gender adjective has the same singular form with a masculine or feminine noun. It still normally changes for the plural.

Singular, both genders	Plural, both genders	Meaning
gran	grans	big, large; great
jove	joves	young
alegre	alegres	cheerful
amable	amables	kind, pleasant
fàcil	fàcils	easy
elegant	elegants	elegant

Thus you say un home jove and una dona jove, but uns homes joves and unes dones joves. “Same for both genders” does not mean “unchanged in the plural.”

A few adjectives share one singular form but have gender-distinct plurals. A useful example is feliç:

Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
feliç	feliç	feliços	felices

This is best learned as a complete set rather than forced into the easiest beginner pattern.

Making the plural

The most common plural endings are -s, -ns, -os, and feminine -es, depending on the singular form. The spelling may adjust so that the original sound is preserved.

Singular phrase	Plural phrase	What changes
un cotxe nou	uns cotxes nous	nou → nous
una porta alta	unes portes altes	final -a → -es
una camisa blanca	unes camises blanques	c → qu before -es
una flor groga	unes flors grogues	g → gu before -es
un nen feliç	uns nens feliços	-ç → -ços in the masculine plural

At first, learn the plural together with the feminine form: blanc, blanca, blancs, blanques. This avoids guessing from English, where “white” never changes.

Usual position: after the noun

Most descriptive adjectives follow their noun:

• un carrer estret — a narrow street
• una pel·lícula interessant — an interesting film
• els llibres nous — the new books
• una taula rodona — a round table

This is the safest neutral order for a beginner. Some frequent adjectives can come before the noun, especially when the speaker is evaluating something rather than merely classifying it:

• una bona idea — a good idea
• un mal dia — a bad day
• un gran artista — a great artist

Position is not completely free. Moving an adjective can change its emphasis or even its meaning; the main contrasts are covered under Advanced Use.

Adjectives after a verb also agree

An adjective can be linked to the noun by a verb such as ser or estar (“to be”). It still agrees with the person or thing described:

• El cafè és bo. — The coffee is good.
• La sopa és bona. — The soup is good.
• Els nens estan cansats. — The boys are tired.
• Les nenes estan cansades. — The girls are tired.

This use is sometimes called predicative: the adjective forms part of what the sentence says about the subject (the person or thing the sentence is about). Its distance from the noun does not remove agreement.

Examples in Context

Catalan	English	Note
un gat negre / una gata negra	a black cat (male/female)	Both gender forms are visible.
un home gran / una dona gran	a tall man / a tall woman	Gran has one singular form for both genders; alt/alta is more precise when height is the main point.
Els llibres nous són a la taula.	The new books are on the table.	Masculine plural nous.
És una bona idea.	It is a good idea.	Bona commonly comes before idea.
Vivim en una casa blanca.	We live in a white house.	Feminine singular blanca.
Han comprat dues cadires blanques.	They have bought two white chairs.	Feminine plural with the spelling -ques.
La meva germana és alta i prima.	My sister is tall and slim.	Both linked adjectives agree with germana.
Els meus avis estan cansats.	My grandparents are tired.	A mixed or unspecified group takes masculine plural agreement.
Busco un restaurant tranquil i barat.	I’m looking for a quiet, inexpensive restaurant.	Two masculine singular adjectives follow one noun.
Les habitacions són petites però còmodes.	The rooms are small but comfortable.	Both adjectives are feminine plural; còmodes looks the same in the masculine plural.
Tenen un fill jove i dues filles joves.	They have a young son and two young daughters.	Jove is the same for both genders, but plural joves takes -s.
És un poble català amb tradicions catalanes.	It is a Catalan town with Catalan traditions.	Nationality adjectives agree and are normally lowercase.
Avui els nens estan molt alegres.	The children are very cheerful today.	Molt means “very” here and does not agree.
Vull una jaqueta nova, no una jaqueta vella.	I want a new jacket, not an old one.	The contrasting adjectives are feminine singular.

Common Mistakes

Leaving the adjective unchanged as in English

• Wrong: una casa blanc
• Right: una casa blanca
• Why: English “white” is fixed, but Catalan blanc must agree with feminine singular casa.

Matching only gender and forgetting number

• Wrong: les portes blanca
• Right: les portes blanques
• Why: Agreement includes both feminine gender and plural number. The spelling also changes from -ca to -ques.

Assuming every adjective ending in -e has a feminine in -a

• Wrong: una dona alegra
• Right: una dona alegre
• Why: Negre/negra follows the -e/-a pattern, but alegre has one form for both genders. Learn whether each adjective has one or two singular forms.

Putting every adjective before the noun

• Less natural as a neutral description: un nou cotxe when you simply mean a brand-new car
• Neutral: un cotxe nou
• Why: English strongly favours adjective + noun. Catalan usually puts a descriptive adjective after the noun. Un nou cotxe is possible, but it more often presents an additional or replacement car.

Making an adjective agree with the speaker

• Wrong: Soc una dona alt.
• Right: Soc una dona alta.
• Why: The adjective agrees with the noun or person it describes. Here the feminine subject requires alta.

Treating an invariable-gender adjective as fully invariable

• Wrong: dues preguntes fàcil
• Right: dues preguntes fàcils
• Why: Fàcil does not distinguish masculine from feminine, but it still has a plural form.

Usage Notes

Catalan adjective order is more flexible than the beginner rule may suggest. Noun + adjective is the ordinary choice for objective description or classification: vi negre (“red wine,” literally “black wine”), energia solar (“solar energy”), una camisa blava (“a blue shirt”). Before the noun, an adjective often sounds more evaluative, expressive, or closely tied to a familiar phrase: una magnífica notícia (“wonderful news”), un bon amic (“a good friend”).

Some adjectives have a special form before a masculine singular noun. The clearest A1 example is bo: compare un home bo (“a man who is good/kind”) with un bon home (“a good, decent man”). Similarly, mal is common before a noun in un mal dia, while dolent can follow in un dia dolent. These choices are not simply word-for-word copies of English order.

Nationality and language adjectives are normally written with a lowercase letter in Catalan: un autor català, una autora catalana, la llengua catalana. This differs from English capitalization.

With molt meaning “very,” the adverb stays unchanged: molt alt, molt alta, molt alts, molt altes. Here an adverb is a word modifying the adjective rather than describing the noun directly. By contrast, quantity words used directly with nouns may agree: molta feina (“a lot of work”), molts llibres (“many books”).

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these contrasts at A1, but you will meet them in natural Catalan.

Position can change meaning

A few common adjectives have a more literal meaning after the noun and a more subjective or figurative meaning before it.

Catalan	English	Note
un home gran	a big, grown-up, or older man	Description after the noun; context decides the exact sense.
un gran home	a great man	Evaluation before the noun.
un cotxe nou	a brand-new car	The car itself is new.
un nou cotxe	a new/additional car	Newly introduced into the situation.
un home pobre	a poor man with little money	Literal financial sense.
un pobre home	a poor/unfortunate man	The speaker expresses pity.

These are tendencies grounded in context, not a license to move every adjective freely.

Agreement can reveal meaning even when forms overlap

Some paradigms contain identical-looking forms. Negres, for example, can modify masculine or feminine plural nouns. The article and noun make the intended gender clear: els gats negres versus les gates negres. Agreement is grammatical even when the adjective ending alone does not show every feature.

Participles can behave like adjectives

Later you will see past participles—verb forms such as obert (“opened/open”) and tancat (“closed”)—used adjectivally. When they describe a noun or a resulting state, they agree like other adjectives: la porta oberta, les finestres obertes, els museus tancats. This connects adjective agreement with more advanced work on ser, estar, and compound verb forms.

Lexical exceptions must be learned with the word

The broad patterns cover a great deal, but they do not predict every feminine or plural. Forms such as bo/bona, feliç/feliços/felices, and spelling changes such as blanca/blanques are common enough to learn early. A dictionary normally lists the masculine singular headword and indicates the feminine ending when one exists.

Practice Tips

1. Learn four-slot mini-paradigms. For each new two-ending adjective, say or write all four forms with a noun: un carrer estret, una porta estreta, uns carrers estrets, unes portes estretes. For one-ending adjectives, still practise singular and plural: un exercici fàcil, una pregunta fàcil, uns exercicis fàcils, unes preguntes fàcils.
2. Reverse your English word-order instinct. Take five everyday objects and describe each with noun + adjective: una tassa blanca, un telèfon nou, unes sabates còmodes. Then check gender and number separately.
3. Listen for whole phrases, not isolated endings. When reading or listening, collect article + noun + adjective together. Seeing les cases blanques as one pattern makes agreement easier to recall than memorising blanc alone.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Gender and Number of Nouns — explains the noun features that adjectives must match.
• Next step: Colours — applies adjective agreement to common colour words and their spelling patterns.
• Next step: Describing People and Appearance — uses adjectives with physical traits and with ser and estar.
• Later development: Comparatives and Superlatives — builds comparisons such as més alt and superlatives such as el més alt.