Adjectives

In all six sisters an adjective agrees with its noun in gender and number, and its default place is after the noun. The interesting part is the exceptions: a few adjectives go first, some change meaning when they do, and some change shape.

Adjectives in -e, and most consonant-final ones in Spanish and Portuguese, have one form for both genders: un coche verde, una casa verde, una casa azul; una macchina verde; um carro verde, uma casa azul. Spanish pluralizes with -s or -es, Portuguese with -s, -es or -is (azul → azuis); Italian turns -e into -i for both genders (le case verdi), and so does Romanian (case verzi). French adds a written -e for the feminine, and when the masculine ends in a silent consonant, that consonant wakes up: vert [vɛʁ] / verte [vɛʁt], petit / petite, grand / grande. Some feminines change more: blanc → blanche, nouveau → nouvelle, heureux → heureuse. Catalan, which lost its final vowels too, likewise adds -a for the feminine: verd / verda, petit / petita.

Before or after?

Adjectives that classify — color, nationality, shape, material — go after the noun in all six: une voiture rouge, la cucina italiana, una mesa redonda, uma bandeira azul, mâncarea românească, una taula rodona. A short list of everyday, evaluative adjectives usually goes before: French beau, joli, bon, mauvais, grand, petit, gros, jeune, vieux, nouveau; Italian bello, buono, brutto, grande, piccolo, nuovo, vecchio; Spanish buen, mal, gran, mejor, peor, primer, último. Spanish is the most flexible: putting an adjective first makes it subjective or treats it as a given — la blanca nieve, un precioso día — and Portuguese and Catalan behave much like it. Romanian puts nearly everything after; an adjective moved to the front is emphatic or literary, and takes the article with it: frumoasa casă 'the beautiful house'.

Short forms: buen, bel, bon

Some adjectives clip themselves in front of a noun, much as articles do. Spanish drops the final -o before a masculine singular — buen, mal, primer, tercer, algún, ningún (un buen día, el primer piso) — and grande becomes gran before any singular (una gran ciudad). Catalan has its own pair: bo after the noun or verb, bon before it (el vi és bo, un bon vi). French beau, nouveau, vieux have a second masculine form before a vowel: bel, nouvel, vieil (un bel homme, un nouvel ami, un vieil arbre); and bon loses its nasal in liaison: un bon‿ami [bɔnami]. Italian bello and quello copy the article — bel libro, bello stadio, bell'albero, bei libri, begli occhi — while buono copies uno: buon vino, buono stipendio. Portuguese clips mainly in saints' names: São Paulo, but Santo Antônio before a vowel.