Tip - Spanish adjectives - Gender agreement

As we already know, Spanish adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they qualify.

Example:
"El libro blanco" (The white book)
Where "blanco" (white) is the adjective. It is a masculine adjective, as it gives a description for the noun "libro" (book), which is masculine.

Other examples:
"La casa pequeña" (The small house)
"El coche pequeño" (The small car)

But what about if there are two or more nouns and one adjective qualifying all them?

If all those nouns are masculine, the adjective will take its masculine form:

"Esos coches y autobuses son rápidos" (Those cars and buses are fast)

In this case, the nouns are "coches" and "autobuses", both masculine, so the adjective (rápidos) will also be masculine.
If all the nouns are feminine, the adjective will take its feminine form:

"Las cajas y bolsas vacías" (The empty boxes and bags)

Here, the femenine nouns "cajas" and "bolsas" are defined by the feminine form of the adjective.
Finally, what happens when the adjective qualifies both, masculine and feminine nouns at the same time? In this case, the adjective will always take its masculine form:

"Los viejos armarios y sillas" (The old wardrobes and chairs)

The Spanish noun "armario" is masculine, and the noun "silla" is femenine, so, in this case, we have to use a masculine adjective.

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