Quote:
Originally Posted by BobRitter
¿Son equales iguales (or "equivalentes")? ¿Cuál es las reglas ("Las reglas" is the subject, so the question must agree with it: "cuáles son")?
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They're the same, and there aren't actual rules for that; it's rather a decision of the speaker who subjectively decides where to place the adjective.
I think that an adjective can be placed before the noun for reasons of euphony, for emphasis and/or for how poetic it may sound.
In this case, "joven" here is placed before "mago" because of the first two reasons: it sounds better and it emphasizes that the wizard is young, which may be an important part of the story.
I also would dare to say that short adjectives tend to come first (although it may depend on the context and the rhythm of the sentence). In the next examples, most people I know would have used the first phrase rather than the second:
- una nueva tienda = una tienda nueva
- el fuerte viento = el viento fuerte
- tus lindos ojos = tus ojos lindos
- las breves notas = las notas breves
You might find
this other thread useful too.
