Order of adjectives

[sosia]

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

—> Un pájaro con un plumaje negro azulado tornasol brillante.
(No commas here, because "azulado", "tornasol" and "brillante" modify another adjective, so they work together like one.)
- I don't understand the sentence structure here. I read this as "a bird with black and blue, bright iridescent plumage." But I don't see what you're saying about the commas ... and what other adjective do "tornasol" and "brillante" modify? I don't even know if I punctuated it correctly in English...

Just a couple of notes:

(Btw, colours tend to be placed right beside the substantive)


● Adjectives of which depends an essential characteristic of the substantive aren't separated from it:

—> Un disco flexible azul
- So, based on your statement just above, could this phrase be equally acceptable as "un azul disco flexible"?

● Sometimes, a substantive placed before an adjective charges the sentence with an ironic sense, but the context will provide the meaning:

—> "El famoso doctor no ha llegado" could either mean that a non-famous doctor has kept us waiting or that we're expecting a really famous one to arrive (to a conference, perhaps).
- This is the use of adjectives that I'm having difficulty wrapping my arms around. How is the sense of meaning different if we say "el doctor famoso no ha llegado" or if we say "el famoso doctor no ha llegado"? Just the sense of irony? But in other situations?

Thanks for pointing me out to this thread, Malila. I'm starting to wrap my arms around this topic. Hopefully I'll get some of these details worked out....

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

—> Un pájaro con un plumaje negro azulado tornasol brillante.
(No commas here, because "azulado", "tornasol" and "brillante" modify another adjective, so they work together like one.)
- I don't understand the sentence structure here. I read this as "a bird with black and blue, bright iridescent plumage." But I don't see what you're saying about the commas ... and what other adjective do "tornasol" and "brillante" modify? I don't even know if I punctuated it correctly in English...

The expression rather says "a bird with bright-iridiscent bluish-black plumage". "Bright", "iridiscent" and "bluish" modify "black". If the list of adjectives were modifying "plumage", commas would have been needed to emphasize each characteristic of the noun, like in "un pájaro verde, grande, ruidoso" (a noisy big green bird).

Originally Posted by laepelba

—> Un disco flexible azul
- So, based on your statement just above, could this phrase be equally acceptable as "un azul disco flexible"?

Not really. As I tried to state all over that post, it's a matter of priorities and emphasis. It would be really hard to imagine a situation in which the colour of a floppy disc should be stressed that much as to be placed before the noun (...in a poetic style maybe).
Btw, take into account that in this case, "flexible" marks an essential characteristic for the object you're talking about, so the couple noun-adjective ("disco flexible") works together as a noun, so "azul" is well placed after "flexible".

Originally Posted by laepelba

—> "El famoso doctor no ha llegado" could either mean that a non-famous doctor has kept us waiting or that we're expecting a really famous one to arrive (to a conference, perhaps).
- This is the use of adjectives that I'm having difficulty wrapping my arms around. How is the sense of meaning different if we say "el doctor famoso no ha llegado" or if we say "el famoso doctor no ha llegado"? Just the sense of irony? But in other situations?

As I said, most of the times only the context can tell.
"El famoso doctor no ha llegado" can have both meanings, but only the tone of voice, the character of the doctor and the situation will set it clear.
"El doctor famoso no ha llegado" could have a sarcastic charge, but the usual meaning is straightforward (that this actually famous doctor we are waiting for hasn't arrived yet).

[laepelba]

Thanks, Malila - I'll keep working on it..........

[fglorca]

I just want to clarify a Spanish ‘word order’ issue:

• En Madrid hay muchos graves problemas sociales.
• En Madrid hay muchos problemas sociales graves.

I know ‘muchos’ always goes at the start, and I know ‘social problems’ forms a single idea, so rather than separating ‘problemas sociales’ is it correct to put ‘graves’ after ‘muchos and before ‘problemas sociales’? Is it also correct to put ‘graves’ at the very end of the sentence?

Many thanks in advance.

[Julvenzor]

As other users explained, in Spanish there isn't a fixed rule. We prefer one form over the other, nothing else. What is our preference? Answer: no more than one adjective before a noun.

• En Madrid hay muchos graves problemas sociales. [Weird]
• En Madrid hay muchos problemas sociales graves. [Preferred]

A pleasure.