Students are expected to effectively use adjectives in their writing, demonstrating an understanding of how adjectives create specificity by describing the quality or quantity of something. Adjectives are words that describe or modify a noun or pronoun (e.g., inteligente in una persona inteligente and amable in Ella es amable). There are different types of adjectives that are used for different purposes such as those indicating origin, comparative, and superlative. Students are expected to use the appropriate type and form of adjectives when writing and editing their compositions. In Spanish, adjectives generally go after nouns (El pájaro rojo se paró en la rama más alta); however, in some instances, they may precede the noun for emphasis. In the following example, El blanco plumaje del cisne brillaba bajo la luz del sol, the adjective blanco precedes the noun plumaje to help create an image of the situation being described.

In general, comparative adjectives establish a comparison of equality or inequality between nouns. The words tan and como are used before and after any adjective in equal comparisons. Consider the following example: Camila es tan inteligente como su hermana. On the other hand, unequal comparisons require the use of phrases such as mayor que, menor que, más que, menos que. For example, Carlos es más rápido que José Luis or La población en Arizona es menor que en Texas. When the comparison involves more than two nouns, phrases like el más, los más, la más, las más, el menos, la menos, los menos, and las menos, should be used. For example, Mi hermano es el más alto de la familia or Las estudiantes de tu escuela son las más inteligentes del distrito.

During the editing stage of the writing process, students further improve their drafts and often prepare for publishing by correcting conventions errors. Ensuring that the standard rules of the Spanish language have been applied correctly helps the audience to more easily comprehend the information because they are not having to interrupt their thinking to determine what the writer intended to say.

Adjectives of origin (or gentilicios) are used to determine the origin of a person or an object. The origin may refer to a country, a city, a province, a continent, or any other place. For example, in the sentence, Aurora es mexicana, the adjective mexicana implies the Aurora’s origin (Aurora is from Mexico). In Spanish, adjectives of origin are not considered proper nouns, therefore, should always be written in lowercase letter.

standard rules of the Spanish language, including written mechanics such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, paragraphing, etc. and written/oral grammar such as parts of speech, word order, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure

Superlative adjectives can be made by adding the suffix -ísimo/ -ísima to an adjective. For instance, the degree of intensity of the adjective inteligente changes when the suffix -ísimo is added. Consider the following example, Jorge es inteligente/ Jorge es inteligentísimo. The second version of the sentence emphasizes the intelligence that Jorge possesses.