📖LearnModule 1 · Lesson 14 of 30Basic User · CEFR A1, first halfUnit 3 · Counting and colors
El gato negro — colors after the noun
Module 1 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A1, first half), lesson 14 of 30: Where English says "the red chair", Spanish says the chair red: la silla roja. On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
el gato negro
the black cat
ehl GAH-toh NEH-groh
la silla roja
the red chair
lah SEE-yah RROH-hah
un libro verde
a green book
oon LEE-broh BEHR-deh
una puerta blanca
a white door
OO-nah PWEHR-tah BLAHN-kah
los gatos negros
the black cats
lohs GAH-tohs NEH-grohs
la mochila azul
the blue backpack
lah moh-CHEE-lah ah-SOOL
un lápiz amarillo
a yellow pencil
oon LAH-pees ah-mah-REE-yoh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La regla · The rule
Where English says "the red chair", Spanish says the chair red: la silla roja. Build the habit from your word columns: noun with article, then color.
Y también · And also
Colors ending in -o change to -a for feminine nouns: negro/negra, rojo/roja, blanco/blanca. Colors ending in -e or a consonant (verde, azul, gris) serve both genders unchanged — and you can HEAR all of it.
Ojo · Watch out
The color goes AFTER the noun: el gato negro, never el negro gato. And it agrees: la silla roja, los gatos negros.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with el gato negro.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 14 in Module 1 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.