📖LearnModule 3 · Lesson 13 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2, first halfUnit 3 · Agreement in earnest, and comparing
Bueno, buen, gran — before the noun
Module 3 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2, first half), lesson 13 of 30: Most adjectives follow the noun, but bueno. On this page: 9 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
bueno
good (m)
BWEH-noh
buena
good (f)
BWEH-nah
buen
good (before a masculine noun)
bwehn
malo
bad (m)
MAH-loh
mala
bad (f)
MAH-lah
gran
great (before a noun)
grahn
un buen libro
a good book
oon bwehn LEE-broh
una buena idea
a good idea
OO-nah BWEH-nah ee-DEH-ah
la idea
the idea
lah ee-DEH-ah
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.
La regla · The rule
Most adjectives follow the noun, but bueno, malo and grande are so common they often go in front — and two of them shorten there. Before a masculine singular noun bueno becomes buen and malo becomes mal: un buen libro, un mal día.
Y también · And also
Grande shortens to gran before ANY singular noun, and it changes meaning: una casa grande is a big house; una gran casa is a great house. Bueno still agrees in the feminine: una buena idea.
Ojo · Watch out
buen and mal only before a masculine singular noun: un buen libro, but una buena idea, unos buenos libros. gran before any singular noun: un gran día, una gran fiesta.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with bueno.
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 13 in Module 3 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.