Hola ¿Qué tal?

Hoy vamos a ver adjetivos de carácter negativos en español. Today we will see negative Spanish character adjectives such as Chulo (Arrogant), Pardillo (Naive) and Muermo (Boring).

We will also see how to describe people negatively in Spanish with different sentence structures such as Qué + adjective or Ser + un/una + pedazo de + adjective, how to use positive Spanish adjectives to describe negative character traits, such as “Amelia va de estrella” (Amelia thinks she is a star), and how to describe negative aspects of others that you don’t think are really that bad.

I would never wish to encourage my students to talk badly about others, but you will still need to be aware of these very commonly used Spanish adjectives and sentence structures.

Let’s begin with some common negative Spanish adjectives:

• Agarrado/a: Tight/Mean/Miserly (maiserly)
• Hortera: Tacky/Kitsch
• Repipi: Precocious
• Pijo/a: Posh
• Tiquismiquis: Fussy
• Carca: Old fashioned/Fuddy duddy
• Chulo/a: Arrogant/Cocky
• Creído/a: Arrogant/Cocky
• Payaso/a: Clown/Joker
• Plasta: Annoying/Pain/Bore
• Sobón/a: Lecherous
• Muermo: Boring
• Pardillo/a: Innocent/Naïve

Next let’s see how to describe people negatively in Spanish with some different sentence structures:

Ser + un/una + adjective + monumental:

• ¡Es un plasta monumental!: He is a huge bore!

Ser + un/una + pedazo de + adjective:

• ¡Es una pedazo de tonta!: She is really silly!

Futuro imperfecto of ser + adjective:

• ¡Será chulo!: He is so arrogant!

Qué + adjective:

• ¡Qué muermo!: What a boring man!

Mira que + ser + adjective:

• ¡Mira que es payasa!: She really is a clown!

Now let’s look at using positive Spanish adjectives to talk badly about others:

Ir + de + positive adjective:

• Amelia va de estrella: Amelia thinks she is a star

Hacerse + el/la/los/las + positive adjective:

• Siempre se hace el interesante con las chicas: He acts cool around the girls

Hacerse + el/la/los/las + negative adjective:

• Mi padre se hace el sordo: My father turns a deaf ear

Finally, let’s see how to describe negative aspects of others that you don’t think are really that bad:

No + es + muy + positive adjective + que digamos:

• No es muy inteligente que digamos pero es muy majo: He is not the most intelligent, but he’s a great guy

Ser + un poco + negative adjective (we can add the suffix –illo/a):

• Es un poco tonto/tontillo: He’s a bit dopey/dippy

Many of the adjectives and structures featured in this Spanish lesson are quite colloquial and you will hear them a lot in the street or on Spanish television. If you haven’t started watching TV in Spanish yet, I would like to highly recommend that you do so.

The great thing about Spanish TV is that it is freely available on the internet via the websites of the major Spanish TV channels such as TVE1, TVE2, Telecinco, Antena 3 and Cuatro, no matter where you live in the world.

It will of course be difficult to understand at first if you are only just starting to learn Spanish, but it will still be good practice nonetheless to listen to the Spanish dialogue and hear how people really speak.

Watching television in any foreign language is never easy, but it is well worth the effort. Stick with it, watch little and often and make sure that you find programmes that you are genuinely interested in. When you really get into a programme you forget that you are also “studying” and your command of the foreign language improves in leaps and bounds.

See you next time for more Spanish.

¡Hasta luego!

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