3.10530 · Section 3: Personal and social life

Self, family and describing people

Key learnings

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Learn nouns as article + noun pairs
Learn every personal-detail and family noun with its article — gender is not always predictable from the ending:
- Personal details: el nombre, la edad, el cumpleaños, la nacionalidad.
- Family: la madre / el padre, la hermana / el hermano, la abuela / el abuelo.
The masculine plural covers a mixed group: los hermanos (siblings), los padres (parents), los abuelos (grandparents). Full tables are in the note.
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SER + adjective vs TENER + noun
Spanish uses two structures to describe a person, and swapping them is ungrammatical:
- ser + adjective for a trait or character: Soy alto/a, Es simpático/a.
- tener + article + noun for a feature you have: Tengo el pelo rizado, Tiene los ojos azules.
Adjectives agree with the person, but inteligente and paciente do not change for gender. The digest's failure ella es bajo should be ella es baja.

Common mistakes

Drawn from real examiner reports.

Adjective not agreeing with the person

An adjective must agree in gender and number with the person, not stay in its masculine-singular dictionary form:

Ella es baja (not bajo) — feminine subject.
Mis amigas son simpáticas — feminine plural.
Mis padres son simpáticos — a mixed group takes the masculine plural.

Fix the person's gender and number first, then pick the ending.

Digest "Gender & number agreement": adjective-noun agreement is a top Writing common-error every sitting, e.g. "ella es bajo" (s23 P41 Task 1; w23 P41 Q2 Task 3).

Guessing a noun's gender from its ending

Do not guess a noun's gender from its final letter — learn it with the article:

el padre (masculine), not la padre, though many -e nouns are feminine.
la mano and la foto are feminine despite the -o — e.g. tiene las manos pequeñas.

Family nouns pair by meaning (la madre / el padre), but the article is learned, never deduced.

Digest Paper 2 Reading: gender slip "la padre" for el padre (s23 P21 Q4a).

SER vs ESTAR: trait vs temporary state

Both mean "to be" but are not interchangeable:

ser for identity or a permanent trait: Soy alto, Es simpática.
estar for a temporary state, mood or location: Estoy cansado, Está en casa.

Meaning shifts with bueno: ser bueno (a good person) vs estar bueno (to taste/look good). A meaning choice, so examiner-marked.

Digest "ser / estar, por / para, hay": ser/estar confusion is on the Writing common-errors list every sitting; ser/estar + bueno/bien, malo/mal flagged.

Consonant adjective plural is -es, not -s

An adjective ending in a consonant adds -es (not just -s) in the plural:

azul -> azules (not azuls) — the digest's error son ojos muy azuls fails for this reason.
feliz -> felices — a final -z becomes -c before -es.

Number matters as much as gender: ojos is always plural, so its adjective takes the plural ending.

Digest "Gender & number agreement" quoted error "son ojos muy azuls" (w23 P41 Q2 Task 3).

Using SER for a feature instead of TENER

A physical feature (hair, eyes, nose) is something you have, so it takes tener + article + noun, never ser:

Wrong: using ser to describe hair or eyes.
Right: Tengo el pelo rizado, Tiene los ojos verdes.

Use ser + adjective only for a whole-person trait (soy alto), tener + noun for the feature.

General FL trap (ser vs tener structure choice; not tied to a specific report question).

The dictionary adjective is not always right

A false belief is that an adjective is a fixed label, or that only the -o/-a changes and the plural -s is dropped. Both are wrong:

Adjectives agree in gender and number: simpático / -a / -os / -as.
-e adjectives (inteligente) do not change for gender but do for number: inteligentes.
A mixed group still takes the masculine plural.

Digest "Gender & number agreement" quoted error "son ojos muy azuls" (w23 P41 Q2 Task 3) shows both the number-ending slip and this misconception.

Exam tips

Fix the structure before the adjective
Decide ser or tener first: a trait or character takes ser + adjective; a feature (hair, eyes) takes tener + article + noun. Fixing the frame first stops you attaching the adjective to the wrong verb — tengo el pelo rizado, never soy el pelo.
Check the subject's gender and number
Identify the subject's gender and number before each adjective: es -> singular, son -> plural, a mixed group -> masculine plural. Then agree every adjective even when the wrong ending "sounds fine": ella es baja, not bajo; ojos azules, not azul.
Confirm the noun's own gender first
Before agreeing an adjective, confirm the noun's own gender — exceptions bite here: el padre (masculine), la mano, la foto (feminine despite the -o). Agree to the real gender, not the ending: las manos pequeñas, not los manos pequeños.
Combine SER, TENER and ESTAR for range
In an extended answer, combine ser (character), tener (features) and estar (mood) in one paragraph to show range — but keep each verb for its own job. Using all three correctly lifts the Range mark above short, single-structure sentences.

Revision notes