Gender of adjectives in spanish I Adjectives ending in "a" and "o"

In a previous post we had seen that adjectives in Spanish have gender and number and that these have to agree with the gender and number of what that adjective describes. Now, we are going to focus our attention on the gender of adjectives. In this sense, we can talk about two types of adjectives: those whose feminine form is different from the masculine, and those that use the same form for both genders. 

We are going to start with the first ones. This group is made up of masculine adjectives ending in "o". In their feminine form, such adjectives change this final "o" to an "a".

Same examples are: lindo / linda (nice or pretty), alto / alta (high ), bajo  / baja (low, short), flaco / flaca (skinny, thin), rubio / rubia (blonde), blanco / blanca (white), rojo / roja (red), argentino / argentina (Argentinian).

(Deep Blue, the world's largest recorded white shark)

In this news, the adjective "blanco" (white) describes the noun "tiburón" (shark). As such noun is masculine, the adjective also assumes that same gender. The masculine form of this adjective is indicated by the final "o": blanco.

(Chaos erupts in the White House press room over a journalist's protest)

In this second piece of news we have the same adjective but in its feminine form (blanca). This is so because in this case the noun described (house) is feminine. The feminine form of the adjective is indicated, in this case, by the ending "a": blanca).

In the next post we will see some of the adjectives whose form is the same in the feminine as in the masculine.