To what degree: muy, bastante, demasiado
An adjective rarely stands alone: a word saying how much usually comes with it. Those words never change, for gender or for number: muy caro, muy cara, muy caros. For example: “El piso es muy luminoso, pero un poco pequeño” — The flat is very bright, but a little small. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
An adjective rarely stands alone: a word saying how much usually comes with it. Those words never change, for gender or for number: muy caro, muy cara, muy caros.
The scale runs nada (not at all), poco (not enough), un poco (a little), bastante (quite), muy (very), demasiado (too).
Poco and un poco are not the same. Poco cómodo means 'uncomfortable', while un poco pequeño means 'a touch small'. So un poco goes only with what you count as a flaw. Un poco caro is fine; un poco bonito is not said at all.
And muy cannot stand on its own. Asked ¿es caro?, you answer sí, mucho, never sí, muy.
Table
| degree | word | example | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| not at all | nada | no es nada caro | not expensive at all |
| not enough | poco | un piso poco cómodo | an uncomfortable flat |
| a little bit | un poco | un poco caro | a bit expensive |
| quite | bastante | bastante grande | quite big |
| very | muy | muy luminoso | very bright |
| too | demasiado | demasiado ruidoso | too noisy |
| as … as | tan … como | tan caro como | as expensive as |
By example
- El piso es muy luminoso, pero un poco pequeñoThe flat is very bright, but a little small
- Este alquiler es tan caro como el del centroThis rent is as expensive as the one downtown
- Lo peor de la mudanza es empaquetar los librosThe worst part of moving is packing the books
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
To what degree: how does it work in Spanish?
An adjective rarely stands alone: a word saying how much usually comes with it. Those words never change, for gender or for number: muy caro, muy cara, muy caros.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“El piso es muy luminoso, pero un poco pequeño” — The flat is very bright, but a little small. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.