Spanish 1 Quiz: Editing For Agreement Errors
10 questions · exam conditions
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Editing For Agreement ErrorsQuestion 1 of 10

A student wrote: "Los dos niños y la niña son rubio."

Which corrected version properly fixes the agreement error in the sentence?

Los dos niños y la niña son rubia.
Los dos niños y la niña son rubios.
Los dos niños y la niña son rubias.
Los dos niños y la niña son rubio y rubia.
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Spanish 1 Quiz

Spanish 1 Quiz: Editing For Agreement Errors

Practice Editing For Agreement Errors in Spanish 1 with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Editing For Agreement Errors, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Spanish 1.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

A student wrote: "Los dos niños y la niña son rubio."

Which corrected version properly fixes the agreement error in the sentence?

  1. Los dos niños y la niña son rubia.
  2. Los dos niños y la niña son rubios. (correct answer)
  3. Los dos niños y la niña son rubias.
  4. Los dos niños y la niña son rubio y rubia.
Explanation: When a subject contains multiple nouns of mixed genders in Spanish, adjectives must agree with the entire group — and the rule is that a mixed-gender group defaults to the masculine plural form. Think of it like a grammatical "tie-breaker": even one masculine noun in the group pulls the adjective into masculine plural territory. In this sentence, the subject is los dos niños y la niña — two boys and one girl. Because the group contains at least one masculine noun (niños), the adjective describing the whole group must be masculine plural: rubios. That makes B the correct answer. Here's why the other options miss the mark. A uses rubia, which is feminine singular — it would only work for a single feminine noun like la niña, so it fails both in number and in gender logic for the group. C uses rubias, feminine plural, which would apply to an all-female group; since niños is present, this ignores the masculine noun entirely. D might seem intuitive — splitting the adjective to match each gender separately — but Spanish doesn't use this structure in standard grammar. You don't separate the adjective by gender when using a compound subject; the masculine plural covers the whole group. A useful rule of thumb: whenever you see a subject with mixed-gender nouns joined by y, immediately reach for the masculine plural adjective ending (-os). Think of it as the "default group setting" in Spanish. This pattern comes up frequently, so spotting mixed-gender subjects quickly will save you from common traps.

Question 2

A student wrote: "Los estudiantes trabajadoras llegan temprano todos los días."

The sentence contains an agreement error. Which correction is needed?

  1. Change 'todos' to 'todas' so it agrees in gender with 'estudiantes.'
  2. Change 'Los' to 'Las' so the article agrees in gender with the adjective 'trabajadoras.'
  3. Change 'trabajadoras' to 'trabajadora' so the adjective is singular like the verb 'llegan.'
  4. Change 'trabajadoras' to 'trabajadores' so it agrees in gender with the masculine noun 'estudiantes.' (correct answer)
Explanation: In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in both gender and number. When you spot an agreement error question, your first move is to identify every noun-adjective pair and check that they match. Here, the key noun is estudiantes. Because the sentence uses Los estudiantes, the noun is masculine plural. The adjective modifying it, trabajadoras, is feminine plural — that's the mismatch. Changing trabajadoras to trabajadores makes the adjective masculine plural, correctly matching the noun. That's why D is the right answer. Now let's walk through why the other options miss the mark. A suggests changing todos to todas, but todos los días is a fixed expression meaning "every day" — días is masculine, so todos is already correct. This option is a distraction that targets students who confuse the gender of días. B proposes changing Los to Las, but the article Los is correct because estudiantes is masculine here — switching to Las would actually introduce a new error rather than fix one. C suggests making trabajadoras singular to match the verb llegan, but adjectives never agree with verbs — they agree with nouns. Llegan is plural because estudiantes is plural, which is actually correct as written. A useful tip: whenever you see an adjective in Spanish, always trace it back to the noun it describes — not the verb, not the article alone — and verify that both gender and number align. This noun-adjective agreement rule is one of the most frequently tested concepts in Spanish 1.

Question 3

A student wrote: "El agua está frío hoy porque hace mucho frío afuera."

The sentence has a gender agreement error. Which correction is needed?

  1. Change 'El' to 'La' because all nouns ending in -a are feminine and must use 'la.'
  2. Change 'frío' (the predicate adjective after 'está') to 'fría' because 'agua' is grammatically feminine. (correct answer)
  3. Change 'frío' (the predicate adjective after 'está') to 'fríos' because predicate adjectives must always be plural after 'está.'
  4. Leave the sentence as written, because 'agua' uses 'el' and is therefore masculine, making 'frío' correct.
Explanation: When you see a gender agreement question in Spanish, your job is to trace two things: the grammatical gender of the noun and whether all related words — articles, adjectives — match it. Here's the key concept this question tests: "agua" is a feminine noun, even though it uses the masculine article "el." This exception exists purely for pronunciation — starting a word with a stressed "a" sound after "la" creates an awkward clash, so Spanish uses "el" instead. But this is only a phonetic workaround; "agua" remains grammatically feminine. That means any adjective describing "agua" must still be feminine. The predicate adjective "frío" (masculine) should be "fría" (feminine) to agree with "agua." That makes B the correct answer. A is wrong because it misidentifies the rule. "El" before "agua" is not a mistake — it's a required phonetic exception for feminine nouns beginning with a stressed "a." Changing it to "la" would actually be incorrect in standard Spanish. C is wrong because predicate adjectives don't automatically become plural after "está." They must agree in number with the subject, and "agua" here is singular, so a plural adjective makes no sense. D is the most tempting trap: students see "el agua" and assume "agua" is masculine, making "frío" seem fine. This is exactly the misconception the question is designed to catch. The article "el" does not change the noun's gender. Study tip: Memorize a short list of feminine nouns that use "el" — agua, águila, alma, aula — and always pair their adjectives in the feminine form.

Question 4

A student wrote the following sentence: "Las chicas son alto y inteligente."

Which corrected version properly fixes ALL agreement errors in the sentence?

  1. Las chicas son altas y inteligentes. (correct answer)
  2. Las chicas son altos y inteligentes.
  3. Las chicas son alta y inteligenta.
  4. Las chicas son alto y inteligentes.
Explanation: When working with Spanish adjectives, the golden rule is gender and number agreement: every adjective must match the noun it describes in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). In this sentence, las chicas is feminine and plural, so every adjective in the sentence must also be feminine and plural. Starting with alto (tall): the masculine singular form needs two changes — add an -a for feminine and an -s for plural, giving you altas. For inteligente (intelligent): this adjective already ends in -e, which is gender-neutral, so you only need to add -s to make it plural: inteligentes. That gives you A) Las chicas son altas y inteligentes — the only version where both adjectives are fully corrected. Choice B uses altos, which is masculine plural. Since chicas is feminine, this is still a gender error. Choice C attempts feminine agreement with alta, but leaves it singular and invents the non-existent form inteligenta — adjectives ending in -e don't change for gender, so inteligenta is simply not a Spanish word. Choice D leaves alto completely unchanged (masculine singular), fixing only inteligente but ignoring the first adjective entirely. A helpful study tip: when you see multiple adjectives in a sentence, check every single one against the subject — a common trap is fixing one adjective while overlooking another. Also memorize that adjectives ending in -e or -ista are already gender-neutral; you only need to add -s or -es to make them plural.

Question 5

A student wrote: "El profesor tiene unos libros nuevos y una mochila rojo."

The sentence contains one agreement error. Which underlined word must be changed, and what should it become?

  1. 'rojo' must change to 'roja' because 'mochila' is feminine singular. (correct answer)
  2. 'nuevos' must change to 'nuevas' because 'libros' is a masculine noun that requires a feminine adjective.
  3. 'unos' must change to 'unas' because the article must be feminine to match 'libros.'
  4. 'rojo' must change to 'rojos' because adjectives after a noun must always be plural in Spanish.
Explanation: When you see a question about adjective or article errors in Spanish, your first move should be to identify the gender and number of every noun, then check whether the words modifying it match exactly. Spanish requires adjectives and articles to agree with their noun in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). In this sentence, "mochila" is a feminine singular noun — you can confirm this because it takes the article "una." The adjective describing it, "rojo," is masculine singular. That mismatch is the error: "rojo" must become "roja" to reflect feminine singular agreement. That makes A the correct answer. As for the other choices: B is wrong because "libros" is actually masculine, not feminine — and "nuevos" (masculine plural) correctly agrees with it. Changing "nuevos" to "nuevas" would create an error rather than fix one. C is wrong because "unos" correctly matches "libros," which is masculine plural — the article is already in proper agreement, so no change is needed there. D is based on a false rule entirely. Adjectives in Spanish do not automatically become plural just because they follow the noun; placement (before or after) has no effect on the agreement rule. Agreement is always determined by the noun's gender and number, period. A useful tip: whenever you spot an adjective in Spanish, mentally draw an arrow back to its noun and ask yourself, "Do they match in gender AND number?" That two-part check will catch agreement errors quickly on any Spanish grammar question.

Question 6

A student wrote: "Esas casas bonitos están en la calle principal."

The sentence contains an agreement error. Which single change corrects it?

  1. Change 'bonitos' to 'bonito' so the adjective is masculine singular to match 'la calle.'
  2. Change 'Esas' to 'Esos' so the demonstrative adjective agrees in gender with 'bonitos.'
  3. Change 'bonitos' to 'bonitas' so the adjective agrees in gender with the feminine noun 'casas.' (correct answer)
  4. Change 'principal' to 'principales' so it agrees in number with the plural subject 'casas.'
Explanation: In Spanish, adjectives must match the noun they describe in both gender and number — this is called agreement. Whenever you spot an adjective in a sentence, immediately ask: what noun does it modify, and does the adjective reflect that noun's gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural)? In this sentence, the key noun is casas — feminine and plural. The adjective bonitos is masculine plural, which creates a mismatch. Changing bonitos to bonitas gives you the feminine plural form, correctly agreeing with casas. That's why C is correct. As for the distractors: A makes a gender error in the opposite direction — bonito is masculine singular, which matches neither the gender nor the number of casas. It also incorrectly ties the adjective to la calle, but bonito/a is describing casas, not the street. B suggests changing Esas to Osos, but Esas is already correct — it's feminine plural, perfectly matching casas. Swapping it to Osos (masculine plural) would actually introduce a new error rather than fix one. D targets principal, but principal already agrees correctly with calle as a singular adjective; changing it to principales would create a number mismatch with calle (singular), not fix anything. A useful habit: every time you see an adjective in Spanish, draw a mental arrow back to its noun and check off two boxes — ✓ same gender, ✓ same number. If either box fails, you've found your error.

Question 7

A student wrote: "Nosotros somos muy cansadas después de la clase."

The sentence has a gender agreement error. Assuming the subject refers to a mixed-gender group, which version correctly fixes the sentence?

  1. Nosotros somos muy cansados después de la clase. (correct answer)
  2. Nosotras somos muy cansadas después de la clase.
  3. Nosotros somos muy cansado después de la clase.
  4. Nosotros somos muy cansade después de la clase.
Explanation: When you see a question about adjective agreement in Spanish, ask yourself two things: What is the gender of the subject, and does the adjective match it? In Spanish, adjectives must agree in both gender and number with the noun or pronoun they describe. Here, the subject pronoun is nosotros, which is masculine (or mixed-gender) plural. The rule in Spanish is that any group containing at least one male — or a group of unknown gender — defaults to the masculine plural form. That means the adjective describing nosotros must also be masculine plural: cansados, not cansadas. Answer A makes exactly this fix, keeping nosotros and changing cansadas to cansados, which is why it's correct. Answer B changes nosotros to nosotras and keeps cansadas, which would only work if the entire group were female. Since the problem tells you the group is mixed-gender, the feminine pronoun and adjective are both wrong for this context. Answer C uses cansado, the masculine singular form — but nosotros is plural, so a singular adjective creates a number agreement error on top of the original problem. Answer D uses cansade, a gender-neutral ending sometimes seen in informal social contexts, but it is not accepted in standard Spanish grammar and would not be correct on a formal exam. A handy rule to remember: mixed-gender groups always take masculine plural forms in standard Spanish — both the pronoun (nosotros) and any adjectives (cansados). When you spot an adjective in a sentence, always trace it back to its subject and check both gender and number.

Question 8

A student wrote: "Ella tiene dos hermanos simpáticos y una abuela simpático."

Which edit correctly repairs the agreement error in the sentence while leaving correct parts unchanged?

  1. Change 'simpático' to 'simpática' so the adjective matches the gender of 'abuela.' (correct answer)
  2. Change 'simpáticos' to 'simpático' so both adjectives are in the same masculine singular form.
  3. Change 'simpático' to 'simpáticos' so the adjective matches the plural form used earlier in the sentence.
  4. Change 'una' to 'un' so the article matches the masculine adjective 'simpático.'
Explanation: Whenever you see a question about adjective agreement in Spanish, your job is to check two things: does the adjective match the gender (masculine/feminine) of the noun it describes, and does it match the number (singular/plural)? Every adjective must agree with its own noun — not with other adjectives or nouns nearby. In this sentence, "una abuela" is feminine and singular, so its adjective must be feminine singular. The word "simpático" is masculine singular, which creates a mismatch. The fix is straightforward: "simpático" becomes "simpática" to align with the feminine noun "abuela." That's exactly what answer A does, and it leaves "dos hermanos simpáticos" completely untouched — that phrase is already correct, since "hermanos" is masculine plural and "simpáticos" matches perfectly. Answer B is a trap that ignores agreement rules entirely. Changing "simpáticos" to "simpático" would actually create a new error, breaking the correct masculine plural agreement with "hermanos." Answer C makes the opposite mistake — it changes "simpático" to "simpáticos," but "abuela" is singular, so a plural adjective would be wrong regardless of gender. Answer D tries to fix the article instead of the adjective, but "una" is correct for "abuela," which is feminine. Swapping it to "un" would break the article-noun agreement instead of solving the adjective-noun problem. A useful strategy: always trace each adjective back to its own noun before deciding what form it needs. Don't let other nouns or adjectives in the same sentence distract you — each noun-adjective pair must agree independently.

Question 9

A student wrote: "Mi amiga es muy inteligente, pero sus notas son malo."

Which correction properly fixes the agreement error in the sentence?

  1. Change 'sus' to 'su' so the possessive adjective agrees with the singular subject 'amiga.'
  2. Change 'malo' to 'malos' so the adjective agrees with 'notas' in number only.
  3. Change 'malo' to 'mala' so the adjective agrees with 'notas' in gender but remains singular.
  4. Change 'malo' to 'malas' so the adjective agrees with 'notas' in both gender and number. (correct answer)
Explanation: Whenever you see an adjective in Spanish, you need to check two things: does it match the noun it describes in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural)? In this sentence, the adjective malo is describing notas — so ask yourself: what gender and number is notas? Notas is feminine (la nota) and plural (las notas), which means any adjective modifying it must also be feminine and plural. The correct form of malo for a feminine plural noun is malas. That makes D the right answer — changing malo to malas fixes both the gender error and the number error at once. Here's why the other options fall short. A misidentifies the problem entirely — sus is already correct because notas is plural, and the possessive adjective sus properly reflects that. Changing it to su would actually introduce a new error. B gets the number right by suggesting malos, but malos is masculine plural — it still has the wrong gender for a feminine noun like notas. That's only fixing half the problem. C suggests mala, which correctly changes the gender to feminine, but mala is singular — it still doesn't match the plural notas, so the number agreement remains broken. A helpful tip: when checking adjective agreement in Spanish, always identify the noun being described first, then confirm both its gender and number before choosing the adjective form. Think of it as a two-step checklist — gender ✓, number ✓ — and don't let a question trick you into fixing only one dimension when both are wrong.

Question 10

A student wrote: "Tengo un problema muy grandes con la tarea."

The sentence has an agreement error. Which correction properly repairs it?

  1. Change 'grandes' to 'gran' so the adjective takes its shortened apocopated form before a noun.
  2. Change 'un' to 'una' so the article agrees in gender with the adjective 'grandes.'
  3. Change 'grandes' to 'grande' so the adjective agrees in number with the singular noun 'problema.' (correct answer)
  4. Change 'problema' to 'problemas' so the noun agrees in number with the plural adjective 'grandes.'
Explanation: In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in both gender and number. When you spot a sentence with a mismatched adjective, ask yourself: what is the noun, is it singular or plural, and is it masculine or feminine? Here, the noun is problema, which is singular — there is only one problem. The adjective grandes is plural, which creates a mismatch. The fix is straightforward: change grandes to grande to match the singular noun. That makes C the correct answer: "Tengo un problema muy grande con la tarea." Here's why the other options miss the mark. A suggests using the apocopated form gran, which does exist (as in gran hombre), but apocopation applies when the adjective comes directly before the noun — here, grande comes after the noun (problema), so apocopation doesn't apply. B suggests changing un to una, but problema is actually a masculine noun despite ending in -a (like el mapa, el día) — so un problema is already correct. Swapping to una would introduce a new error. D suggests making problema plural to match grandes, but you should always fix the adjective to match the noun, not force the noun to conform to a wrong adjective. A handy tip: when checking agreement, always start with the noun — it's the anchor. Then make sure every article and adjective orbits around it in matching gender and number. Watch out for -ma nouns like problema and sistema, which are masculine traps on Spanish exams.