Lección – Bueno(a) y Bien
Bien is an adverb, it means well
Adverbs are a word or group of words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs
Examples: “very,” “friendly,” “quickly,” “extremely” and “really.
i.e. hoy me siento my bien (today I feel very well)
Jaime habla ingles bien (habla = verb; bien = adverb)
Pedro baila bien
How do you say that you did something well or badly in spanish?
“Lo has hecho bien” “o “has hecho mal”
In English you would say, do it well, in spanish you say “hazlo bien“
Bueno is an adjective
An adjective matches the noun or pronoun and modifies it.
These are all adjectives: “buen, bueno, buena, buenos” – and are the equivalent of Good
the use of bueno, buena, buenos, buenas depends on the noun
for example – he (buen), she (buena), they (buenos/buenas)
An adjective primarily describes a particular quality of the noun/pronoun.
For example: wise (the adverb), grandmother (the noun) …a wise grandmother, or perfect in a perfect score
i.e. el hombre es bueno, the man is good.
i.e. La mujer es buena, the woman is good
i.e. the children are good, los niños son buenos
Buen also an adjective
Use buen only when referring to a single male noun/pronoun and placed it before a noun.
For example: you can say “el hombre es bueno” but placed before the noun it becomes “el es buen hombre“
El ingles de Jaime es bueno
Jaime tiene un buen ingles
Jaime tiene un carro bueno
Juan escribió una buena novela
Notes:
1. The opposite of bien is mal and the opposite of bueno es malo, or buena y mala.
2. Pay attention to the use of the verb SER o ESTAR. When you talk about something that is permanent we use SER, and for something that changes we use ESTAR.
i.e.: if you are referring to the quality of food in general , you would say the food is good or “a comida es buena“…
but if you were referring to a temporary state, as in the food is good (right now) you would use estar as in “la comida esta buena”
i.e. How do you like the food in spain? la comida es buena. How do you like the food in that restaurant? “la comida esta buena”
Now try it yourself and go the practice exercise under Printables. Remember to look for the verb, or the noun/pronoun to determine whether you should use bien or bueno/a