If you're trying to learn Malagasy Adjectives you will find some useful resources including a course about Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes... to help you with your Malagasy grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Malagasy. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!
Learning the Malagasy Adjectives is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Malagasy language. But first we need to know what the role of Adjectives is in the structure of the grammar in Malagasy.
Malagasy Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.
While in English an adjective doesn’t change when the noun changes, we have the same similarity in Malagasy: no change of adjectives. For example:
a) Masculine to feminine example:
Ity ny zanako lahy kely (this is my little son) is the same as: Ity ny zanako vavy kely (this is my little daughter), kely = little.
As you can see from the example above, the adjective comes after the noun in the sentence structure.
b) Singular to plural example:
Ity ny saka fotsiko (this is my white cat) is the same as: Ireto ny saka fotsiko (these are my white cats).
As you can see from the example above, the adjective comes after the noun in the sentence structure.
Here are some examples:
| English Adjectives | Malagasy Adjectives |
|---|---|
| adjectives | Mpamaritra |
| a green tree | hazo maitso |
| a tall building | trano avo |
| a very old man | rangahy antitra be |
| the old red house | ilay trano mena tranainy |
| a very nice friend | namana iray mahafinaritra |
Notice the structure of the Adjectives in Malagasy.
Below is a list of the Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes in Malagasy placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Malagasy vocabulary.
| English Adjectives | Malagasy Adjectives |
|---|---|
| colors | loko |
| black | mainty |
| blue | manga |
| brown | volon-tany |
| gray | volon-davenona |
| green | maintso |
| orange | volom-boasary |
| purple | volo-parasy |
| red | mena |
| white | fotsy |
| yellow | mavo |
| sizes | hangeza |
| big | lehibe |
| deep | lalina |
| long | lava |
| narrow | tery |
| short | fohy |
| small | kely |
| tall | lava |
| thick | matevina |
| thin | mahia |
| wide | ngeza/vaventy |
| shapes | Endrika |
| circular | boribory |
| straight | mahitsy |
| square | efa-joro |
| triangular | telo zoro |
| tastes | tsiro |
| bitter | mangidy |
| fresh | vaovao/tsara |
| salty | masira |
| sour | marikivy |
| spicy | feno hanitra |
| sweet | mamy |
| qualities | kalitao |
| bad | ratsy |
| clean | madio |
| dark | maizina |
| difficult | sarotra |
| dirty | maloto |
| dry | maina |
| easy | mora |
| empty | foana |
| expensive | lafo |
| fast | haingana |
| foreign | vahiny |
| full | feno |
| good | tsara |
| hard | mafy |
| heavy | mavesatra |
| inexpensive | mora |
| light | maivana |
| local | eto an-toerana |
| new | vaovao |
| noisy | be tabataba |
| old | antitra/fahiny |
| powerful | mahery/matanjaka |
| quiet | mangina |
| correct | mety/tsy misy diso/tsara |
| slow | miadana |
| soft | malefaka |
| very | tena |
| weak | marefo |
| wet | mando |
| wrong | ratsy/tsy mety |
| young | tanora |
| quantities | habetsahana |
| few | vitsy |
| little | kely |
| many | betsaka |
| much | betsaka |
| part | sombiny |
| some | Vitsivitsy |
| a few | vitsy |
| whole | rehetra/manontolo |
Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes have a very important role in Malagasy. Once you're done with Malagasy Adjectives, you might want to check the rest of our Malagasy lessons here: Learn Malagasy. Don't forget to bookmark this page.
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