Subscribe to our newsletter. But there are some cases where the placement of the adjective makes significant enough of the difference that we would translate it differently in English. Tengo un viejo amigo. Tengo un amigo viejo. It may surprise you to find out that in Spanish the sentences aren't so ambiguous, for viejo can be understood differently depending on where it is in relation the noun that is described.
Word order does make a difference.
Similarly, someone who has been a dentist for a long time is un viejo dentista , but a dentist who is old is un dentista viejo . Viejo is far from the only adjective that functions that way, although the distinctions aren't nearly always as strong as they are with viejo . Here are examples of some of the more common such adjectives. And in some cases, as with nuevo , placement can also be a matter of emphasis rather than simply of meaning. But this list does provide a guide that should be useful in helping determine the meaning of some double-meaning adjectives.