Spanish help please???

Question

How do you distinguish between bien, buen, and bueno/a?
also with mal and malo?

I understand that you can say estoy bien as in I am fine, and estoy mal as in I don't feel well. And soy bueno is I am good(as a person) and soy malo as in I am bad.

but when you use them as adjectives, sometimes it's bien chico or chico bueno. whats the difference?
also, how do you know when to put it before the noun?

please it's been bugging me for all of the 3 years of spanish that ive taken. i probably should know those by now. but thats why i need you guy's help :D

Thanks for taking part in my Spanish education. It's really hard to pick the best answer because all of them tackled different aspects of my question.

Mucho thanks!

Answer 1

BIEN
Bien is an adverb so there won't be any noun (substantive) close to it.
It can be translated as: well, alright, okay, excellently, in a good manner, appropriately, nicely, pleasantly.
It can be the answer to questions like: How…(¿Cómo…?)
I.e.:
'How are you? I'm fine' --> 'Yo estoy bien'
As you can see, there is no noun close to it, so it is not an adjective. More, 'bien' is usually placed close to the verb (estoy)

Bien, can also be placed close to an adjective, to emphasize the meaning of that adjective:
¡Es una casa bien grande!
Where 'bien' is the adverb and 'grande' is the adjective.
Finally, 'bien' can also work as a conjunction in sentences offering two options: Corresponds to the English: either // or:
'Bien puedes ir a casa de tu madre, bien puedes ir a casa de tu padre.'(You can either go to your father's house, or you can go to your mother's house.)

BUENO
Bueno, as said before, as an adjective so it takes the corresponding form according to the genre and number of the noun it goes with:

La comida buena
Las comidas buenas

El perro bueno
Los perros buenos

Translations: good, well, fine.

Note: This is how Wiktionary defines an adjective: "A word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun, such as big or heavy." and this is the definition for adverb: "A word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb or a prepositional phrase, typically (but not always) ending with -ly in English."

* When 'bueno' is used before the noun, it becomes 'buen': 'Este perro es bueno' - "Este es un buen perro'.

Some examples:


With bien:
Mi hermano no habla bien
¡Bien dicho!
Este niño está bien alto
With bueno:
Este niño es bueno.
¡Buenas tardes!
Espero que tenga un buen viaje.

Answer 2

David, the adjective coming before the noun changes the meaning of the adjective. Example un coche nuevo is a new car, in the sense that you just bought it. Un nuevo coche just came from the factory/dealer, and has almost no miles on it, no scratches, etc. Brand new.

There's a whole list of them, I "learned" them for Advanced Grammar, and it's a lot of fine detail differences. (this was a third year college course for majors).

As for the original question:
Bien, most literally, means well, and is used to answer (just as it should be in English) questions that are simplified to How is/was it (done)? (Adverb)

Buen/Bueno/Buena means Good, and answers the question Which one? (adjective)
Buen comes before the noun it modifies, and Bueno/a comes after and must agree (number/gender). for more details, Profuy seems to have it all.

And bien chico can mean EITHER small enough or young enough, depending on context. Or very small/young.

If I want a glass of Ice water, or very cold water, I ask for agua bien fría.

A lot of this is fine differences in meaning, and come with practice. Eventually, it just becomes second nature, and hard to remember the rules, you just learn to know what "sounds" right.

Rereading your question, I caught something important.

in your question about bien chico/chico bueno, bien chico is an adverbial phrase: chico is an adjective, and bien (still) is the adverb. an adverb modifies a: verb, adjective or another adverb. (go back to 8th grade Grammar class, here). in chico bueno, bueno is an adjective, chico is a noun. an adjective modifies a noun. THIS may be your fundamental problem. Once you get the parts of speech, the other questions will start to answer themselves. Of course, since they don´t really teach parts of speech any more, that might mean finding someone older who learned the fundamentals during their own schooling (AND remember what they are....that could be tough).

Answer 3

Ok, the difference between bien chico and chico bueno is that the 1st one translates as "very small" or "very young" while the 2nd one translates as "good boy"

bien, before the noun can be translated as "very" or "so"
e.g.
mi amigo tiene un auto bien padre = my friend has a very cool car
una casa bien grande = a very big house
una carretera bien larga = a very long road

esa chava está bien buena = that girl is so hot
esa chava es bien buena = that girl is so good


Now, you use buen before the noun and bueno after the noun (it's the same way you use mal and malo)
e.g.
X es un buen libro = X es un libro bueno = X is a good book
X es un buen chico = X es un chico bueno = X is a good boy
X y Y son buenos chicos = X y Y son chicos buenos = X and Y are good boys

buena can be put before or after the noun (it's the same with mala)
X es una buena película = X es una película buena = X is a good movie
X es una mala actriz = X es una actriz mala = X is a bad actress

Most of the time it won't matter if you put bueno (or buen or buena or mal or malo or mala) before or after the noun, they mean the same thing but i think it's more common to put them before the noun (only with these (and some other) adjectives because most adjectives go after the noun)

Now, "un buen de" means "a lot of"
e.g.
tengo un buen de cosas por hacer = i have a lot of things to do
tengo un buen de tarea = i have a lot of homework
hace un buen de calor/frío aquí = it's really hot/cold in here
comí un buen de papas = i ate a lot of chips
vi un buen de películas = i watched a lot of movies

I think that's all.

Hope that helps ;)

Answer 4

I have been speaking Spanish for 30 years, and it still bugs me.

Chico bueno is good boy. Bien chico is quite small. Chico can mean boy or small. There is a rule about when to put the adjective first, but I cannot really understand it.

Usually the adjective follows the noun. Occasionally it comes before the noun, as when the descriptive word describes an essential part of the noun being described. But it all seems like opinion to me.

I doubt that I will ever understand exactly.

If you ever figure it out, tell me what the answer is.

Answer 5

bien chico means young enough/ chico bueno means good boy

Answer 6

bien & bueno mean good buen and buen means well
mal means evil malo means bad