We know that these three little words can give students a headache sometimes, so we’ve prepared for you an easy guide to master the differences between BIEN, BUENO and BUENO. Let’s take a look!
BIEN:
Grammatically speaking, ‘bien’ is an adverb of manner; that is, it describes the way something is executed, performed or carried out. Bien doesn’t change for gender or number and we always use it after a verb or before an adjective or adverb.
- Yo estoy bien después de tomar la medicina. I feel OK after taking the medicine.
- Tu madre cocina muy bien. Your mother cooks well.
- Carlitos está bien alto. Carlitos is really tall. –> When ‘bien’ goes before an adjective it replaces the adverb ‘muy’.
- Tú comes bien rápido. You eat really fast. –> When ‘bien’ goes before an adverb it replaces the adverb ‘muy’.
BUENO and BUEN:
Grammatically, these words are adjectives, and we use them to describe a characteristic o a thing, animal or person. However, there’s one major difference between them:
BUENO is a singular and masculine adjective that changes in gender and number depending on the noun (sustantivo) is modifying: bueno – buena – buenos – buenas. This adjective always goes after its corresponding noun.
- El abuelo es bueno con sus nietos. The grandfather is good to his grandkids.
- Este libro es bueno. Te recomiendo leerlo. This is a good book. I recommend you read it.
- Esta película es buena; me gusta mucho. This is a good movie; I like it a lot.
- Ellas son buenas vecinas. They are good neighbors.
On the other hand, we only use BUEN before a masculine and singular noun:
- Mi abuelo es un buen hombre. My grandfather is a good man.
- Este es un buen libro. This is a good book.