The sentences are: "Es un profesor muy bueno y un buen padre." and "Su padre es médico y es un gran hombre." Why is bueno used in the first instance and buen in the second? And why is gran used instead of grande? The dictionary says that buen and gran are contractions, but I don't understand why the regular forms (bueno or grande) can't be used instead.
Gran/grande, and buen/bueno(a) are equivalent in meaning, but the shorter version must be used when the adjective precedes the noun.
When the adjective precedes a masculine singular noun.
Es un buen chico
Es una buena chica
Son unos buenos chicos
Son unas buenas chicas.
Sra
masculine and feminine i think i'm not AMAZING at spanish because i used to do french but masculine and feminine are the main culprits
In Spanish, the adjectives "bueno" (good) and "grande" (big) have contracted forms when they directly precede a masculine singular noun.
In the first sentence, "Es un profesor muy bueno y un buen padre," the adjective "bueno" precedes the noun "padre" (father). When the adjective "bueno" comes before the noun, it contracts to "buen" to maintain proper grammar and pronunciation. This contraction occurs to avoid having two consecutive vowel sounds. So, it becomes "buen padre" instead of "bueno padre."
In the second sentence, "Su padre es médico y es un gran hombre," the adjective "grande" also precedes the noun "hombre" (man). Similarly, to maintain pronunciation and avoid consecutive vowel sounds, the adjective "grande" contracts to "gran" before masculine singular nouns. Thus, it becomes "un gran hombre" instead of "un grande hombre."
The contractions "buen" and "gran" are specific to these contexts, where the adjectives precede masculine singular nouns. In other cases, you can use the regular forms "bueno" and "grande" when the adjective does not directly precede a noun or comes after the noun.
Remember that Spanish grammar often exhibits certain rules and irregularities, which can lead to variations in word forms.