grabadas

Grabadas is the feminine plural form of the Spanish past participle grabado. In Spanish, past participles used as adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Therefore, grabadas describes feminine plural nouns that have undergone the action of recording or engraving. It is commonly found in phrases such as canciones grabadas (recorded songs), imágenes grabadas (recorded images), cintas grabadas (recorded tapes), and placas grabadas (engraved plates). The masculine plural form is grabados, used with masculine plural nouns or when referring to engravings as a category.

While grabadas functions as an adjective, there is a separate standard noun for a recording in Spanish: grabación or grabaciones, and for an engraving: grabado or grabados. The nuance is that grabadas emphasizes the feminine plural noun, whereas grabación is the noun form, and grabados refers to masculine nouns or to engravings.

Usage note: As with other adjectives, location in a sentence may vary; in phrases like Las canciones grabadas por la banda, the participle can appear before or after the noun depending on emphasis.

See also: Grabar, Grabación, Grabado.