What Are Adjectives?
An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving more information about its size, color, quality, quantity, or other characteristics.
Types of Adjectives
- Descriptive Adjectives: Describe qualities of a noun (e.g., beautiful, tall, red).
- Quantitative Adjectives: Indicate quantity (e.g., some, many, few).
- Demonstrative Adjectives: Point out specific nouns (e.g., this, that, these, those).
- Possessive Adjectives: Show ownership (e.g., my, your, his, her).
- Interrogative Adjectives: Used in questions (e.g., which, what, whose).
- Comparative and Superlative Adjectives: Show comparison (e.g., bigger, smallest).
Examples of Adjectives
Descriptive: The blue sky is beautiful.
Quantitative: There are many books on the shelf.
Demonstrative: These flowers are fragrant.
Possessive: Is this your car?
Interrogative: Which dress do you prefer?
Comparative: She is taller than her sister.
Superlative: This is the best movie I’ve seen.
Order of Adjectives
When multiple adjectives are used, they usually follow this order:
- Opinion: beautiful, amazing
- Size: big, small
- Age: old, new
- Shape: round, square
- Color: red, blue
- Origin: Italian, American
- Material: wooden, silk
- Purpose: sleeping (as in "sleeping bag")
Example: A beautiful large old round red Italian wooden dining table.
Practice Exercises
- Identify the adjectives: "The shiny car is very expensive." (Answers: shiny, expensive)
- Fill in the blank: "She has a ___ (beautiful/beauty) dress." (Answer: beautiful)
- Rearrange the adjectives: "A wooden beautiful small table." (Answer: A beautiful small wooden table)
- Choose the correct adjective: "This book is ___ (more interesting/most interesting) than the other one." (Answer: more interesting)
- Write a sentence using at least three adjectives to describe a house.