How can we describe nouns? How to add a characteristic or precision? That answer is simple: with the use of adjectives! But what are adjectives? How can we use them and what are the different forms? That’s what we will discover in the following text.
What Is an Adjective?
An adjective’s role is to describe and modify nouns and pronouns. They can also be used to count a quantity. Adjectives can’t modify verbs or adverbs. In English, the adjective usually comes right before the noun, but it can also be a predicate adjective (when it follows a linking verb such as to be, to feel, to seem, etc.). However, it is not always placed right before the noun, sometimes it comes after.
Understanding how adjectives interact with pronouns helps clarify how sentences are structured and how meaning is conveyed.
Following are some examples to help you understand the use of adjectives:
Her eyes are blue.
This long jacket is mine.
This sugary cupcake is delicious.
Her hair is brown.
Yesterday, I picked up four pink flowers from the garden.
What’s a demonstrative pronoun?
What Are the Forms of Adjectives?
There are three main types of adjectives: absolute, comparative, and superlative.
What Is an Absolute Adjective?
An absolute adjective usually can’t be intensified or compared. It is ultimate. Here are some examples:
Her room is messy.
An awful skirt.
The empty house.
What Is a Comparative Adjective?
As you can observe in the name, comparative adjectives make comparison between two or more things. One-syllable adjective can become comparative by adding the suffix –er (or r if the adjective already ends with e in its base form).
This is also true for some two-syllable adjectives. Usually, this applies for two-syllable adjectives ending in –er, –ow, –le, –y or –ure. Other adjectives formed of two syllables become comparative by adding the word more.
Examples of Comparative Adjectives:
-
- Her room is messier than his.
- This skirt is more awful than I even imagined.
- The house could not be emptier.
What Is a Superlative Adjective?
A superlative adjective is the highest degree of the adjective. In general, one-syllable adjectives become superlatives by adding –est at the end.
That is also true for some two-syllable adjectives. Adjectives ending in –y are usually replaced with the ending –iest.
On the other hand, adjectives with three or more syllables become superlative by adding the word most before it. In this form, the article before the adjective is almost always the rather than a or an.
Examples of Superlative Adjectives:
The messiest room is hers.
This is the most awful skirt that I’ve ever seen.
This house is the most empty I have ever visited.
What Are Coordinate Adjectives?
Coordinate adjectives are separated by a comma or by the word and. They modify the same noun and to the same degree (absolute, comparative or superlative).
Examples:
His shirt is blue and white.
This is a long, busy week.
When the adjective right before the noun is very closely related to it, both adjectives are in fact one semantic unit, modified by the first adjective. When that happens, the adjectives are not separated: they appear right next one to another.
Examples:
My cat has long white hair.
This is an old creaky door.
To determinate if adjectives are coordinate or not, we can try inserting the word and in between or switching the order of the adjectives. If it works smoothly, they are coordinated; if the sentence looses its sense, the adjectives are not coordinated. Try the next exercise to put this knowledge into practice.
Exercises on adjectives:
- By answering with “YES” or “NO”, determine if the adjectives in the following exercise are coordinated or not.
| Sentence | Coordinated or not? |
| She’s got big blue eyes. | |
| There’s a big round dome in the forest. | |
| His brown leather collar. |
Answers
| Sentence | Coordinated or not? |
| She’s got big blue eyes. | NO: You can’t say “She’s got blue big eyes” because it does not make sense and it’s not smooth. You also cannot say “She’s got big and blue eyes” because “blue eyes” is a unit modified by “big”. |
| There’s a big round dome in the forest. | YES: You can say, “She’s wearing a big and puffy coat”: it makes sense. |
| His brown leather collar. | NO: You can’t say “His brown and leather collar” because “brown” modifies “leather collar” as a unit. |
What’s the Distinction Between Adjectives and Adverbs?
Beware of the difference between an adjective and an adverb so that you don’t mix them up! An adjective modifies a noun while an adverb modifies a verb or an adjective.
Moreover, note that sometimes, a word that is usually classified as a noun can become an adjective. For example, in the sentence “This love story gives me chills.”, love is usually a noun, but in this case it is an adjective to “story”. The opposite can also happen. In the sentence “Life insurance is important”, life is usually a noun, but here it plays the role of an adjective.
To conclude, while adjectives can be useful to describe or precise characteristics of a noun, be careful not to overuse them, or your text won’t be smooth anymore: as we say in French, “Trop c’est comme pas assez”.
Need Help?
Do you need help understanding adjective clauses? Does your child need help differentiating between all types of adjectives? Do they need help recognizing descriptive adjectives? Our English tutors are here for you! Whatever the difficulty, they’ll help you correct spelling errors and master English grammar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Other Types of Adjectives Are There?
2. Demonstrative adjectives; 3. Attributive adjectives; 4. Compound adjectives; 5. Interrogative adjectives; 6. Predicative adjectives; |
7. Indefinite adjectives;
8. Participial adjectives; 9. Nominal adjectives or substantive adjectives; 10. Cumulative adjectives; 11. True adjectives. |
What Are 10 Examples of Adjectives?
Gentle, beautiful, angry, miniature, cold, silky, colourful, broad, juicy, comfortable.
What Is an Adjective Phrase?
If an adjective acts as a head, you’re looking at an adjectival phrase. An adjectival phrase can contain phrases or even words before or after the head, such as modifiers or complements.
What Is a Possessive Adjective?
Possessive adjectives are used to indicate that something belongs to someone, to indicate a relationship (friends, family, …) or to specify a body part.
Example:
My father is a teacher at your sister’s old elementary school.
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