Adjective

In English, words are grouped into word classes based on their function in a sentence. There are nine main word classes in English; nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. This explanation is all about adjectives.

Adjective meaning

An adjective is a word usually used to modify and provide more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives are often called 'describing words' as they describe a feature or quality of the noun, such as colour, size, quantity etc. Therefore, adjectives can be used to add depth and more meaning to a sentence.

Adjective examples

There are many adjectives in the English language that can be used to tell us more information about a noun.

In the examples below, the adjectives and nouns have been highlighted:

The order of adjectives

When we use more than one adjective, there is a certain order we put them in.

Take a look at this sentence:

It really doesn't sound right, does it? This is because adjectives are arranged in a regular order.

Take a look at this corrected sentence:

This sentence just 'feels' better as the adjectives are placed in a recognisable way.

For native English language speakers, putting adjectives in the correct order tends to come naturally, we can just feel it in our bones. However, for non-native speakers, remembering the order of adjectives can be a tricky process.

When there is a sequence of multiple adjectives, their order can be arranged as follows:

If we used all of these adjectives in the correct order to describe the shirt, the sentence would look like this, 'Three, lovely, tiny, square, new, pink, American, cotton business shirts.'

Fig 1. A big, old, blue car

The positioning of adjectives

Adjectives can be placed in several different positions within a sentence. These positions include:

• Before a noun (pre-modification)

• After a noun (post-modification)

• On its own as a complement

Pre-modification adjectives

Pre-modification is when an adjective is placed before a noun to add information. For example:

Adjectives that pre-modify a noun are traditionally called attributive adjectives.

Post-modification adjectives

Post-modification is when an adjective is placed after a noun to add information. For example:

These are traditionally called predicative adjectives. The adjective is not used immediately after the noun, instead, it follows an auxiliary verb that links the sentence such as 'is', 'was', or 'seems'.

Adjectives as a complement

Adjectives can also be used as a complement to 'complete the sentence'. This is a form of post-modification however, in this case, the adjective is used with a pronoun rather than a noun. Here are some examples:

As you can see, the adjective is used to modify the pronouns ('he', 'she', 'it'). It describes a quality about the person or thing, however, it does not specifically state what is being described. Complements usually follow the forms of the verb 'to be' such as 'is', 'was', and 'will be'.

Most adjectives can be used as a pre-modification, post-modification, or a complement. For example:

There are only a few adjectives that are restricted to one position. For example:

Fig 2. A happy hamster

Types of adjectives

There are many different types of adjectives, which are categorised based on the functions they perform in a sentence.

The main adjectives are:

• Descriptive adjectives

• Evaluative adjectives

• Quantitative adjectives

• Interrogative adjectives

• Proper adjectives

• Demonstrative and indefinite adjectives

• Possessive adjectives

• Compound adjectives

• Degree of comparison adjectives (positive, comparative, and superlative).

Descriptive adjectives

Descriptive adjectives, sometimes called qualitative adjectives, are used to describe a feature or quality of a thing, person, or object. They add extra information about a noun or a pronoun. For example, in this sentence 'the red car', red is the descriptive adjective as it describes the colour of the car.

Evaluative adjectives

Evaluative adjectives give someone's opinion about a noun. For example, 'The exam was difficult' or 'The cake was delicious'. It can't be proved that the cake was delicious, therefore, it is an opinion (though who doesn't find cake delicious?).

Quantitative adjectives

Quantitative adjectives provide information on the, you guessed it, quantity of the noun. Generally, quantitative adjectives answer the questions how much? and how many?. E.g. 'I have three bags' or 'It took some time.'

Interrogative adjectives

Interrogative adjectives are words that ask a question. They are whose, which, and what. Interrogative adjectives must come before a noun or pronoun to be considered an adjective. E.g. 'Whose drink is this?'

Proper adjectives

Proper adjectives are simply proper nouns acting as an adjective in a sentence. A proper noun is a specific or unique noun, such as a country, a famous person, or a brand. When a proper noun is used to describe another noun, e.g. 'An American shirt', it is considered a proper adjective. Further examples include Indian food and Nike trainers.

Demonstrative and indefinite adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives modify nouns by showing a direct reference to something or someone, e.g. I like that house.' The demonstrative adjectives are; this, that, those, and these. Demonstrative adjectives must go before a noun, otherwise, they are considered demonstrative pronouns.

Indefinite adjectives work in the opposite way to demonstrative adjectives in that they modify the noun in a non-specific way. Indefinite adjectives provide unspecific information about a noun, e.g. ' I gave him some work to do.' Examples of indefinite adjectives are; some, any, many, few, most, and much.

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used to show that a noun belongs to someone, e.g. his, hers, our, my, their. Possessive adjectives must go before a noun, otherwise, they are considered possessive pronouns. For example, 'That's my bike.'

Compound adjectives

A compound adjective is when more than one word is used to describe a noun, and these words are joined together in some way. Usually, compound adjectives are joined with a hyphen or are separated from the rest of the sentence with quotation marks. For example, 'The ten-foot-high pole.' and 'He gave her his best 'be quiet' eyes.'

Degrees of comparison

When comparing two or more nouns, adjectives can give further information about the extent of the comparison. We can compare nouns using three types of adjectives, positive, comparative, and superlative.

The initial adjective is the positive degree adjective - it is the basic, unchanged form of the adjective (e.g. fast, slow, big). We then modify the positive degree adjectives to create comparative and superlative adjectives which show a comparison.

Comparative adjectives

A comparative adjective, as the name suggests, compares two or more nouns. This can be:

• To a lesser degree, for example, smaller or less heavy. These adjectives can be made by adding the suffix '-er' or the word 'less'.

• To the same degree, for example, 'as big as'.

• To a higher degree, for example, bigger or more powerful. These adjectives can be made by adding the suffix '-er' or the word 'more'.

Superlative adjectives

This is the highest or lowest possible form of the adjective. For example, 'highest', 'tallest', 'most handsome'. Superlative adjectives can often be made by adding the suffix '-est' or the word 'most'.

Fig 3. Comparative and superlative adjectives

You may also hear the term 'grading', which simply means that an adjective can have more or less of the quality that they refer to. Comparative and superlative adjectives are both examples of grading.

Adjectives with irregular forms

There are some adjectives that, when made into comparative or superlative forms, become irregular. A good example of this is the adjective good. When changed into a comparative adjective good becomes better. When changed into a superlative adjective it becomes best.

Fig 4. Irregular comparative and superlative adjectives

Something similar also happens for the word bad.

Initial positive adjective - bad

Comparative adjective - worse

Superlative adjective - worst

Absolute adjectives

Absolute adjectives are qualitative adjectives that can't be graded, intensified, or compared to anything else. In other words, they are in their 'ultimate' form. Some examples of absolute adjectives include:

A thing can not be more 'perfect' or 'more infinite' than another. Therefore it is in its absolute form.

It is not possible to have a 'more annual fair' and it is not grammatically correct to say 'more northern'. That is because each of these adjectives describes a group or category.

Adjective phrases

An adjective phrase is a simple phrase (group of words) that is headed by an adjective. The adjective phrase acts as the adjective in a sentence.

In this example, the adjective phrase is 'more beautiful than the others'. The main adjective is beautiful; however, the whole phrase is needed to fully describe the flowers.

Adjectives and suffixes

Some words exist independently as adjectives and do not exist in any other word class, for example:

Other adjectives are formed from nouns by adding a suffix, for example:

Adjectives may also be formed from verbs by adding a suffix, for example:

The suffix at the end of a word can often indicate the class that a word belongs to.

Here is a list of suffixes that are common for adjectives: