English Grammar Adjective

Adjectives

What is an adjective?

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words. They can identify or quantify another person or thing in the sentence. Adjectives are usually positioned before the noun or the pronoun that they modify.
In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

1. They live in a beautiful house.
2. Lisa is wearing a sleeveless shirt today.

The good news is that in English the form of an adjective does not change, once you have learnt it that's it and it does not matter if the noun being described is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object. Yay!

Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size colour etc (fact adjectives - can't be argued with).

Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody - nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives - not everyone may agree).

If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be able to answer.

There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

• Numeric: six, one hundred and one etc.
• Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough etc.
• Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc.
• Possessive: my, his, their, your etc.
• Interrogative: which, whose, what etc.
• Demonstrative: this, that, those, these etc.

!Note - The articles a, an, and the are a special kind of adjective called articles, and the possessives my, our, your, and their are sometimes known as possessive adjectives.

Colour

Adjectives can be used to describe colour.

blue, red, green, brown, yellow, black, white, etc.

For Example:

• "The blue bag." or "The blue bags".

Opinion

Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.

 

good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc.

For Example:

• He was a silly boy. / She was a silly girl.

Size

Adjectives can be used to describe size.

big, small, little, long, tall, short, same as, etc.

For Example:

• "The big man." or "The big woman".

Age

Adjectives can be used to describe age.

For Example:

• "He was an old man." or "She was an old woman."

Shape

Adjectives can be used to describe shape.

round, circular, triangular, rectangular, square, oval, etc.

For Example:

• "It was a square box." or "They were square boxes."

Origin

Adjectives can be used to describe origin.

 

For Example:-

• "It was a German flag." or "They were German flags."

Material

Adjectives can be used to identify the material something is made of.

• "A wooden cupboard." or "Wooden cupboards."

!Note - In English we often change nouns into adjectives.

For Example: glass - a glass vase / metal - a metal tray etc.

Distance

Adjectives can be used to describe distance.

  l -- o -- n -- g  / short

long, short, far, around, start, high, low, etc.

For Example:

• "She went for a long walk." or "They went for lots of long walks."

 

Temperature

Adjectives can be used to describe temperature.

cold, warm, hot, cool, etc.

For Example:

• "It was a hot day" or "We eat ice cream on hot days."

Time

Adjectives can be used to describe time.

 

late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc.

For Example:

• "She had an early start."

 

Purpose

Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These adjectives often end with "-ing".)

For Example:

• "She gave them a sleeping bag." or "She gave them sleeping bags."

!Note - Have you noticed how the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun? Nice huh?

When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives may be separated by a conjunction (and) or by commas (,).

For Example:

• "Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair."

More examples:

Adjective	Pretty	Serious	Fast	Quiet
For Example:	She is a pretty girl.	He was a serious boy.	It could be a fast car.	They were quiet children.

!Note - Adjectives that go immediately before the noun are called attributive adjectives.

Adjectives can also be used after some verbs. They do not describe the verb, adverbs do that.

Adjectives after a verb describe the subject of the verb (usually a noun or pronoun).

For Example:

• "Lynne looks tired."

The subject (in this case Lynne) is being described as tired not the verb to look.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
rich	richer	richest
lovely	lovelier	loveliest
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
little	less	least
much many some	more	most
far	further	furthest

Be careful not to form comparatives or superlatives of adjectives which already express an extreme of comparison — unique, for instance — although it probably is possible to form comparative forms of most adjectives: something can be more perfect, and someone can have a fuller figure. People who argue that one woman cannot be more pregnant than another have never been nine-months pregnant with twins.

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
Determiner	Observation	Physical Description				Origin	Material	Qualifier	Noun
		Size	Shape	Age	Color
a	beautiful			old		Italian		touring	car
an	expensive			antique			silver		mirror
four	gorgeous		long- stemmed		red		silk		roses
her			short		black				hair
our		big		old		English			sheepdog
those			square				wooden	hat	boxes
that	dilapidated	little						hunting	cabin
several		enormous		young		American		basketball	players
some	delicious					Thai			food

RULES

Rule 1. Many adverbs end in -ly, but many do not. Generally, if a word can have -ly added to its adjective form, place it there to form an adverb.

Examples:
She thinks quick/quickly.
How does she think? Quickly.

She is a quick/quickly thinker.
Quick is an adjective describing thinker, so no -ly is attached.

She thinks fast/fastly.
Fast answers the question how, so it is an adverb. But fast never has -ly attached to it.

We performed bad/badly.
Badly describes how we performed, so -ly is added.

Rule 2. Adverbs that answer the question how sometimes cause grammatical problems. It can be a challenge to determine if -ly should be attached. Avoid the trap of -ly with linking verbs, such as taste, smell, look, feel, etc., that pertain to the senses. Adverbs are often misplaced in such sentences, which require adjectives instead.

Examples:
Roses smell sweet/sweetly.
Do the roses actively smell with noses? No; in this case, smell is a linking verb—which requires an adjective to modify roses—so no -ly.

The woman looked angry/angrily to us.
Did the woman look with her eyes, or are we describing her appearance? We are describing her appearance (she appeared angry), so no -ly.

The woman looked angry/angrily at the paint splotches.
Here the woman actively looked (used her eyes), so the -ly is added.

She feels bad/badly about the news.
She is not feeling with fingers, so no -ly.

Rule 3. The word good is an adjective, whose adverb equivalent is well.

Examples:
You did a good job.
Good describes the job.

You did the job well.
Well answers how.

You smell good today.
Good describes your fragrance, not how you smell with your nose, so using the adjective is correct.

You smell well for someone with a cold.
You are actively smelling with your nose here, so use the adverb.

Rule 4. The word well can be an adjective, too. When referring to health, we often use wellrather than good.

Examples:
You do not look well today.
I don't feel well, either.

Rule 5. Adjectives come in three forms, also called degrees. An adjective in its normal or usual form is called a positive degree adjective. There are also the comparative andsuperlative degrees, which are used for comparison, as in the following examples:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
sweet	sweeter	sweetest
bad	worse	worst
efficient	more efficient	most efficient

A common error in using adjectives and adverbs arises from using the wrong form of comparison. To compare two things, always use a comparative adjective:

Example: She is the cleverer of the two women (never cleverest)

The word cleverest is what is called the superlative form of clever. Use it only when comparing three or more things:

Example: She is the cleverest of them all.

Incorrect: Chocolate or vanilla: which do you like best?

Correct: Chocolate or vanilla: which do you like better?

Rule 6. There are also three degrees of adverbs. In formal usage, do not drop the -ly from an adverb when using the comparative form.

Incorrect: She spoke quicker than he did.

Correct: She spoke more quickly than he did.

Incorrect: Talk quieter.

Correct: Talk more quietly.

Rule 7. When this, that, these, and those are followed by a noun, they are adjectives. When they appear without a noun following them, they are pronouns.

Examples:
This house is for sale.
This is an adjective.

This is for sale.
This is a pronoun.