Understanding Adjectives

What Are Adjectives?

An adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or pronoun. It provides additional information about an object's size, shape, age, color, origin, or material, and it helps to make sentences more descriptive and interesting.

Functions of Adjectives

Adjectives serve several functions in sentences:

• Attributive: Adjectives that appear before a noun, e.g., "The blue sky."
• Predicative: Adjectives that come after a linking verb, e.g., "The sky is blue."
• Nominal: Adjectives that function as nouns, e.g., "The poor need help."

Types of Adjectives

Adjectives can be categorized into different types based on what they describe:

• Descriptive Adjectives: Describe the qualities of a noun (e.g., lovely, difficult).
• Quantitative Adjectives: Indicate quantity (e.g., few, many, some).
• Demonstrative Adjectives: Point out specific nouns (e.g., this, that, these, those).
• Possessive Adjectives: Indicate ownership (e.g., my, your, his, her).
• Interrogative Adjectives: Used in questions (e.g., which, what, whose).
• Distributive Adjectives: Refer to individuals in a group (e.g., each, every, either).

Comparative and Superlative Forms

Adjectives can change form to express comparison:

• Comparative: Used to compare two nouns, typically formed by adding "-er" or using "more" (e.g., "taller," "more beautiful").
• Superlative: Used to express the highest degree among three or more nouns, typically formed by adding "-est" or using "most" (e.g., "tallest," "most beautiful").

Adjective Order

In English, when multiple adjectives are used to describe a noun, they should follow a particular order:

• Quantity or Number (one, two, several)
• Quality or Opinion (lovely, beautiful)
• Size (big, small)
• Age (old, new)
• Shape (round, square)
• Color (blue, red)
• Origin (American, French)
• Material (silk, wooden)
• Purpose (sleeping in "sleeping bag")

An example would be: "three lovely large old round blue American wooden chairs."