Adjectives

Adjectives describe or give information about nouns or pronouns.

For example:-

The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".)

The good news is that the form of an adjective does not change. It does not matter if the noun being modified is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object.

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

!Note - The articles a, an, and the and the possessives my, our, your, and their are also adjectives.

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.

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."

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".

  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 use a noun as an adjective. 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 "She went for lots of long walks."
  
  

  Temperature

  Adjectives can be used to describe temperature.
  cold, warm, hot, cool, etc.
  For example:
  • "The day was hot." or "The days were hot."
  
  

  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 - In each case the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun.
  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
  Example	She was a pretty girl.	He was a serious boy.	It was 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). They are called predicative adjectives.
  For example:
  • "David looks tired." The subject (in this case David) is being described as tired not the verb to look.
  There is also the adjective used to, which is explained here.
  
  

  Adjective Order

  Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour, material, to more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose. We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of something. Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it can sometimes depend on what exactly you want to emphasise.
  For example: 
  
  "That nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)
  "That big, nice, blue bag." (You like the colour.)
  When we group adjectives together there is a general rule for the position of each type adjective, these are:-

  Position	1st*	2nd*	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
  	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Material	Origin	Purpose
  	Nice	Small	Old	Square	Black	Plastic	British	Racing
  	Ugly	Big	New	Circular	Blue	Cotton	American	Running

  This is just a guide as you wouldn't normally see so many adjectives in one description.
  For example:
  • "She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, cotton, British, knitting bag." Is grammatically correct but a bit too long-winded.
  * You might swap opinion and fact adjectives depending on what you wish to emphasise:-
  For example:
  • "She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.
  • "He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.

  A list of common adjectives

  
  

  Common Adjectives Table

  Appearance	Condition
  adorable alert  average  beautiful blonde  bloody  blushing  bright  clean  clear cloudy  colourful concerned  crowded  curious  cute  dark  dirty  drab  distinct dull  elegant fancy  filthy glamorous gleaming graceful grotesque  homely  light  misty  motionless  muddy  plain  poised quaint scary  shiny  smoggy  sparkling  spotless stormy  strange  ugly  unsightly unusual	alive brainy  broken  busy  careful cautious  clever  crazy  damaged  dead  difficult easy fake  false famous  forward  fragile guilty  helpful helpless important  impossible infamous innocent  inquisitive  mad  modern  open  outgoing  outstanding poor  powerful puzzled  real  rich  right  robust sane  scary  shy  sleepy stupid  super  tame  thick tired wild  wrong
  Feelings - negative	Feelings - neutral	Feelings - positive
  afraid angry annoyed  anxious  arrogant  ashamed  awful  bad bewildered bored  concerned  condemned confused  creepy cruel  dangerous  defeated  defiant depressed disgusted disturbed doubtful  eerie  embarrassed envious evil fierce  foolish  frantic  frightened grieving guilty  helpless hungry  hurt  ill  jealous  lonely mad  naughty nervous  obnoxious outrageous  panicky  repulsive safe scared shy  sleepy sore strange  tense  terrible  tired troubled unusual  upset uptight weary  wicked worried	alright calm  different  fair fine  OK pleasant  puzzled	agreeable alert  amused  brave  bright  charming  cheerful comfortable cooperative courageous delightful determined  eager  elated enchanting encouraging  energetic enthusiastic excited  exuberant faithful  fantastic friendly frowning funny  gentle  glorious  good  happy  healthy  helpful hilarious innocent  jolly kind  lively  lovely  lucky  obedient perfect  proud  relaxed relieved silly  smiling  splendid  successful  thoughtful victorious vivacious well  witty wonderful
  Shape	Size	Sound
  broad  crooked  curved  deep even  flat hilly  jagged  round  shallow  square  steep  straight  thick thin  triangular uneven	average big fat gigantic huge large little  long  massive medium  miniature narrow petite short  skinny small  tall  tiny wide	cooing  deafening  faint harsh  high-pitched  hissing  hushed  husky  loud  melodic moaning  mute  noisy  purring  quiet  raspy  screeching shrill  silent  soft  squeaky  squealing thundering  voiceless whispering
  Speed	Taste	Time
  fast quick  rapid  slow  swift	bitter bland  delicious different  fresh  greasy  hot juicy repulsive  revolting  ripe  rotten  salty  sour  spicy  stale strong sweet  tasteless  tasty  terrible wonderful	ancient brief.  early  late long modern new  old old-fashioned  quick short young
  	Touch
  	blunt boiling breakable  breezy broken bumpy chilly clean cold cool crooked  cuddly curly  damaged  damp different  dirty dry  dusty  filthy flaky fluffy fuzzy  greasy  grubby  hard icy  loose  plastic  prickly  ripe  rough  rubbery  scratchy  shaky  shaggy  sharp  silky  slimy slippery smooth  soft solid  steady  sticky  tight uneven unusual unripe  warm  weak wet  wooden wooly

  
  
  
  

  Possessive Adjectives

  
  
  Possesive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.

  Subject pronoun	Possessive adjective
  I	my
  you	your
  he	his
  she	her
  it	its
  we	our
  they	their

  For example:
  • I own a laptop. = It is my laptop.
  • You own this computer (I presume). = It is your computer.
  • My husband owns a car. = It is his car.
  • My sister owns a house. = It is her house.
  • My dog owns a collar. = It is its collar.
  • We use this website. = It is our website.
  • Manchester United own a football ground. = It is their football ground.

  Comparative form of Adjectives

  When we compare two things or people we look at what makes them different from each other.
  For example:

  Tall / Short

  
  
  The man on the left is taller than the man on the right. 
  The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.

  Fast / Slow

  
  
  A car is faster than a bicycle. 
  A bicycle is slower than a car.
  Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.
  For example:

  Big / Small

  
  
  The red bag is bigger than the blue bag. 
  The blue bag is smaller than the red bag.

  Forming the comparative

  Form	Rule	For example
  Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.	Add -r to the end of the word.	wide - wider
  Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.	Double the consonant and add -er to the end of the word.	big - bigger
  Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.	Add - er to the end of the word.	high - higher
  Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.	Change 'y' to 'i', and add -er to the end of the word.	happy - happier
  Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.	Place 'more' before the adjective.	beautiful - more beautiful

  The following adjectives are exceptions to this rule:
  • 'good' becomes 'better'
  • 'bad' becomes 'worse'
  • 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'
  !Note - When comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.
  For example:-
  • "Mount Everest is higher than Mount Snowdon."
  • "Arguably, Rome is more beautiful than Paris.
  
  
  
  

  Superlative Adjectives

  
  
  The superlative is used to say what thing or person has the most of a particular quality within a group or of its kind. Superlative adjectives normally come before any other adjectives.

  		Snowdon is not the highest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis is.
  Mount Snowdon is 3,559 feet high.	Ben Nevis is 4,408 feet high.

  Forming the superlative

  Form	Rule	For example
  Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.	Add -st to the end of the word.	wide - widest
  Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.	Double the consonant and add -est to the end of the word.	big - biggest
  Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.	Add - est to the end of the word.	high - highest
  Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.	Change 'y' to 'i', and add -est to the end of the word.	happy - happiest
  Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.	Place 'the most' before the adjective.	beautiful - the most beautiful

  The following adjectives are exceptions:
  • 'good' becomes 'the best'
  • 'bad' becomes 'the worst'
  • 'far' becomes 'the furthest'
  For example:
  • "Jill is the best student in the class ."
  • "Jack is the worst student in the class."
  • "In our solar system the planet Pluto is the furthest planet from the Sun."
  !Note - superlatives are usually preceded by 'the'.
  For example:
  • "The Rio de la Plata river, on the southeast coastline of South America, is the widest river in the world."
  • According to the List of World records Carol Yager (1960-1994), from Michigan, is the fattest person ever to live, weighing 725 kg (1,600 lb).
  • "Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world."
  • "I think that Castle Combe is the prettiest village in England."
  • "Arguably, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world."
  
  

  Irregular Adjectives

  
  

  Adjective	Comparative	Superlative	Example
  bad	worse	the worst	Historians say that Hitler was worse than Mussolini. He was one of the worst dictators the world has ever seen.
  far	further	the furthest	Mars is further from the Sun than Earth. Pluto is the furthest world from the Sun.
  good	better	the best	Her English was better than the teacher's. She was the best English student in the class.
  old (age)	elder	the eldest	My elder sister Karen is the eldest in our family.