Parts of Speech:
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun by providing an attribute or description or other detail about the noun. Adjectives can change, clarify or qualify a noun to give a more complete description of the noun.
Adjectives give information about people, places, and things such as: opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material and purpose.
What are the most common of adjectives?
Attributive adjectives and predicate adjectives are the most common types of adjectives.
1) Attributive adjectives appear before and describe a noun.
2) Predicate adjectives follow linking verbs and describe the subject.
Use
of Adjective
- Describing Opinion
- Describing Size
- Describing Shape
- Describing Condition
- Describing Age
- Describing Color
- Describing Pattern
- Describing Origin
- Describing Material
- Describing Purpose
Attributive Adjective
(adjective before noun)
- The popular movie is on t.v.
- The big bears ran fast.
- Use the round pen.
- The clean dishes are here.
- The old man yelled at me.
- I like the black car.
- The striped pants are mine.
- The American man is nice.
- She has a gold necklace.
- The shopping cart is here.
Predicate Adjective
(adjective after linking verb)
- The movie became popular.
- The bears were big.
- The pan appears round.
- The dishes are clean.
- The man is old.
- The car is black.
- Alan’s pants are striped.
- The man is American.
- It looks gold.
- na
Is there a correct order when using two or more adjectives before a noun?
There are some occasions when it is necessary to use two or more adjectives to describe a noun, though it is unusual to see more than three adjectives in front of a noun. In general, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order.
Opinion Size Shape Condition Age Color Pattern Origin Material Purpose Noun
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Noun
lovely small round stiff new brown twill European oak shopping basket
dependable old black American leather hunting boots
mysterious decayed ancient Egyptian brick tomb
Can adjectives be used behind a noun or pronoun?
Adjectives can be used behind nouns and pronouns, however this is less common in modern English. Adjectives appearing after nouns may appear:
In set phrases and titles
- A code red was issued by the fire marshal.
- The president wants to see the attorney general.
- He thanked God almighty.
- He ordered the chicken cacciatore
Behind indefinite pronouns
- Someone important just walked in.
- Nothing good will come of this situation.
- There is not anyone influential here.
- There is something wrong with the clock.
How are adjectives formed?
There is no general rule for forming an adjective. Many adjectives exist independent of rules. Though, many word endings (suffixes) are common among adjectives. Here are examples of adjectives formed from nouns with common suffixes.
–al | (relating to)
person/personal
parent/parental
region/regional
universe/universal
–ary (relating to quality/place)
honor/honorary
legend/legendary
custom/customary
moment/momentary
– ful (full of)
color/colorful
care/careful
pain/painful
power/powerful
–ic (the nature of, caused by)
athlete/athletic
symbol/symbolic
history/historic
period/periodic
-ical (having the nature of)
grammar/grammatical
history/historical
logic/logical
numeral/numerical
–ish (origin, nature)
child/childish
self/selfish
style/stylish
sheep/sheepish
-less (without)
end/endless
hope/hopeless
home/homeless
use/useless
-like (like)
lady/ladylike
child/childlike
business/businesslike
man/manlike
-ly (like)
friend/friendly
cost/costly
week/weekly
love/lovely
-ous (quality, nature)
danger/dangerous
poison/poisonous
right/righteous
fame/famous
-y (like)
fun/funny
mess/messy
bone/boney
cloud/cloudy
What are some good examples of adjectives in sentences?
More Examples of Adjectives in Sentences
- The car is red.
- The man behind the counter is friendly.
- It was a small, black, European car.
- Yes, she seems nice.
- I bought them at the new plaza down the street.
- Yes, all the snakes are venomous.
- Did you have a good trip.
- It is likely to be clear and cool.
- Steve Jobs was a creative man.
- Yes, I have worked as an accountant for ten years.
