An adjective describes or
modifies noun/s and pronoun/s in a sentence. It normally indicates
quality, size, shape, duration, feelings, contents, and more about a noun or
pronoun.
Adjectives usually provide relevant
information about the nouns/pronouns they modify/describe by answering the
questions: What kind? How many? Which one? How much? Adjectives enrich
your writing by adding precision and originality to it.
Example:
The team has a dangerous batsman.
(What kind?)
I have ten candies in my
pocket. (How many?)
I loved that red car.
(Which one?)
I earn more money than he
does. (How much?)
Examples of Adjectives as a Part of
Speech
Definition: “An adjective is a word used to
qualify a noun or a pronoun.”
Every word that modifies a noun is an
adjective. Adjectives make changes in our perception of the nouns.
Examples:
Ramon has always been a Marxist.
I don’t believe in platonic love.
Jocasta was a Serbian player.
Japanese products are reliable.
If you do not understand the Kantian ethics,
you can come to me.
I have a grammar book on my
desk.
We used to have an old car.
He brought an expensive mirror
for me.
She gave me some gorgeous
red roses.
He wanted to buy a diamond ring.
These mangoes are not edible anymore.
He can’t forget that incident.
My computer became slow.
Our father asked us to be
together always.
Your bike has been stolen from
here.
Alex bought an exquisite diamond ring.
However, there are also many
adjectives which do not fit into these questions. Adjectives are the most used
parts of speech in sentences. There are several types of adjectives according
to their uses.
Descriptive Adjectives:
A descriptive
adjective is a word which describes nouns and pronouns. Most of the
adjectives belong in this type. These adjectives provide information and
attribute to the nouns/pronouns they modify or describe. Descriptive adjectives
are also called qualitative adjectives.
Participles are also included in this type of
adjective when they modify a noun.
Examples:
I have a fast car.
(The word ‘fast’ is describing an attribute of the car)
I am hungry.
(The word ‘hungry’ is providing information about the subject)
The hungry cats
are crying.
I saw a flying Eagle.
EXAMPLES OF DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE
Definition of Descriptive Adjectives:
A word that describes a noun/pronoun
is called a descriptive adjective. It bestows a quality/feature to the noun.
EXAMPLES OF DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE IN
SENTENCES:
Alex is a nice person.
He is a cricketer.
I bought a genuine product.
I am a self-reliant man.
He has a beautiful niece.
She is a clever girl.
Give me that red big grammar book.
I have an old touring car.
He bought an expensive old
silver mirror.
He gave me four gorgeous yellow roses.
I want to buy a diamond ring.
She loves golden jars.
I want to throw a surprise party
for her.
Give me that big brown pad.
We ate some delicious food.
He plays with an enormous bat.
Robin is a hard-working person.
Shaun is an exciting cricketer.
Watson is a dashing all-rounder.
We caught a running kangaroo.
Don’t eat in that broken plate.
Quantitative Adjectives:
A quantitative
adjective provides information about the quantity of the
nouns/pronouns. This type belongs to the question category of ‘how much’ and
‘how many’.
Examples:
I have 20 bucks
in my wallet. (How much)
They have three children. (How many)
You should have completed the whole task. (How much)
EXAMPLES OF QUANTITATIVE ADJECTIVE
Definition of Quantitative Adjective:
A word that modifies a noun by
indicating a number/quantity is called a quantitative adjective. It can be
either cardinal or ordinal number.
EXAMPLES OF QUANTITATIVE ADJECTIVE IN
SENTENCES:
He has 40 horses.
I have been standing here for three hours.
Four girls were expelled from
the school.
The first boy failed in the
last exam.
Not a single boy is in the
classroom.
The Second World War still
haunts some people.
There are 50 boys and 26 girls
on this tour.
The forest has 2120 animals.
The fourth boy became first
in the final exam.
He is doing it for 66th times
now.
He ate half of my burger.
Albert roasted some chicken
for his teammates.
Ron has many pens in his
large bag.
John completed the whole task.
There is enough juice for
my breakfast.
Little water is needed to make
that pastry.
I do not have any chocolates
in my bag.
I have sufficient money for
shopping.
Most people are poor in this
world.
A Few people are rich and they
hold most of the wealth.
Proper Adjectives:
Proper
adjectives are
the adjective form of proper nouns. When proper nouns modify or describe
other nouns/pronouns, they become proper adjectives. ‘Proper’ means ‘specific’
rather than ‘formal’ or ‘polite.’
A proper
adjective allows us to summarize a concept in just one word. Instead of
writing/saying ‘a food cooked in Chinese recipe’ you can write/say ‘Chinese
food’.
Proper
adjectives are usually capitalized as proper nouns are.
Example:
American cars
are very strong.
Chinese people
are hard workers.
I love KFC burgers.
Marxist philosophers
despise capitalism.
EXAMPLES OF PROPER ADJECTIVES
Definition of Proper Adjectives:
Adjectives that come from the proper
nouns are called proper adjectives.
Examples of Proper Adjectives:
Alex is an Australian player.
Robin is an Indian player.
Sushi is an Asian player.
I love Chinese food.
My brother likes Italian cuisine.
Shakespearean sonnets are easy
to comprehend.
Petrarchan sonnets are more
complex.
He has always been a Marxist.
There is nothing called platonic love.
He was a Serbian baseball
player.
Japanese cars are wonderful.
I did not understand the Kantian ethics.
He uses a Kentuckian rifle.
All the African people are
not black.
Texan English is different from
conventional English.
Mexican cuisine is an incredible
dish.
Demonstrative Adjectives:
A demonstrative
adjective directly refers to something or someone. Demonstrative
adjectives include the words: this, that, these, those.
A demonstrative
pronoun works alone and does not precede a noun, but a demonstrative
adjective always comes before the word it modifies.
Examples:
That building
is so gorgeously decorated. (‘That’ refers to a singular noun far from the
speaker)
This car
is mine. (‘This’ refers to a singular noun close to the speaker)
These cats
are cute. (‘These’ refers to a plural noun close to the speaker)
Those flowers
are heavenly. (‘Those’ refers to a plural noun far from the speaker)
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE
Definition of Demonstrative
Adjectives:
A word that directly indicates a
person/thing or few people and few things. The demonstrative words are that,
those, this, and these.
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES
IN SENTENCES:
Give me that blue water
bottle.
This time I won’t fail you.
I want those gorgeous
marbles.
I wanted to propose you that day.
These mangoes are rotting.
I can’t forget that incident.
Those people were mean to her.
I cannot give you money at this moment.
I could not manage it at that moment.
Those rascals are back in the town.
This pen is smoother than that pen.
Will you please grant me that loan
we talked about?
That building is stronger than
this hut.
But this hut is more
beautiful than that building.
Possessive Adjectives:
A possessive
adjective indicates possession or ownership. It suggests the
belongingness of something to someone/something.
Some of the
most used possessive adjectives are my, his, her, our, their,
your.
All these
adjectives always come before a noun. Unlike possessive pronouns, these words demand a
noun after them.
Examples:
My car
is parked outside.
His cat
is very cute.
Our job
is almost done.
Her books
are interesting.
EXAMPLES OF POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE
Definition of Possessive Adjective:
A word that indicates the possession
of the noun to a person/a few people. The possessive adjectives are my,
our, your, his, their, her, and its.
Examples of Possessive Adjective:
My computer is not working as
fast as it worked in the beginning.
Our father told us not to
quarrel with anyone.
Your cycle has been stolen
yesterday.
Your child is not doing well in
the school.
We are concerned about his performance.
The students of class seven
submitted their assignment.
I could not understand her intentions.
Her thoughts are too complex.
My mind stops working when I
think about that.
Stop messing with my hair.
I cannot believe that you broke my glasses.
I don’t want to see his shadow
again.
She made her life miserable
by pessimism.
Their favorite teacher did not
come yesterday.
Will you mind opening my drawer
and look into it?
I walked for 4 hours and now I cannot
feel my legs.
She could not identify his motives.
Interrogative Adjectives:
An interrogative
adjective asks a question. An interrogative adjective must be followed
by a noun or a pronoun. The interrogative adjectives are: which, what,
whose. These words will not be considered as adjectives if a noun does
not follow right after them. ‘Whose’ also belongs to the possessive
adjective type.
Examples:
Which phone
do you use?
What game
do you want to play?
Whose car
is this?
EXAMPLES OF INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVE
Definition of Interrogative
Adjective:
A word that modifies a noun by asking
a question is called interrogative adjectives.
EXAMPLES OF INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVE
IN SENTENCES:
Whose book was that?
Which pen do you like more?
What books are you buying today?
Which book on proofreading do
you recommend?
Which team scored the higher in
the last match?
Which player did get a fifty
yesterday?
What recipe did you choose to
make this dish?
Which bat is Watson’s?
Which song is Zara listening to?
What product did you order from
there?
Which topics are more important
for the discussion?
Whose pants did you wear?
Whose phone did you use when you
talked to me?
Indefinite Adjectives:
An indefinite
adjective describes or modifies a noun unspecifically. They provide
indefinite/unspecific information about the noun. The common indefinite
adjectives are few, many, much, most, all, any, each, every, either,
nobody, several, some, etc.
Examples:
I gave some candy
to her.
I want a
few moments alone.
Several writers
wrote about the recent incidents.
Each student
will have to submit homework tomorrow.
Articles:
Articles also modify the nouns. So,
articles are also adjectives. Articles determine the specification of nouns.
‘A’ and ‘an’ are used to refer to an unspecific noun, and ‘the’ is used to
refer to a specific noun.
Examples:
A cat
is always afraid of water. (Here, the noun ‘cat’ refers to any cat, not
specific.)
The cat
is afraid of me. (This cat is a specific cat.)
An electronic product
should always be handled with care.
Compound Adjectives:
When compound
nouns/combined words modify other nouns, they become a compound adjective. This
type of adjective usually combines more than one word into a single lexical
unit and modifies a noun. They are often separated by a hyphen or joined
together by a quotation mark.
Example:
I have a broken-down sofa.
I saw a six-foot-long snake.
He gave me an “I’m
gonna kill you now.” Look.
The Degree of Adjectives:
There are
three degrees of adjectives: Positive, comparative, superlative.
These degrees
are applicable only for the descriptive adjectives.
Examples:
Positive
degree: He is a good boy.
Comparative
degree: He is better than any other boy.
Superlative: He is the best boy.
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