Language

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Adjective:
Definition, Rules and Examples
English adjectives! What is an adjective? The adjective is an important part of a lot of
sentences and are used in all languages, but what is their importance in the English
language? In this article, we are going to be looking at what exactly an adjective is as well as
how it functions within a sentence.
Learn adjective definition and useful grammar rules in relation to English adjectives with
examples.
What Is Adjective?
What is an adjective? In the most simple terms, an adjective is a word used to describe a
noun. These words can add a more descriptive flavour to a sentence. For example, you
might say something along the line of the following in order to describe a tree, “It is a tree.”
If you were to add an adjective into the sentence, you would give a clearer picture of what
you were trying to describe, by saying something such as “It is a large tree.” or “It is a large,
leafy tree.” The words in bold are the adjectives and allow the listener to get a better
understanding of the object being talked about.
However, adjectives do not simply have to describe an object, they can also be used in order
to describe something that is not tangible. A good example of this is the use of adjectives to
talk about someone’s personality. You might say something along the lines of ” My father is
an intelligent man.”
Adjectives are a great way to appeal to the senses by describing visual aspects, taste, smell,
sound and emotional or non physical attributes.
In general, an adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun such as person, place,
thing or idea. Adjective is a part of speech which is common that people use it almost
automatically, both in speech and in writing.

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Adjective Examples
English Adjectives can be identified by their endings. Common adjective endings are as
follows:
 -able/-ible: credible, achievable, gullible, capable, illegible, sensible, remarkable,
horrible
 -al: annual, functional, individual, logical, essential
 -ful: awful, cheerful, doubtful, faithful, forceful
 -ic: terrific, cubic, manic, rustic
 -ive: intensive, adaptive, attractive, dismissive, inventive, persuasive
 -less: doubtless, endless, fearless, helpless, homeless, breathless, careless,
groundless, restless
 -ous: adventurous, famous, generous, courageous, dangerous, tremendous, fabulous
Though, a large number of adjectives are different…
 hot
 dark
 smart
 cool
 common
 complete
 large
 deep
 thin
 far
 attractive
 great
 doubtful
 cold
 crowded
 careless
 noisy
 quiet
 real
 pink
 silent
 simple
 strange
 generous
 wide
 young
 …

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Types of Adjectives
We are now going to look at the various different types of adjectives that can be used to
spice up your sentences. There are two main types of adjectives as shown below.
 Descriptive adjectives describe quality of the noun. In fact, descriptive
adjectives can be attributive adjectives or predicate adjectives.
 While, Limiting adjectives limit the noun being described. There are nine types of
limiting adjectives as follows:
 Definite & Indefinite Articles
 Possessive Adjectives
 Demonstrative Adjectives
 Indefinite Adjectives
 Interrogative Adjectives
 Cardinal Adjectives
 Ordinal Adjectives
 Proper Adjectives
 Nouns used as Adjectives

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PossessiveAdjectives
Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.
 Possessive adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, their. Possessive adjectives
occur before a noun (her hair) or a an adjective + noun (her new hair).
 Possessive adjectives have no singular or plural. They are used with both singular
and plural nouns (his ball, his balls).
Here is a list of subject pronouns and their possessive adjectives:
 I – my
 You – your
 He – his
 She – her
 It – its
 We – our
 They – their

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Demonstrative Adjectives
In English grammar, this, that, these, and those are demonstrative adjectives.
For example:
 This school is infinitely better than the last one I went to.
 I think that book is mine.
 These plants are particularly useful for brightening up shady areas.
 Let me give you a hand with those bags.

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Where To Place An Adjective In A Sentence
The Position of AdjectivesinaSentence
In order to ensure that you have a properly formed and grammatically correct sentence, it is
important to position the adjectives in the correct place. We are now going to take a look at
where the adjective should be placed within a sentence in order to make it sound as
authentic as possible.
An attribute adjective is placed before the noun it is modifying. Let’s take a look at some
examples of this.
 She is a pretty girl.
 This is my green dress.
 Today, we will have heavy rain.
 Ants have tiny legs.
 It is a hot day.
You can also have a predicative adjective which is placed after the noun which it is
modifying. Here are some examples to demonstrate this.
 This sandwich is tasty.
 The boy is tall.
 My cats eyes are yellow.
 The cake is not healthy.
 My daughter is beautiful.
There is also the opportunity to place an adjective after certain verbs in order to modify
them. This does not apply to all verbs, so let’s take a look at some examples verbs which can
be modified with an adjective. It is worth noting that when using an adjective to modify a
verb, the verb should come before the adjective, it will not sound correct if placed the other
way around. The following verbs can be modified with an adjective.
 appear
 become
 go
 get
 turn
 feel
 keep
Here are some examples of these verbs being modified with an adjective.
 I feel amazing after my spa day.
 He has become lazy having not had a job for weeks.
 The dog appears aggressive.

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You can also use an adjective after the verbs to smell, to taste, to sound and to look. Let’s
take a look at some examples of the adjective placement for these verbs.
 That pizza tastes fantastic.
 The music sounds good.
 It looks stunning.
 That smells awful.
AdjectivesWithout A Noun
It is possible to use an adjective as a standalone word without a noun. This can be seen in an
example such as the following. “He is rich” the adjective here is being used with the
pronoun he, however this can be used on its own as simply describing something as “rich.”
You might also use an adjective on it’s own in a sentence such as the following,
“The largest must go at the back.”
AdjectivesInPairs
You might wish to use more than one adjective in order to give you sentence a very
descriptive feel. For example, you might say “This is a large, red car.” or “I am a clever,
thoughtful person.”
Order of Adjectives
Learn rules and examples for the order of adjectives in English.
In general, the adjective order in English is:
 Determiner
 Observation (Opinion)
 Size and Shape
 Age
 Color
 Origin
 Material
 Qualifier (Purpose)

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Comparison of Adjectives
There are three forms of comparison of adjectives in English
 Positive: it is an ordinary form of adjectives
A positive adjective is used to describe something without making any sort of comparison to
anything else. For example, as seen in the sentence “I am kind.” or “This is a great movie.”
 Comparative: shows when two persons or objects being compared
A comparative adjective is used in order to compare two things, it is quite often followed by
the word than, you can see this is the following examples. “I am nicer than him.” or “This
movie is better than the first one.”
 Superlative: indicates that the quality or quantity is at its highest or is most intense
A superlative adjective is used as a way of comparing more than two things and as a way to
say that the thing you are talking about is the ‘most’, you might notice this in the following
examples. “I am the nicest of all the students.” or “This is the best movie out of the entire
series.”

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Comparatives
Comparatives are used to compare and clarify the difference between two nouns. In other
words, comparatives are used when two persons or objects being compared.

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Superlatives
When an adjective compares three or more things, the superlative form of the adjective is
used. Superlatives indicate that the quality or quantity is at its highest or is most intense.

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Compound Adjectives
Compound adjectives are adjectives that are made up of two or more words usually
with hyphens (-) between them.
Generally, compound adjectives can be formed as follows:
 Adjective + Past participle
 Adverb + Past Participle
 Noun + Past Participle
 Noun + Present Participle
 Adjective + Present Participle
 Adverb + Present Participle
 Noun + Adjective
 Adjective + Noun
 Noun + Noun
 Adjective + Adjective

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AdjectivesEnding in -ED and -ING
Some adjectives, known as participles will end in the letters -ing or -ed. These are placed
before a noun, as you can see in the following sentence “I saw an interesting documentary
last night.” However, they are always placed before a verb, like in the following example, “I
am not excited about the party.”
Learn the difference between Adjectives Ending in -ED and -ING with useful rules and
examples.
List of Adjectives Ending in -ED and -ING
 Amazing – Amazed
 Amusing – Amused
 Annoying – Annoyed
 Boring – Bored
 Challenging – Challenged
 Charming – Charmed
 Confusing – Confused
 Convincing – Convinced
 Depressing – Depressed
 Disappointing – Disappointed
 Disgusting – Disgusted
 Disturbing – Disturbed
 Embarrassing – Embarrassed
 Entertaining – Entertained
 Exciting – Excited
 Exhausting – Exhausted
 Depressing – Depressed
 Disappointing – Disappointed
 Fascinating – Fascinated
 Frightening – Frightened
 Frustrating – Frustrated
 Inspiring – Inspired
 Interesting – Interested
 Pleasing – Pleased
 Relaxing – Relaxed
 Relieving – Relieved
 Satisfying – Satisfied
 Shocking – Shocked
 Surprising – Surprised
 Terrifying – Terrified
 Threatening – Threatened
 Thrilling – Thrilled
 Tiring – Tired
 Touching – Touched
 Worrying – Worried

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Adjective Suffixes
Learn Common Adjective Suffixes in English.
Common Adjective Suffixes inEnglish
 -al, -ial, -ical
 -able, -ible
 -an, -ian
 -ary
 -full
 -ic
 -ive
 -ish
 -less
 -like
 -y
 -ous, -ose
 -ant, -ent
 -ile

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Adjectives To Describe Anything!
You can literally use an adjective to describe a whole wealth of things from how something
appears to what it smells like or its size. We are now going to look at a few examples of
adjectives to describe different things.
Taste
 Delicious
 Bland
 Bitter
 Sweet
 Tasty
Touch
 Soft
 Windy
 Oily
 Smooth
 Cold
Sound
 Noisy
 Whispering
 Shrill
 Silent
 Hissing
Size
 Gigantic
 Huge
 Minute
 Tiny
 Wee
Shape
 Narrow
 Hollow
 Straight
 Rotund
 Crooked
Time
 Late
 Old
 Slow
 Speedy
 Daily
Amount
 Lots
 Many
 Ample

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 Sparse
 Enough
Emotion
 Excited
 Amused
 Kind
 Grumpy
 Boring
Personality
 Generous
 Happy
 Smart
 Sassy
 Jaunty
Appearance
 Attractive
 Fat
 Spotless
 Confident
 Plain
Situation
 Nasty
 Aromatic
 Illegal
 Rainy
 Worse
Conclusion
Adjectives can be used in many ways and help the speaker or writer to better describe
something, giving the audience a clearer picture about what is being discussed. Adjectives
can come in various forms and depending on their form and what type of word they are
modifying, will depend on where they are placed within a sentence.
Adapted from https://7esl.com/adjectives/