Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. There are different types of adjectives including descriptive, limiting, and predicate adjectives. Adjectives typically come before the nouns they modify and follow a general order based on their meaning or function. They also have comparative and superlative forms to indicate degree of comparison between people or things.

3. Adjectives
Adjectives are words that
describe or modify another
person or thing in the sentence.
The Articles — a, an, and the
— are adjectives.

4. Examples:
1. The tall professor.
2. The lugubrious lieutenant.
3. A solid commitment.
4. A month's pay.
5. A six-year-old child.
6. The unhappiest, richest man.

5. Type of Adjectives
– Possessive Adjectives
– Demonstrative Adjectives
– Interrogative Adjectives
– Indefinite Adjectives
• Descriptive Adjectives
• Limiting Adjectives
• Predicate Adjectives

6. DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE:
• These types of adjectives add detail or
description to the noun.
Example:
1. Monica said, "Wow, this is a great game
2. A worthwhile rivalry had been born.

7. LIMITING ADJECTIVE:
• These types of adjectives specify or limit the
noun.
Examples:
1. The two teams have met every season since
1932.
2. Will you be sitting at the captain's table this
evening?

8. PREDICATE ADJECTIVE
• This is a special type of adjective that follows
a linking verb and modifies (directly refers to)
the subject of the sentence.
Examples:
1. People are interested in this game.
2. Sheena is beautiful.

9. Adjective Clause
If a group of words containing a
subject and verb acts as an
adjective, it is called an
Adjective Clause. My sister,
who is much older than I am,
is an engineer.

10. Adjective Phrase
If an adjective clause is stripped
of its subject and verb, the
resulting modifier becomes an
Adjective Phrase: He is the
man who is keeping my family
in the poorhouse.

11. Position of Adjective
Adjectives appear immediately before
the noun or noun phrase that they
modify. Sometimes they appear in a
string of adjectives, and when they
do, they appear in a set order
according to category.

12. Position of Adjective
When indefinite pronouns — such
as something, someone,
anybody — are modified by an
adjective, the adjective comes
after the pronoun.

13. Example:
1. Anyone capable of doing
something horrible to
someone nice should be
punished.
2. Something wicked this way
comes.

14. Degrees of Comparison
Positive
Comparative
Superlative

15. Comparative
Used in comparing two
persons or things.

16. Superlative
Used in comparing three or
more persons or things.

17. Take Note!
The word than frequently
accompanies the
comparative.
The word the precedes the
superlative.

18. Take Note!
The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice
to form most comparatives and
superlatives, although we need -ier and
-iest when a two-syllable adjective ends
in y (happier and happiest); otherwise
we use more and most when an
adjective has more than one syllable.

19. Examples
Positive Comparative Superlative
rich richer richest
lovely lovelier loveliest
beautiful more beautiful most beautiful

20. Take Note!Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees.
Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms
good better best
bad worse worst
little less least
much
many
some
more most
far further furthest

21. Order of Adjectives
• Determiners — articles and other limiters. See Determiners
• Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a
perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful,
interesting)
• Size and Shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy,
large, round)
• Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)
• Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale)
• Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American,
Canadian)
• Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g.,
woolen, metallic, wooden)
• Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair,
hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)

22. Order of Adjectives
Determiner
Observatio
n
Physical Description Origin Material Qualifier Noun
Size Shape Age Color
five huge young black
Canadia
n
bears
battered old
shapeles
s
gray cotton work pants
many
magnific
ent
antique British
referenc
e
books
one studious
teenage
d
America
n
boy
few shiny round blue Indian gems

23. five huge young black
Canadia
n
bears
battered old
shapeles
s
gray cotton work pants
many
magnific
ent
antique British
referenc
e
books
one studious
teenage
d
America
n
boy
few shiny round blue Indian gems
many
well-
made
tiny
elongate
d
brown wooden fishing boats
several cheap large purple
polyeste
r
sleeping bags

24. A-Adjectives
The most common of the so-called a-
adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast,
alert, alike, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed,
asleep, averse, awake, aware. These
adjectives will primarily show up as predicate
adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking
verb).
– The children were ashamed.
– The professor remained aloof.
– The trees were ablaze.

25. A-Adjectives
Occasionally, however, you will find a-
adjectives before the word they modify: the
alert patient, the aloof physician. Most of
them, when found before the word they
modify, are themselves modified: the nearly
awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And
a- adjectives are sometimes modified by "very
much": very much afraid, very much alone,
very much ashamed, etc.

27. And he hastened straight down, running over the wet, sodden
fields, pushing through the hedges, down into the
depression of callous, wintry obscurity. It took him several
minutes to come to the pond. He stood on the bank,
breathing heavily. He could see nothing. His eyes seemed to
penetrate the dead water. Yes, perhaps that was the dark
shadow of her black clothing beneath the surface of the
water.
He slowly ventured into the pond. The bottom was deep, soft
clay, then he sank in, and the water clasped . . . his legs. As
he stirred he could smell the cold, rotten clay that fouled up
into the water. It was objectionable in his lungs. Still,
repelled and yet not heeding, he moved deeper into the
pond. The cold water rose over his thighs, over his loins,
upon his abdomen. The lower part of his body was all sunk
in the hideous cold element. And the bottom was so deeply
soft and uncertain, he was afraid of pitching with his mouth
underneath. He could not swim, and was afraid.

28. And he hastened straight down, running over the wet,
sodden fields, pushing through the hedges, down into the
depression of callous, wintry obscurity. It took him
several minutes to come to the pond. He stood on the
bank, breathing heavily. He could see nothing. His eyes
seemed to penetrate the dead water. Yes, perhaps that
was the dark shadow of her black clothing beneath the
surface of the water.
He slowly ventured into the pond. The bottom was deep, soft
clay, then he sank in, and the water clasped . . . his legs. As
he stirred he could smell the cold, rotten clay that fouled
up into the water. It was objectionable in his lungs. Still,
repelled and yet not heeding, he moved deeper into the
pond. The cold water rose over his thighs, over his loins,
upon his abdomen. The lower part of his body was all sunk
in the hideous cold element. And the bottom was so
deeply soft and uncertain, he was afraid of pitching with
his mouth underneath. He could not swim, and was afraid.