Adjectives
Notes
Definition: An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can
be used to describe the qualities of someone or something independently or in comparison to
something else.
Examples:
● I like old houses.
● The boy is tall and skinny.
● Jane is smarter than her brother.
Examples: Attributive and predicative adjectives
The proud soldier is home.
The soldier is proud.
The dedicated employee starts early.
The employee is dedicated.
Note:
For example, the word “main” can only be used in the attributive position, while the word
“asleep” can only be used in the predicative position.
The main reason is that …
The reason is main.
The man is asleep.
The asleep man is …
Types of Adjectives
Limiting adjectives
Limiting adjectives are adjectives that restrict a noun or pronoun rather than describe any of its
characteristics or qualities. Limiting adjectives overlap with other types of adjectives such as
demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives. Limiting adjectives include words such as
these, your, and some.
Limiting adjective examples
● I bought some eggs at the store.
● She found three pennies under the couch cushions.
● Take a look at that house over there.
Descriptive adjectives
Descriptive adjectives are adjectives that describe the characteristics, traits, or qualities of a
noun or pronoun. Most adjectives are descriptive adjectives. Words such as purple, friendly, and
attractive are examples of descriptive adjectives.
Descriptive adjective examples
● A lot of interesting people visit this park.
● She told a scary story.
● The leaves turned orange and red.
1. Descriptive Adjectives/ Adjective of Quality
A descriptive adjective names a quality of the noun or pronoun that it modifies.
Example: brown dog bigger house fluffy cat
2. Adjective of Quantity
Adjective of quantity can be described as the adjective about the estimated or the actual quantity
of the noun that is being used in the sentence.
Notably, the Adjective of Quantity doesn’t make use of numbers but only just an estimated quantity
of the noun. It only tells us the ‘how much’ noun is present there and doesn’t depict the number of
the noun. We may use words like some, very, enough, so and most to describe the noun in terms of
the adjective of quantity.
Examples of adjectives of quantity include “many,” “few,” “some,” “several,” “plenty,” “adequate,”
“insufficient,” “scanty,” “little,” “much,” “most,” “all,” “enough,” “couple,” “handful,” “dozens,” “scores,”
“hundreds,” “thousands,” “millions,” and “billions.”
● All the cookies are gone.
● Any book will do.
● Both of my sisters are doctors.
● I have enough money to pay the rent.
● There are few people in the park today.
● I ate half of the pizza.
3. Proper Adjectives
A proper adjective is derived from a proper noun.
Example: French class Spanish food European car
4. Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives are used to express relative positions in space and time. The most
commonly used demonstrative adjectives are this, that, these, and those.
Example:
● that car this room the tree.
● This watch is cheaper than that one.
● This weekend is going to be really fun.
● Watch out for those prickly rose bushes next to you.
5. Interrogative Adjectives
An interrogative adjective is used to ask a question.
Example:
● Whose book is this?
● What color is your favorite?
● Which button turns off the lights?
● Whose turn is it to wash the cat?
6. Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives are joined together to modify the
same noun. These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or ambiguity. For example:
1. Diana submitted a 6-page document.
2. She adopted a two-year-old cat.
7. Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives are often used to express possession or ownership. The most commonly
used possessive adjectives are my, your, its, her, his, our, their, and whose.
Examples:
● My favorite food is pizza.
● Sydney spent the day with her parents.
● Canadians celebrated their team’s victory at the Olympics.
8. Distributive adjectives
Distributive adjectives are used to refer to members of a group individually. Examples of
distributive adjectives include each, every, either, and neither.
Distributive adjective examples
● Each puppy got their own little doghouse.
● Every member of the team scored a goal.
● I’ll be happy if either candidate wins the election.
9. Emphasizing Adjectives
An emphasizing adjective, also known as an intensifying adjective, is a type of adjective
that is used to add emphasis or intensify the meaning of a noun.
1. “The pizza is very hot.” – In this sentence, the emphasizing adjective “very” is used
to intensify the degree of heat in the pizza. It suggests that the pizza is hotter than usual.
2. “She is absolutely gorgeous.” – In this sentence, the emphasizing adjective
“absolutely” is used to intensify the degree of beauty of the person being described. It
suggests that the person is extremely attractive.
Degree of Comparison