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Adjectives
The tall engineer.
The lugubrious master
a solid commitment
a month's pay
a six-year-old child
the unhappiest, richest officer
A huge vessel.

What is an adjective?
Adjectives are describing words. Large, grey and friendly are all
examples of adjectives. In the examples below, these adjectives are
used to describe an elephant.
Examples:
Large elephant
Grey elephant
Friendly elephant
Adjectives Modify Nouns
The word elephant is a noun. Adjectives are added to nouns to state
what kind, what colour, which one or how many. Adjectives are said to
modify nouns and are necessary to make the meanings of sentences
clearer or more exact.
Examples:
Follow the yellow cab.
(In this example, the adjective yellow modifies the noun cab.)
Craig caught another large bass.
(In this example, the adjective large modifies the noun bass.)

Teacher: Zaida Lucena Mrs. Tovar

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It is the girl with the pale face again.

The principal words should be in bold.
(Beware of the adjective principal - see right)
The rusty nail he stood on was the cause of the infection.
Please put the old documents in the shredder.
There is an essential matter we need to discuss.
Peter guessed the right number.

Adjectives Modify Pronouns

Although less common, adjectives can also modify pronouns.
Examples:
It is a blue one.
(In this example, the adjective blue modifies the pronoun one.)
Only a brave few have received a recommendation.
There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

Numeric: six, one hundred and one etc.

Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough etc.

Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc.

Possessive: my, his, their, your etc.

Interrogative: which, whose, what etc.

Demonstrative: this, that, those, these etc.

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!Note - The articles a, an, and the are a special kind of adjective called
articles, and the possessives my, our, your, and their are sometimes
known as possessive adjectives.
Colour
Adjectives can be used to describe colour.

blue, red, green, brown, yellow, black, white, etc.

For example:

"The blue bag." or "The blue bags".

Opinion
Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.

good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc.
For example:

He was a silly boy. / She was a silly girl.

Size
Adjectives can be used to describe size.

big, small, little, long, tall, short, same as, etc.

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For example:

"The big man." or "The big woman".

Age
Adjectives can be used to describe age.

For example:

"He was an old man." or "She was an old woman."

Shape
Adjectives can be used to describe shape.

round, circular, triangular, rectangular, square, oval, etc.

For example:

"It was a square box." or "They were square boxes."

Origin
Adjectives can be used to describe origin.

For example:

"It was a German flag." or "They were German flags."

Teacher: Zaida Lucena Mrs. Tovar

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Material
Adjectives can be used to identify the material something is made of.

"A wooden cupboard." or "Wooden cupboards."

!Note - In English we often change nouns into adjectives.

For example: glass - a glass vase / metal - a metal tray etc.
Distance
Adjectives can be used to describe distance.
l -- o -- n -- g

short

long, short, far, around, start, high, low, etc.

For example:

"She went for a long walk." or "They went for lots of long walks."

Temperature
Adjectives can be used to describe temperature.

cold, warm, hot, cool, etc.

For example:

"It was a hot day" or "We eat ice cream on hot days."

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Time
Adjectives can be used to describe time.

late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc.
For example:

"She had an early start."

Purpose
Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These adjectives often
end with "-ing".)
For example:

"She gave them a sleeping bag." or "She gave them sleeping bags."

!Note -

Have you noticed how the adjective stays the same, whether
it is describing a masculine, feminine, singular or plural noun? Nice huh?
When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives
may be separated by a conjunction (and) or by commas (,).
For example:

"Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair."

More examples:
Adjective Pretty
Example

Serious

Fast

She is a pretty He was a serious It could be a

girl.
boy.
fast car.

Quiet
They were quiet
children.

Teacher: Zaida Lucena Mrs. Tovar

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!Note - Adjectives that go immediately before the noun are called

attributive adjectives.
Adjectives can also be used after some verbs. They do not describe the
verb, adverbs do that.
Adjectives after a verb describe the subject of the verb (usually a noun
or pronoun).
For example:

"Lynne looks tired." The subject (in this case Lynne) is being described
as tired not the verb to look.

There is also the adjective used to, which is such a beast that it gets its
own section - Used To.

Adjective Order
Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size,
age, shape, colour, material, to more abstract things like opinion, origin
and purpose.
We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of
something.
Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it
can sometimes depend on what exactly you want to emphasise.
For example:
"That nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)
"That's a nice blue." (You like the colour.)

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When we group adjectives together there is a general

(sometimes flexible) rule for the position of each type
of adjective, these are:
Position

1st*

2nd*

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

Opinion

Size

Age

Shape

Colour

Material

Origin

Purpose

Nice

Small

Old

Square

Black

Plastic

British

Racing

Ugly

Big

New

Circular

Blue

Cotton

American

Running

You might swap adjectives that express an opinion and an adjective

based on fact depending on what you wish to emphasise:For example:

"She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.
"He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.

This is just for fun as you wouldn't normally see so many adjectives in
one description.
For example:

"She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, stripey, cotton, British, knitting
bag."

Comparative form of Adjectives

When we compare things, people or even ideas we look at what makes
them different from each other.
Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has
more or less than the other. They normally come before any other
adjectives.
!Tip - It's a good idea to learn opposites (antonyms) when learning
adjectives.
For example:

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Tall / Short

The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.
The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.

Superlative Adjectives
The superlative is used to say what thing, person, or idea has the most
of a particular quality within a group or of its kind.
Superlative adjectives normally come before any other adjectives.

Mount Snowdon is
3,559 feet high.

Ben Nevis is 4,408

feet high.

Snowdon is
not the
highest
mountain in
Britain, Ben
Nevis is.

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Possessive Adjectives
Possesive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.
Subject pronoun

Possessive adjective

my

you

your

he

his

she

her

it

its

we

our

they

their

For example:

I own a laptop. = It is my laptop.

You own this computer (I presume). = It is your computer.

My husband owns a car. = It is his car.

My sister owns a house. = It is her house.

My dog has a food bowl. = It is its food bowl.

We love this website. = It is our website.

Manchester United own a football ground. = It is their football ground.

Exercise: Fill in the words in brackets

1. Mandy is a _________girl. (pretty)
2. Max is a _________ singer. (good)
3. It's a _______________day today. (terrible)
4. He is a _____________ driver. (careful)
5. Kevin is _______________clever. (extreme)

Teacher: Zaida Lucena Mrs. Tovar