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An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun. The Oxford Dictionary describes an adjective as a “word naming an attribute of a noun.” It describes the qualities of something or someone. Adjectives, when used in communication, provide specific information about people, places, things, and animals, that gives a reader or listener a clear understanding of what or who is being discussed.
Types Of Adjectives
There are eight types of adjectives in the English language, and we will be looking at them in this article. These include descriptive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, quantitative adjectives, possessive adjectives, interrogative adjectives, proper adjectives, exclamatory adjectives, and compound adjectives.
1. Descriptive Adjective
This type of adjective modifies a noun or pronoun by providing more details or information about the qualities of the noun or pronoun. Examples of descriptive adjectives include attractive, beautiful, handsome, ugly, tall, short, lazy, quiet, etc. Some of these descriptive adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- The handsome man goes to the pound every day.
- The lazy ant starved to death.
- The class remained quiet even after the Principal left.
2. Demonstrative Adjective
Demonstrative adjectives are adjectives that indicate or identify the relative position of the noun or pronoun they modify. Examples of demonstrative adjectives include that, this, those and these. These demonstrative adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- These are my classmates.
- This is my bag.
- Those are his suitcases.
- I love that.
3. Quantitative Adjective
These adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by pointing out the quantity or amount of the noun or pronoun in a sentence. Quantitative adjectives can be divided into three types: definite numerical, indefinite numerical and distributive numerical.
Definite numeral adjectives consist of ordinal and cardinal numbers which provide an exact number or amount, e.g. one, two, first, second, etc. Indefinite numeral adjectives provide non-specific numbers or amounts, e.g. several, many, few, little, some, etc. Distributive numeral adjectives describe members of a group individually rather than as a group, e.g. each, every, either, and neither. Some of these quantitative adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- Tola won first place in the competition.
- Two of the girls were missing.
- Many are called, and few are chosen.
- Each student was asked to write an article for the contest.
- Every house on the street was vandalised.
4. Possessive Adjective
These adjectives are placed before a noun or pronoun to indicate that it belongs to someone or something. Simply put, possessive adjectives indicate ownership or possession. Examples of possessive adjectives include my, your, his, her, our, their, and its. Some of these possessive adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- This is my husband
- Her clothes were stolen.
- The whole street celebrated the arrival of their
- The ant grasped his skin with its
- We have found our son, who was once lost.
5. Interrogative Adjective
These adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by asking a question. Examples of interrogative adjectives include what, which and whose. These interrogative adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- What holiday is being celebrated?
- Whose examination script was lost?
- Which book did you read last week?
6. Proper Adjective
Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. They describe nouns, i.e. people, animals, places and things. This includes words that signify nationality, language and ethnicity. These proper adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- He gave an assignment on the Shakespearean
- A lot of Nigerians have moved to the United Kingdom.
- Bola wrote an essay on the enslavement of Africans.
7. Exclamatory Adjective
These are adjectives that express strong feelings or emotions about the noun or pronoun being modified. Some exclamatory adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- How beautiful!
- That’s fantastic!
- What an amazing show!
- What a genius!
- How stunning!
8. Compound Adjective
This involves the combination of two or more words to modify a noun or pronoun. These words are often joined by hyphens (-). Examples of compound adjectives include cold-blooded, two-faced, kind-hearted, level-headed, middle-aged, ice-cold, sugar-free, hard-working, old-fashioned, well-behaved, high-quality, long-distance, absent-minded, etc. Some compound adjectives can be found in the following sentences:
- Joan was the most hard-working employee of the year.
- The Ahmeds are very well-behaved.
- Lara is old-fashioned.
- Their long-distance relationship barely lasted two months before they broke up.
- She sells high-quality
Degrees Of Adjectives.
Adjectives are classified into three degrees which include comparative, superlative and positive adjectives. Comparative adjectives compare the two objects that they modify and identify their differences. This involves adjectives like faster, smaller, taller, etc. Superlative adjectives describe objects that have the lowest or highest limit of their quality. This involves adjectives like the fastest, the tallest, the highest, etc. Positive adjectives are the basic forms of adjectives. This involves adjectives like tall, fast, small, etc.
One way of forming comparative and superlative adjectives is by adding -er to form comparative adjectives and by adding -est to form superlative adjectives. For example, adding -er to the adjective big would make it a comparative adjective bigger. Adding -est to big would make the superlative adjective bigger. It is important to note that to form comparative and superlative adjectives out of adjectives ending with ‘y’ requires you to put ‘i’ before adding -er or -est. For example:
POSITIVE |
COMPARATIVE |
SUPERLATIVE |
| Busy | Busier | Busiest |
| Happy | Happier | Happiest |
| Heavy | Heavier | Heaviest |
Another way of forming comparative and superlative adjectives is by putting more in front of adjectives to form the comparative and by putting most in front of adjectives to form the superlative. Let’s take a look at the example below:
POSITIVE |
COMPARATIVE |
SUPERLATIVE |
| Beautiful | More beautiful | Most beautiful |
| Important | More important | Most important. |
There are also irregular forms of comparative and superlative adjectives. One we would remember the most is one we often chanted as children. Good as the adjective, better as the comparative, and best as the superlative. You can find other examples below:
POSITIVE |
COMPARATIVE |
SUPERLATIVE |
| Little | Less | Least |
| Much | More | Most |
Order Of Adjectives
In the English language, there is an order to the usage of adjectives in a sentence. The order goes as follows: determinant, quantity, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material and the purpose of the noun. Examples include;
- I did not invite his disturbingly thin young daughter to the party.
In the sentence above, his serves as the determinant, disturbingly serves as opinion, thin serves as size, young serves as age, and daughter serves as the purpose.
- The two handsome, dark-skinned men were arrested for fighting on the rich man’s property.
In the sentence above, the is the determinant, two is the quantity, handsome is the opinion, dark-skinned is the colour, and men is the purpose.
- The package in the ominous-looking box turned out to be an old red glass cup.
‘An’ serves as the determinant, old as the age, red as the colour, glass as the material, and a cup as the purpose.
Conclusion
In essence, understanding the role of adjectives is very important in enhancing communication in writing and speech. I hope that this article was useful in helping you understand the basic concepts of adjectives. Ensure to visit our blog for other educational articles that would help to improve your communication and writing.
