Adjectives

What are Adjectives?

Adjectives are words which describe or modify nouns or pronouns. When someone praises or comments on any person or thing they use Adjectives.

They are hardworking. (describes pronoun 'They')
Shelly is evil. (describes noun 'Shelly')

How can we define Adjectives?

Adjectives are those describing words which give additional information about nouns by recognizing and quantifying them. The description given by adjectives helps to make nouns or pronouns more particular and interesting to readers and listeners.

Where are Adjectives used?

Adjectives can be used before nouns or after verbs.

I love your beautiful dress.
The Adjective beautiful is used before 'dress' which is a noun.
She is tall.
The Adjective tall is used after verb 'is'.

Example Usage of Adjectives

To understand Adjectives more clearly, read the given sentences and understand the use of Adjectives.

I have a beautiful doll which has red shoes. I have named her Emily. It is a cute doll. Emily has its own pretty small shoes.

Beautiful, red, cute, its, pretty, small are all adjectives as they describe the noun Emily i.e. noun.

How many types of Adjectives are there? What are they?

There are seven types of Adjectives. They are:

  1. Demonstrative Adjectives
  2. Distributive Adjectives
  3. Qualitative Adjectives
  4. Quantitative Adjectives
  5. Interrogative Adjectives
  6. Possessive Adjectives
  7. Numeral Adjectives

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative Adjectives are those Adjectives which refer to people or things near or far from the speaker in terms of distance and time. These Adjectives point out and modify nouns in order to let us know which nouns we are being referred to.

This, that, these, those  

Distributive Adjectives

Adjectives which are used to refer people or things individually among many are called Distributive Adjectives. Distributive Adjectives are always followed by a singular noun and a verb.

Each, every, neither, either, one etc.

Qualitative Adjectives

Qualitative Adjectives are those Adjectives which can describe quality of living beings or non-living things. Qualitative Adjectives answer the question, what kind?

Red, yellow, green, clean, dirty, sweet, sugary, fat, thin, short, tall

Quantitative Adjectives

Quantitative Adjectives are those Adjectives which describe the measurement i.e. count or amount of any living beings or non-living things are called Quantitative Adjectives. Quantitative Adjectives answer the questions, how much or how many?

Few, little, most, all, several etc.

Interrogative Adjectives

Interrogative Adjectives are words which qualify or modify nouns and indicate questions. Interrogative Adjectives help to seek answers to queries of people.

What, why, whose, where etc.

Possessive Adjectives

The words possess in Possessive means to indicate ownership, therefore Possessive Adjectives can be understood as those Adjectives which express ownership or possession.

My, his, her, your, their  etc.

Numeral Adjectives

Numeral Adjectives are those adjectives which are used to denote the number of nouns or the order in which they stand.

First, second, third, tenth, twelfth, last, all, some, few etc.