Types Of Adjectives For Students

Beautiful, pretty, bold, fierce, majestic, many, few, small, blue, much, green, tall, cute, red, smart, two, any-and the list just goes on. These words might look random but they are all describing words, aka adjectives. Adjectives cannot stand on their own as they are supposed to describe nouns or pronoun and modify them. Adjectives are used to bring colour to your sentence by making the noun look something special and the sentence sound more complete. The many types of adjectives make it even more convenient to know where which type of adjective is to be used. The types of adjectives available for use are governed by a number of rules. And it is these rules that need to be understood in order to be able to use these parts of speech to your advantage. For better understanding, know and learn all the kinds of adjectives and the ways in which each type can be used to describe words and / or phrases.

Kinds of Adjectives

• Descriptive Adjectives or adjective of quality
• Adjective of quantity
• Predicative Adjectives
• Personal Titles
• Possessive Adjectives
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Indefinite Adjectives
• Interrogative adjectives
• Comparative Adjectives
• Superlative Adjectives

Descriptive Adjectives Or Adjective Of Quality 

Descriptive adjectives are those adjectives which describe nouns or the noun phrases. For example: ‘A beautiful day’. In this case, ‘beautiful’ is the adjective which qualifies or describes the noun ‘day’. Descriptive adjectives have several forms as discussed below.

• Colors as adjectives: Black, Blue, White, Green, etc.
• Touch as adjective: Slippery, Sticky, etc.
• Feelings as adjectives: Happy, Sad, Angry, etc.
• Sizes as adjectives: Big, Small, Thin, Thick, etc.
• Origin as adjectives: European, Latin, Greek, etc.
• Shapes as adjectives: Triangular, Rectangular, Square, Circular, etc.
• Qualities as adjectives: Good, Bad, Average, etc.
• Time as adjective: Yearly, Monthly, etc.
• Age as adjectives: Young, Ancient, Old, etc.
• Material as adjectives: Wood, Cotton, Gold, etc.
• Opinions as adjectives: Pretty, hot, expensive, etc.

Adjective Of Quantity Or Numeric Adjective

Adjective of quantity talks about the quantity of the noun being talked about and provides answer to the question of ‘how much’. It shows the quantity or the numbers present in the sentence. For example: ‘there were three boys playing in the ground’. Here the word ‘three’ signifies the quantity or the number of boys playing. Other examples are:

• He has little intelligence.
• Sunday is the first day of the week.

Predicative Adjectives

Predicative adjectives are those which follow a linking verb and not placed before a noun. Predicative adjective does not act as a part of the noun it modifies but serves as a complement of a linking verb which connects it to the noun of the sentence. Take for instance ‘The bag is heavy’. Here the predicative adjective ‘heavy’ is associated with the verb ‘is’ and links to the noun ‘bag’. Other examples are:

• The weather will be cool and dry.
• That child is young.

Personal Titles

Personal titles are adjectives where the titles such as, Mr., Master, Miss, Mrs., Uncle, Auntie, Lord, Dr, Prof. and so on, are used as adjectives to describe the position of the noun. These titles could be placed in the front or even at the end. For example:

• The day after tomorrow, you can visit Auntie Pauline and Uncle John.
• The classes on Monday will be presented by Dr. Mary and Prof. Kate.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjective is used where the sentence shows possession or belongingness. They are similar to possessive pronouns and, in this case, are used as adjectives which modify a noun or a noun phrase. Here words such as, our, my, your, his, her, it’s and their/s, are used. For example:

• Have you seen their house?
• This is his room.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives are used when there is a need to point specific things. The adjectives function as a way to demonstrate something and are similar to demonstrative pronouns. Here words such as this, that, these, those and what are used. Take, for instance, the sentence: ‘If I hear that sound again, I will call the Police’. Here ‘that’ refers to a specific sound. Other examples are as follows:

• Whose is this bag?
• These mangoes are sour.

Indefinite Adjectives

Indefinite adjectives are used when the sentence has nothing to point out or specify. These adjectives are formed from indefinite pronouns and do not indicate anything in particular. It uses words such as, any, many, few and several, etc. Here is an example explained in detail: ‘The chief has heard many people make the same promise’. The word ‘Many’ is an indefinite adjective which does not specify the quantity of people and modifies the noun ‘people’ without pointing out exactly who all have made the said same promise. Other examples:

• Many children like dinosaurs.
• Is there any water in the bottle?

Interrogative Adjectives

An Interrogative adjective modifies a noun or a noun phrase and is similar to the interrogative pronoun. It does not stand on its own and includes words such as, which, what, who, whose, whom, where and so on. For example: ‘What dress are you wearing?’ Here, ‘what’ modifies the noun ‘dress’ and is the object of the compound verb ‘are wearing’. Other examples:

• Which leaves turn color first?
• Whose son is he?

Comparative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are those which imply increase or decrease of the quality or quantity of the nouns. It is used to compare two things in a clause. Adjectives are generally made comparative by adding ‘er’ to the original work like nicer, taller, smarter, etc; there are some exceptions also. Other examples are:

• The detective is younger than the thief
• Science is more important than math in these days.
• This school is better than the last one I attended.

Superlative Adjectives 

Superlative adjectives express the greatest increase or decrease of the quality; it conveys the supreme value of the noun in question. For instance, ‘He is the richest man in this town’. Here, the word ‘richest’ is the superlative adjective which shows a comparison individually.

• Mary is the tallest of all the students.
• I am in the smallest class in the school.
• This is the most interesting subject for me.

It is not difficult to describe anything in this world. Even a lizard can be called pretty by someone and ugly by another; adjectives fall into place right here. The type of description required in the specific sentences is something which should be given utmost attention to and the right kind of adjective must be duly selected. These are the simplest parts of speech ever!