Adjectives

 

1      Adjectives

Adjectives are the words that describe nouns. Think about your favorite movie. How would you describe it to a friend who’s never seen it?

You might say the movie was funny, engaging, well-written, or suspenseful. When you’re describing the movie with these words, you’re using adjectives. An adjective can go right before the noun it’s describing (I have a black dog), but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes, adjectives are at the end of a sentence (my dog is black).

1.1.1.1   What is the Meaning of Adjective?

An adjective is a part of speech used in a sentence to define the qualities of a noun or an adjective. In a nutshell, you can depict an adjective as a describing word. There are different kinds of adjectives you will find in English grammar. These adjectives can define a person, place, animal, thing, event, action, etc. Now that you have understood what is the definition of an adjective, let us study the different kinds of adjectives used in English grammar.

1.1.2               Kinds of Adjectives

·        Descriptive Adjectives

This kind of adjective is used to define the features and quality of a noun. If you ask questions- ‘of what kind’, ‘of what nature’, etc, you will get the adjective as the answer.

The fluffy dog rolled on the green grass.

Kolkata is a big city.

‘Fluffy’ and ‘big’ are used as adjectives to define the dog and Kolkata respectively.

·        Quantitative Adjectives

Quantitative adjectives are used to define an amount or quantity of a noun. These adjectives can either define a particular amount or an estimation. For example- some, many, much, few, etc.

 

Let us find out what is meant by the adjective used in this case.

A.          Definitive Adjectives

As you can figure out from the name, these adjectives indicate a particular number of amount of a noun. 

For example:

I have two apples in my bag.

She has three pens.

B.   In-Definitive Adjectives

These adjectives fall in the quantitative section but are unable to define a proper amount or quantity of a noun. For example, few, much, many, some, etc.

Some of my friends were absent today.

A few of us fell sick on the way.

C.   Distributive Adjectives

These adjectives are used to define a specific number among a group. For example-

They have two apples each in their bags.

            Neither of you was able to answer.

·        Possessive Adjectives

These adjectives are used to declare possession or expressing ownership of a particular noun in a sentence.

My dog is very energetic.

His way of describing a fact is fun.

You can easily understand that these adjectives are the answer to the question of ‘Whose?’. The other examples of this kind are ours, mine, theirs, his, her, our, etc.

 

·        Demonstrative Adjectives

If you consider the literal meaning of this kind of adjective, you will find that they are used to answer the question ‘which?’.

Look at this girl singing!

Such rains cause floods in the cities.

This edition is the best in class.

 

·        Interrogative adjectives

These adjectives are used to ask a question and generally precede all the words.

What kind of cats do you like?

Which is your favourite player?

Not all interrogative adjectives ask a question. ‘What’ adjective can also be used in an exclamatory sentence.

What a beautiful flower!

This adjective is used to exclaim that the flower is beautiful.

Adjective	Comparative form	Superlative form
bad*	worse than	the worst
Beautiful	more beautiful than	the most beautiful
Big	bigger than	the biggest
Busy	busier than	the busiest
Cheap	cheaper than	the cheapest
clever*	cleverer than; more clever than	the most clever; the cleverest
Cold	colder than	the coldest
Crazy	crazier than	the craziest
dangerous	more dangerous than	the most dangerous
Difficult	more difficult than	the most difficult
Easy	easier than	the easiest
Elegant	more elegant than	the most elegant
expensive	more expensive than	the most expensive
Famous	more famous than	the most famous
far*	farther than (lugar); further than (lugar e tempo)	the farthest (lugar); the furthest (lugar e tempo)
Fast	faster than	the fastest
Fat	fatter than	the fattest
gentle*	gentler than; more gentle than	the gentlest; the most gentle
good*	better than	the best
happy	happier than	the happiest
High	higher than	the highest
humble	humbler than	the humblest
important	more important than	the most important
intelligent	more intelligent than	the most intelligent
interesting	more interesting than	the most interesting
Large	larger than	the largest
little*	less than	the least
Long	longer than	the longest
lovely*	lovelier than; more lovely than	the loveliest; the most lovely
Many	more than	the most
modern	more modern than	the most modern
much*	more than	the most
narrow	narrower than	the narrowest
New	newer than	the newest
Old	older than	the oldest
polite*	politer than; more polite than	the politest; the most polite
Poor	poorer than	the poorest
Sad	sadder than	the saddest
Short	shorter than	the shortest
simple	simpler than	the simplest
small	smaller than	the smallest
strong	stronger than	the strongest
sweet	sweeter than	the sweetest
Tall	taller than	the tallest
tangled	more tangled than	the most tangled
tender	tenderer than	the tenderest
Thin	thinner than	the thinnest
Tilted	more tilted than	the most tilted
Ugly	uglier than	the ugliest
valuable	more valuable than	the most valuable
Weak	weaker than	the weakest
well*	better than	the best
young	younger than	the youngest