ADJECTIVES
An adjective describes or modifies
nouns and pronouns in a sentence. It normally indicates quality,
size, shape, duration, feelings,
contents, and more about a noun or pronoun.
Adjectives usually provide relevant
information about the nouns/pronouns they modify/describe by
answering the questions: What kind?
How many? Which one? How much?
EXAMPLES:
◦
The team has a dangerous batsman.
(What kind?)
◦
I have ten candies in my pocket. (How
many?)
◦
I loved that red car. (Which one?)
◦
I earn more money than he does. (How
much?)
However, there are also many
adjectives which do not fit into these questions. Adjectives are the most
used parts of speech in sentences.
There are several types of adjectives
according to their uses.
Descriptive Adjectives, Quantitative
Adjectives, Demonstrative Adjectives, Proper Adjectives, Possessive
Adjectives, Interrogative Adjectives,
Indefinite Adjectives, Articles and Compound Adjectives
1 DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES:
A descriptive adjective is a word
which describes nouns and pronouns. Most of the adjectives belong in
this type. These adjectives provide
information and attribute to the nouns/pronouns they modify or
describe.
Descriptive adjectives are also
called qualitative adjectives.
Participles are also included in this
type of adjective when they modify a noun.
EXAMPLES:
◦
I have a fast car. (The word ‘fast’
is describing an attribute of the car)
◦
I am hungry. (The word ‘hungry’ is
providing information about the subject)
◦
The hungry cats are crying.
◦
I saw a flying Eagle.
2 QUANTITATIVE ADJECTIVES:
A quantitative adjective provides
information about the quantity of the nouns/pronouns. This type
belongs to the question category of
‘how much’ and ‘how many’.
EXAMPLES:
◦
I have 20 bucks in my wallet. (How
much)
◦
They have three children. (How many)
◦
You should have completed the whole
task. (How much)
3 DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES:
A demonstrative adjective directly
refers to something or someone. Demonstrative adjectives include the
words: this, that, these, those.
A demonstrative pronoun works alone
and does not precede a noun, but a demonstrative adjective always
comes before the word it modifies.
EXAMPLES:
◦
That building is so gorgeously
decorated. (‘That’ refers to a singular noun far from the speaker)
◦
This car is mine. (‘This’ refers to a
singular noun close to the speaker)
◦
These cats are cute. (‘These’ refers
to a plural noun close to the speaker)
◦
Those flowers are heavenly. (‘Those’
refers to a plural noun far from the speaker)
4 PROPER ADJECTIVES:
Proper adjectives are the adjective
form of proper nouns. When proper nouns modify or describe other
nouns/pronouns, they become proper
adjectives.
‘Proper’ means ‘specific’ rather than
‘formal’ or ‘polite’.
A proper adjective allows us to
summarize a concept in just one word. Instead of writing/saying ‘a food
cooked in Chinese recipe’ you can
write/say ‘Chinese food’.
Proper adjectives are usually
capitalized as proper nouns are.
EXAMPLE:
◦
American cars are very strong.
◦
Chinese people are hard workers.
◦
I love KFC burgers.
◦
Marxist philosophers despise capitalism.
5 POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES:
A possessive adjective indicates
possession or ownership. It suggests the belongingness of something to
someone/something.
Some of the most used possessive
adjectives are my, his, her, our, their, your.
All these adjectives always come
before a noun. Unlike possessive pronouns, these words demand a noun
after them.
EXAMPLES:
◦
My car is parked outside.
◦
His cat is very cute.
◦
Our job is almost done.
◦
Her books are interesting.
6 INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVES:
An interrogative adjective asks a
question. An interrogative adjective must be followed by a noun or a
pronoun. The interrogative adjectives
are: which, what, whose. These words will not be considered as
adjectives if a noun does not follow
right after them. ‘Whose’ also belongs to the possessive adjective
type.
EXAMPLES:
◦
Which phone do you use?
◦
What game do you want to play?
◦
Whose car is this?
7 INDEFINITE ADJECTIVES:
An indefinite adjective describes or
modifies a noun unspecifically. They provide indefinite/unspecific
information about the noun. The
common indefinite adjectives are few, many, much, most, all, any, each,
every, either, nobody, several, some,
etc.
EXAMPLES:
◦
I gave some candy to her.
◦
I want a few moments alone.
◦
Several writers wrote about the
recent incidents.
◦
Each student will have to submit
homework tomorrow.
8 ARTICLES:
Articles also modify the nouns. So,
articles are also adjectives. Articles determine the specification of
nouns. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are used to refer
to an unspecific noun, and ‘the’ is used to refer to a specific noun.
EXAMPLES:
◦
A cat is always afraid of water.
(Here, the noun ‘cat’ refers to any cat, not specific.)
◦
The cat is afraid of me. (This cat is
a specific cat.)
◦
An electronic product should always
be handled with care.
9 COMPOUND ADJECTIVES:
When compound nouns/combined words
modify other nouns, they become a compound adjective. This
type of adjective usually combines
more than one word into a single lexical unit and modifies a noun. They
are often separated by a hyphen or
joined together by a quotation mark.
EXAMPLES:
◦
I have a broken-down sofa.
◦
I saw a six-foot-long snake.
◦
He gave me an “I’m gonna kill you
now” look.
THE DEGREE OF ADJECTIVES:
There are three degrees of
adjectives: Positive, comparative, superlative.
These degrees are applicable only for
the descriptive adjectives.
EXAMPLES:
Positive degree : He is a good boy.
Comparative degree: He is better than
any other boy.
Superlative : He is the best boy.