What is an adjective?
Quick answer
An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, telling you what kind, which one or how many. In “a tall, old tree,” tall and old are adjectives describing tree.
Questions adjectives answer
| Question | Examples |
|---|---|
| What kind? | soft blanket, funny movie |
| Which one? | this book, the last train |
| How many or how much? | three cats, several ideas, no time |
| Whose? | my phone, their house |
Comparing with adjectives
Adjectives change form to compare things:
| Base | Comparative (two things) | Superlative (three or more) |
|---|---|---|
| tall | taller | tallest |
| happy | happier | happiest |
| beautiful | more beautiful | most beautiful |
| good | better | best |
| bad | worse | worst |
Short adjectives usually add -er and -est; longer ones use more and most.
The order of adjectives
When you stack several adjectives, English speakers follow an order most never consciously learned:
- Opinion (lovely, ugly)
- Size (big, tiny)
- Age (old, new)
- Shape (round, square)
- Color (blue, green)
- Origin (Italian, Japanese)
- Material (wooden, metal)
- Purpose (sleeping bag, running shoes)
That’s why “a beautiful big old house” sounds natural, but “an old big beautiful house” sounds odd.
Adjective or adverb?
Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs, and often end in -ly:
- She’s a quick runner. (adjective, describes runner)
- She runs quickly. (adverb, describes runs)
Adjectives make descriptions vivid, and so do figures of speech. Here’s what a metaphor is. For the action words in a sentence, see what a verb is.
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