Adjectives are an important part of speech that makes a sentence more specific and interesting by describing a noun.
There is no doubt that most of us have heard or used sentences like
Mr. Smith is a kind person.
Emma is a beautiful girl.
They have a big house.
It was a funny movie.
The words kind, beautiful, big, and funny are adjectives. In the above sentences, they describe the nouns person, girl, house, and movie.
Let’s understand more about adjectives and types of adjectives with examples.
Table of Contents
- What is an Adjective?
- Adjective Examples
- Types of Adjectives
- Types of Adjectives – Definitions and Examples
What is an Adjective?
An Adjective is a word that describes, modifies, or tells something about a noun. Examples of adjectives include nice, smart, wonderful, interesting, big, small, green, and red.
An adjective usually comes BEFORE a noun to modify the noun.
For example, She was wearing a green dress.
Here “green” is an adjective that came BEFORE the noun “dress” to describe it.
However, sometimes an adjective can modify a pronoun as well.
For example, I bought some new dresses yesterday. All of them are red.
Here “red” is an adjective that modifies or describes the pronoun “them”.
Adjective Examples
The highlighted words in the below sentences are Adjective Examples.
- This a fascinating book about history.
- We recently traveled to a hill station which was an amazing experience.
- She doesn’t like to wear sleeveless dresses.
- I have an incredible idea for a new business.
- These are fresh and lovely flowers.
Types of Adjectives
There are eight different types of adjectives in English grammar.
8 Types of adjectives are:
- Adjective of Quality
- Adjective of Quantity
- Adjective of Number
- Demonstrative Adjective
- Interrogative Adjective
- Possessive Adjective
- Distributive Adjective
- Proper Adjective
Types of Adjectives – Definitions and Examples
1. Adjective of Quality
A word that describes a noun’s quality, condition, or color is known as an adjective of quality.
Look at the below sentences:
Jack is a tall, healthy man.
Emily is a sweet girl.
She has brown, long hair.
The words tall, healthy, sweet, brown, and long are adjectives of quality.
Adjective of Quality Examples
Quality adjectives describe the shape, size, quality, state, color, etc., of a person or thing in a specific way.
Here are some examples of adjectives of quality
- Quality: interesting, amazing, difficult, true, false, etc.
- Color: black, blue, red, green, yellow, etc.
- Condition/state: happy, sad, strong, weak, old, healthy, fresh, etc.
- Size: tall, big, small, long, short, thin, thick, etc.
- Shape: square, round, flat, etc.
2. Adjective of Quantity
An adjective that indicates or conveys information about the quantity of a noun is called an adjective of quantity. Words such as some, all, much, more, enough, and little are examples of adjectives of quantity.
Adjective of Quantity Examples
- I need some information.
- They have enough food for the next two months.
- Do you have any idea about this problem?
- All students must submit their projects before Monday.
- He needs more money to continue his research.
3. Adjective of Number
Adjectives of Number are adjectives that give the sense of number or order in relation to a noun.
Adjective of Number Examples
An adjective of number comes before countable nouns such as book, prize, friend, person, etc.
Look at the below sentences:
I have two books in my bag.
Jack won the first prize in the contest.
She has many friends.
I know every person sitting in this room.
The highlighted words two, first, many, and every, in the above sentences provide a sense of number or order. These are called Adjectives of Number.
4. Demonstrative Adjectives
The demonstrative adjective indicates which person or thing is being referred to or meant. Demonstrative adjective examples are this, that, these, and those.
If you have studied pronouns, you probably already know that “this, that, these, and those” are also demonstrative pronouns. However, there is a difference between demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.
Look at the below sentences.
This girl is brilliant.
That boy is my nephew.
These clothes are dirty.
Tell those students to go home.
As you can see from these examples, this, that, these, and those point to nouns.
If there is a noun after this, that, these, and those in a sentence, they are called demonstrative adjectives.
Alternatively, if a noun does not appear immediately after this, that, these, and those, they are called demonstrative pronouns.
This is an exciting book.
These are my school friends.
Here, this and these are demonstrative pronouns because there is a verb (is/are) after them.
An easy way to identify Demonstrative Adjectives is:
This/that/these/those + NOUN = Demonstrative Adjective
5. Interrogative Adjectives
What, which, and whose are known as interrogative pronouns. When we use an interrogative pronoun right before a noun to ask a question, it is called an interrogative adjective.
Interrogative Adjective Examples
What options do I have now?
Which restaurant serves the best meal?
Whose shoes are these?
There is a noun in these questions, and before that, we have the words what, which, and whose. These question words serve as interrogative adjectives in these sentences.
In a question sentence, if there is no noun immediately after the words what, which, and whose, they are called interrogative pronouns.
Examples
What are the best career options?
Which is your favorite movie?
Whose are these books?
Here, what, which, and whose are all interrogative pronouns, as no noun follows them immediately in these sentences.
An easy way to identify Interrogative Adjectives is
What/which/whose + NOUN + …….? = Interrogative Adjective
6. Possessive Adjectives
As the name suggests, possessive adjectives are words used with a noun to indicate someone’s ownership or relationship with it. In other words, we use a possessive adjective to show that something belongs to someone.
Possessive adjective examples are my, your, our, his, her, its, and their.
My brother serves in the military.
Currently, she is staying with her uncle.
We are not planning on selling our house anytime soon.
He has a scar on his neck.
After walking for an hour, I could not feel my legs.
7. Distributive Adjectives
An adjective that refers to each person or thing in a group is called a distributive adjective. For example, neither computer in this lab is working.
This sentence uses the distributive adjective “neither,” which refers to or specifies each computer individually.
Distributive adjective examples are each, every, neither, and either.
Each person in this room is above 18 years.
Make sure every student has access to the library.
He leaves the office early every day.
8. Proper Adjectives
An adjective is called a proper adjective when it is formed from a proper noun.
Mr. William is an American citizen.
Tom holds a British passport.
Some Indian students attend this school.
American, British, and Indian are proper adjectives formed from the proper nouns America, Britain, and India.
Some Proper Adjective Examples are – French, English, Japanese, Pakistani, and African.
