Adjectives

Describing Quality

Definition

• An adjective is a part of speech (word) that modifies (describes) a noun .it gives more information about the noun or a pronoun
• adjectives tell what kind, which one and how many

  Examples:

  
• In sentence a) silly word gives more information on Sam which is a noun hence silly is an adjective.
• similarly in b) and c ) the word beautiful describes Mary and huge describes mansion .

Adjectives can be divide in two main categories:

• Adjective of quality
• Adjective of number

1)Adjective of Quality

• Adjective of quality describes or give more information on the quality, kind or degree of the person or thing.
• They are also termed as Descriptive adjectives
• When we use more than one adjective before a noun we put adjectives in a specific order.
  1. Opinion- opinion means what are we thinking about something eg., attitude or behaviour.
  2. Size-size means how tall or short something is eg. large,big,small,tiny,huge etc.
  3. Age –age tells how old is he or she.eg old, young, new, antique.
  4. Shape/weight-tells us about the shape of a thing. weight tells the weight of something.
  5. Colour-colour tells us the approximate colour of something.eg, red, black, white etc.
  6. Origin- origin tells us where something is from.eg Italian, Spanish etc.
  7. Pattern-it tells us a design of something.eg., striped, checked etc.
  8. Material-it tells us what the thing is made up of? eg, silver, wooden, silk, paper etc.

Examples:

2)Adjective of Number

Adjective of number indicates how many person, things are meant and what order they stand.

Examples:

The adjective of number can be further categorised into definite and indefinite adjectives.

1. Definite numerals

   Definite numeral adjective states exact number or position of people or things.

   Examples:

   
2. Indefinite numerals

   Indefinite numerals adjective is an adjective to describe noun which is not specific. They do not state or mention exact number of things or people.

   Examples:

   

Common Mistakes

Words like some, little, enough, all, any, whole is used for uncountable nouns only.

Examples:

1. I drank a few milk.
2. I drank some milk.