English
What is an adjective?
Quick answer
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, telling you what kind, which one or how many, like a huge elephant, a sour lemon or three red balloons.
In one sentence
An adjective is a describing word that gives more information about a noun.
Explained
Compare a cat with a scruffy ginger cat. The adjectives scruffy and ginger help you picture exactly which cat. Adjectives answer questions like what kind? (a sticky bun), which one? (the blue door) and how many? (five ducks).
Adjectives can sit in two places. Most often they go before the noun: a cold drink. They can also come after a verb such as be, seem or look: The drink is cold. You look tired.
Many adjectives can compare things:
- add -er and -est to short words: tall, taller, tallest
- use more and most with longer words: beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
- learn the irregular ones: good, better, best; bad, worse, worst
When you use several adjectives together, English has a natural order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. That is why a lovely little old wooden box sounds right and a wooden old little lovely box sounds odd. Native speakers rarely know the rule, but they hear it.
Good writers choose adjectives carefully rather than piling them up. The enormous elephant is stronger than the very big large elephant. Sometimes a precise noun or verb does the job better still, and figurative language like similes can describe more vividly than a list.
elephant
mouse
lemon
Examples
- The tired runner drank cold water.
- We saw three spotted giraffes.
- This puzzle is harder than the last one.
- That was the best day of the holiday.
- The sky looked grey and heavy.
Common mistakes
- Doubling up comparisons. Not more bigger; just bigger.
- Using an adjective where an adverb is needed. She ran quick should be She ran quickly. Adverbs describe verbs; see adverbs.
- Thinking every -ly word is an adverb. Friendly, lovely and silly are adjectives: a friendly dog.
Quick quiz
Adjectives
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Question 1 of 4
Which word is an adjective?
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Related topics
Nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea, such as teacher, Lagos, pencil or happiness.
Adverbs
An adverb gives more information about a verb, adjective or another adverb, telling how, when, where or how often, like slowly, tomorrow, outside or always.
Similes
A simile compares one thing to another using like or as, such as as brave as a lion or her eyes shone like stars.
Synonyms
A synonym is a word that means the same or nearly the same as another word, like big and large, or happy and cheerful.
Antonyms
An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word, like hot and cold, up and down, or happy and unhappy.
Determiners
A determiner is a word that comes before a noun to show which one or how many, such as a, an, the, this, those, my, some, every or three.