ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are describing words. They give information about the number, the side, the state, the color, etc. of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives in English usually go before the noun, don’t possess gender and don’t change from singular to plural. Examples: The red car. / The red cars.

Adjectives can be found in three different places:
1. Attributive, positioned before the noun that they describe. Example: The heavy box.
2. Predicative, positioned after some verbs such as be or seem. Example: The box seems heavy.
3. Postpositive, positioned after the noun. Example: There are plenty of rooms available.

There are many kinds of adjectives:
- Of quality describes the quality of a noun: nice, good, tall, heavy, red, big…
- Of quantity and number answer how much and how many: two, five, many, some, few…
- Compound adjectives: hyphenated adjectives. Examples: nine-year-old child. / He is a world-famous singer.
- Comparative (smaller) and superlative adjectives (smallest) are used to compare things.
- Possessive adjectives show possession. They are not pronouns because we place them before nouns and not in place of nouns: my, your, his, her, our, their…
- Interrogative adjectives ask questions: whose, which, what, how many, how much…
- Demonstrative adjectives are used to point out nouns: this, that, these, those.

Remember, if a word is used instead of a noun (by itself), it’s a pronoun. If it is used before a noun, it’s an adjective. Examples:
Whose is this? That is mine. Here whose and that are pronouns.
Whose book is this? That book is mine. Here, whose and that are adjectives.

Adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the adjective order in English is:

1. Number: Tells us the amount or quantity of something. It is not only for normal cardinal numbers like, one, two, three… but also other words that refer to quantity such as many or several. Number adjectives go before all the other adjectives Examples: one, two, three, many, several…

2. Opinion: These adjectives explain what we think about something. Examples: delicious, lovely, nice, cool, pretty, comfortable, difficult…

3. Size: Adjectives about size tell us how big or small something is. Examples: big, small, tall, huge, tiny, large, enormous…

4. Condition: Tells us the general condition or state of something. Examples: clean, wet, rich, hungry, broken, cold, hot, dirty…

5. Age: Adjectives of age tell us how old someone or something is. How old is it? Examples: old, young, new, antique, ancient…

6. Shape: Also weight and length. These adjectives tell us about the shape of something or how long or short it is. It can also refer to the weight of someone or something. Examples: round, square, long, fat, heavy, oval, skinny, straight…

7. Color: The color or approximate color of something. Examples: green, blue, purple, pink, orange, red, black, white, reddish (adding ISH at the end makes the color an approximate color, in this case reddish is “approximately red”)

8. Pattern: The pattern or design of something. Examples: striped, spotted, checked, flowery…

9. Origin (Proper adjectives): Tells us where something is from, often nationality, or was created. Examples: American, British, Indian, Turkish, Chilean, Australian, Brazilian…Remember, nationalities and places of origin start with a capital letter.

10. Material: What is the thing made of or what is it constructed of? Examples: gold, wooden, plastic, synthetic, silk, paper, cotton, silver…

11. Purpose: What is it used for? What is the purpose or use of this thing? Many of these adjectives end in –ING but not always. Example: shopping (bag), a computer desk. What is the purpose of the desk? It is a place for my computer, it is designed specifically to use with a computer. It is a computer desk.

When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word “and” is placed between the two adjectives:
- The house is green and red.
- The library has old and new books.
When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma between each of the coordinate adjectives:
- We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street.
- My friend lost a red, black and white watch.