Adjective

What is an adjective?

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive, and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.

Types of Adjectives

Remember that adjectives can modify as well as describe other words, and you’ll find it much easier to identify different types of adjectives when you see them.

Articles

There are only three articles, and all of them are adjectives: a, an, and the. Because they are used to discuss non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles.

Possessive Adjectives

As the name indicates, possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific people, animals, or things. These, those, this and that are demonstrative adjectives.

Coordinate Adjectives

Coordinate adjectives are separated with commas or the word and, and appear one after another to modify the same noun. The adjectives in the phrase bright, sunny day and long and dark night are coordinate adjectives. In phrases with more than two coordinate adjectives, the word and always appears before the last one; for example: The sign had big, bold, and bright letters.

Numbers Adjectives

When they’re used in sentences, numbers are almost always adjectives. You can tell that a number is an adjective when it answers the question “How many?”

Interrogative Adjectives

There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what, and whose. Like all other types of adjectives, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these words are used to ask questions.

Indefinite Adjectives

Like the articles a and an, indefinite adjectives are used to discuss non-specific things. You might recognize them, since they’re formed from indefinite pronouns. The most common indefinite adjectives are any, many, no, several, and few.

Attributive Adjectives

Attributive adjectives talk about specific traits, qualities, or features – in other words, they are used to discuss attributes.