An adjective is a word that describes, identifies, modifies, or quantifies something (a noun or a

pronoun). In the phrase, "the black cat" the word black is an adjective because it describes the cat.

In English, an adjective usually comes before the noun it pertains to (for example, a red apple or a
cute cat.).

Adjectives can be classified into many categories. In English, adjectives are generally used in the
order: quantity-->opinion-->size-->age-->shape-->color-->origin-->material-->purpose. Some of
these categories are (roughly in the order in which adjectives are used in English):

quantity - few, no, one, two, three, four, little, several, many, all, some, every, each, ...
opinion - good, better, best, bad, worse, worst, wonderful, splendid, mediocre, awful, fantastic,
pretty, ugly, clean, dirty, wasteful, difficult, comfortable, uncomfortable, valuable, worthy,
worthless, useful, useless, important, evil, angelic, rare, scarce, poor, rich, lovely, disgusting,
amazing, surprising, loathesome, unusual, usual, pointless, pertinent, ...
personality/emotion - happy, sad, excited, scared, frightened, outgoing, funny, sad, zany,
grumpy, cheerful, jolly, carefree, quick-witted, blissful, lonely, elated, ...
sound - loud, soft, silent, vociferous, screaming, shouting, thunderous, blaring, quiet, noisy,
talkative, rowdy, deafening, faint, muffled, mute, speechless, whispered, hushed, ...
taste - sweet, sour, acidic, bitter, salty, tasty, delicious, savory, delectable, yummy, bland,
tasteless, palatable, yummy, luscious, appetizing, tasteless, spicy, watery, ...
touch - hard, soft, silky, velvety, bumpy, smooth, grainy, coarse, pitted, irregular, scaly,
polished, glossy, lumpy, wiry, scratchy, rough, glassy, ...
size, weight - heavy, light, big, small, little, tiny, tall, short, fat, thin, slender, willowy, lean,
svelte, scrawny, skeletal, underweight, lanky, wide, enormous, huge, vast, great, gigantic,
monstrous, mountainous, jumbo, wee, dense, weighty, slim, trim, hulking, hefty, giant, plump,
tubby, obese, portly, ...
smell - perfumed, acrid, putrid, burnt, smelly, reeking, noxious, pungent, aromatic, fragrant,
scented, musty, sweet-smelling,...
speed - quick, fast, slow, speeding, rushing, bustling, rapid, snappy, whirlwind, swift, hasty,
prompt, brief, ...
temperature - hot, cold, freezing, icy, frigid, sweltering, wintry, frosty, frozen, nippy, chilly,
sizzling, scalding, burning, feverish, fiery, steaming, ...
age - young, old, baby, babyish, teenage, ancient, antique, old-fashioned, youthful, elderly,
mature, adolescent, infantile, bygone, recent, modern, ...
distance - short, long, far, distant, nearby, close, faraway, outlying, remote, far-flung,
neighboring, handy, ...
shape - round, circular, square, triangular, oval, sleek, blobby, flat, rotund, globular, spherical,
wavy, straight, cylindrical, oblong, elliptical, zigzag, squiggly, crooked, winding, serpentine,
warped, distorted, ...
miscellaneous qualities- full, empty, wet, dry, open, closed , ornate, ...
 brightness - light, dark, bright, shadowy, drab, radiant, shining, pale, dull, glowing, shimmering,
luminous, gleaming, ...
color - pink, red, orange, yellowish, dark-green, blue, purple, black, white, gray, brown, tanned,
pastel, metallic, silver, colorless, transparent, translucent, ...
time - early, late, morning, night, evening, everlasting, initial, first, last, overdue, belated, long-
term, delayed, punctual, ...
origin/location - lunar, northern, oceanic, polar, equatorial, Floridian, American, Spanish,
Canadian, Mexican, French, Irish, English, Australian, ...
material - glass, wooden, cloth, concrete, fabric, cotton, plastic, leather, ceramic, china, metal,
steel, silicon, ...
purpose - folding, swinging, work, racing, cooking, sleeping, dance, rolling, walking, ...

Example of the Sequence of Multiple Adjectives in Chart Form:

QUANTITY OPINION SIZE AGE SHAPE COLOR ORIGIN MATERIAL PURPOSE NOUN
five huge young black Canadian bears
battered old shapeless gray cotton work pants
many magnificent antique British reference books
one studious teenaged American boy
few shiny round blue Indian gems
many well-made tiny elongated brown wooden fishing boats
several cheap large purple polyester sleeping bags

Recognize an adjective when you see one.

Adjectives describe nouns by answering one of these three questions: What kind is it? How many are
there? Which one is it? An adjective can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause. Check out these
examples:

What kind is it?

Dan decided that the fuzzy green bread would make an unappetizing sandwich.

What kind of bread? Fuzzy and green! What kind of sandwich? Unappetizing!

A friend with a fat wallet will never want for weekend shopping partners.

What kind of friend? One with money to spend!

A towel that is still warm from the dryer is more comforting than a hot fudge sundae.

What kind of towel? One right out of the dryer.

How many are there?

Seven hungry space aliens slithered into the diner and ordered two dozen vanilla milkshakes.
How many hungry space aliens? Seven!

The students, five freshmen and six sophomores, braved Dr. Ribley's killer calculus exam.

How many students? Eleven!

The disorganized pile of books, which contained seventeen overdue volumes from the library and five
unread class texts, blocked the doorway in Eli's dorm room.

How many books? Twenty-two!

Which one is it?

The most unhealthy item from the cafeteria is the steak sub, which will slime your hands with grease.

Which item from the cafeteria? Certainly not the one that will lower your cholesterol!

The cockroach eyeing your cookie has started to crawl this way.

Which cockroach? Not the one crawling up your leg but the one who wants your cookie!

The students who neglected to prepare for Mrs. Mauzy's English class hide in the cafeteria rather
than risk their instructor's wrath.

Which students? Not the good students but the lazy slackers.

Examples of Adjectives

Looking at examples of adjectives can make it easier to understand how these important parts of
speech are used within the English language.

Popular Adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes, identifies or further defines a noun or a pronoun. There are
thousands of adjectives available to describe how something feels, looks, sounds, tastes and acts.
Here are a few examples:

To Describe Taste
Bitter Lemon-flavored Spicy

Bland Minty Sweet

Delicious Pickled Tangy

Fruity Salty Tasty

Gingery Sour Yummy

To Describe Touch
Auricular Fluffy Sharp
Boiling Freezing Silky

Breezy Fuzzy Slick

Bumpy Greasy Slimy

Chilly Hard Slippery

Cold Hot Smooth

Cool Icy Soft

Cuddly Loose Solid

Damaged Melted Steady

Damp Painful Sticky

Dirty Plastic Tender

Dry Prickly Tight

Dusty Rough Uneven

Filthy Shaggy Warm

Flaky Shaky Wet

To Describe Sound
Blaring Melodic Screeching

Deafening Moaning Shrill

Faint Muffled Silent

Hoarse Mute Soft

High-pitched Noisy Squealing

Hissing Purring Squeaking

Hushed Quiet Thundering

Husky Raspy Voiceless

Loud Resonant Whispering

To Describe Color
Azure Gray Pinkish
Black Green Purple

Blue Indigo Red

Bright Lavender Rosy

Brown Light Scarlet

Crimson Magenta Silver

Dark Multicolored Turquoise

Drab Mustard Violet

Dull Orange White

Gold Pink Yellow

To Describe Size
Abundant Jumbo Puny
Big-boned Large Scrawny
Chubby Little Short
Fat Long Small
Giant Majestic Tall
Gigantic Mammoth Teeny
Great Massive Thin
Huge Miniature Tiny
Immense Petite Vast

To Describe Shape
Blobby Distorted Rotund
Broad Flat Round
Chubby Fluffy Skinny
Circular Globular Square
Crooked Hollow Steep
Curved Low Straight
Cylindrical Narrow Triangular
Deep Oval Wide

To Describe Time
Annual Futuristic Rapid
Brief Historical Regular
Daily Irregular Short
Early Late Slow
Eternal Long Speed
Fast Modern Speedy
First Old Swift
Fleet Old-fashioned Waiting
Future Quick Young

To Describe an Amount
All Heavy One
Ample Hundreds Paltry
Astronomical Large Plentiful
Bountiful Light Profuse
Considerable Limited Several
Copious Little Sizable
Countless Many Some
Each Measly Sparse
Enough Mere Substantial
Every Multiple Teeming
Few Myriad Ten
Full Numerous Very

To Describe an Emotion
Abrasive Embarrassed Grumpy
Abrupt Energetic Kind
Afraid Enraged Lazy
Agreeable Enthusiastic Lively
Aggressive Envious Lonely
Amiable Evil Lucky
Amused Excited Mad
Angry Exhausted Manic
Annoyed Exuberant Mysterious
Ashamed Fair Nervous
Bad Faithful Obedient
Bitter Fantastic Obnoxious
Bewildered Fierce Outrageous
Boring Fine Panicky
Brave Foolish Perfect
Callous Frantic Persuasive
Calm Friendly Pleasant
Calming Frightened Proud
Charming Funny Quirky
Cheerful Furious Relieved
Combative Gentle Repulsive
Comfortable Glib Rundown
Defeated Glorious Sad
Confused Good Scary
Cooperative Grateful Selfish
Courageous Grieving Silly
Cowardly Gusty Splendid
Crabby Gutless Successful
Creepy Happy Tedious
Cross Healthy Tense
Cruel Heinous Terrible
Dangerous Helpful Thankful
Defeated Helpless Thoughtful
Defiant Hilarious Thoughtless
Delightful Homeless Tired
Depressed Hungry Troubled
Determined Hurt Upset
Disgusted Immoral Weak
Disturbed Indignant Weary
Eager Irate Wicked
Elated Itchy Worried
Embarrassed Jealous Zany
Enchanting Jolly Zealous

To Describe a Person or Personality

Aggressive Famous Restless

Agoraphobic Fearless Rich

Ambidextrous Fertile Righteous

Ambitious Fragile Ritzy

Amoral Frank Romantic

Angelic Functional Rustic

Brainy Gabby Ruthless

Breathless Generous Sassy

Busy Gifted Secretive

Calm Helpful Sedate

Capable Hesitant Shy

Careless Innocent Sleepy

Cautious Inquisitive Somber

Cheerful Insane Stingy

Clever Jaunty Stupid

Common Juicy Super

Complete Macho Swanky

Concerned Manly Tame

Crazy Modern Tawdry

Curious Mushy Terrific

Dead Naughty Testy

Deep Odd Uninterested

Delightful Old Vague

Determined Open Verdant

Different Outstanding Vivacious

Diligent Perky Wacky

Energetic Poor Wandering

Erratic Powerful Wild

Evil Puzzled Womanly

Exuberant Real Wrong

To Describe Appearance
Ablaze Distinct Quirky

Adorable Drab Ruddy

Alluring Dull Shiny

Attractive Elegant Skinny

Average Embarrassed Sloppy

Awkward Fancy Smiling

Balanced Fat Sparkling

Beautiful Filthy Spotless

Blonde Glamorous Strange

Bloody Gleaming Tacky

Blushing Glossy Tall

Bright Graceful Thin

Clean Grotesque Ugly

Clear Handsome Unattractive

Cloudy Homely Unbecoming

Clumsy Interior Uncovered

Colorful Lovely Unsightly

Confident Magnificent Unusual

Cracked Murky Watery

Crooked Old-fashioned Weird

Crushed Plain Wild

Curly Poised Wiry

Cute Pretty Wooden

Debonair Puffy Worried

Dirty Quaint Zaftig

To Describe Situations
Accidental Doubtful Main

Achievable Elementarty Minor

Advantageous Finger-printed Nasty

Alcoholic Groundless Nutritious

Animated Hard Obsolete

Aquatic Harmful Optimal

Aromatic High Organic

Aspiring Honest Premium

Bad Horrible Quizzical

Bawdy Illegal Rainy

Biographical Illegible Redundant

Bizarre Imperfect Remarkable

Broken Impossible Simple

Careful Internal Tangible

Credible Inventive Tricky

Creepy Jazzy Wholesale

Cumbersome Juvenile Worse

Disastrous Legal Wry

Dismissive Logical X-rated

What Is An Adjective?

An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An

adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies.

In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

The truck-shaped balloon floated over the treetops.

Mrs. Morrison papered her kitchen walls with hideous wall paper.

The small boat foundered on the wine dark sea.

The coal mines are dark and dank.

Many stores have already begun to play irritating Christmas music.

A battered music box sat on the mahogany sideboard.

The back room was filled with large, yellow rain boots.

An adjective can be modified by an adverb, or by a phrase or clause functioning as an adverb. In the

sentence

My husband knits intricately patterned mittens.

for example, the adverb "intricately" modifies the adjective "patterned."

Some nouns, many pronouns, and many participle phrases can also act as adjectives. In the
sentence

Eleanor listened to the muffled sounds of the radio hidden under her pillow.

for example, both highlighted adjectives are past participles.

Grammarians also consider articles ("the," "a," "an") to be adjectives.

Possessive Adjectives

A possessive adjective ("my," "your," "his," "her," "its," "our," "their") is similar or identical to a
possessive pronoun; however, it is used as an adjective and modifies a noun or a noun phrase, as in
the following sentences:

I can't complete my assignment because I don't have the textbook.

In this sentence, the possessive adjective "my" modifies "assignment" and the noun phrase "my
assignment" functions as an object. Note that the possessive pronoun form "mine" is not used to
modify a noun or noun phrase.

What is your phone number.

Here the possessive adjective "your" is used to modify the noun phrase "phone number"; the entire
noun phrase "your phone number" is a subject complement. Note that the possessive pronoun form
"yours" is not used to modify a noun or a noun phrase.

The bakery sold his favourite type of bread.

In this example, the possessive adjective "his" modifies the noun phrase "favourite type of bread" and
the entire noun phrase "his favourite type of bread" is the direct object of the verb "sold."

After many years, she returned to her homeland.

Here the possessive adjective "her" modifies the noun "homeland" and the noun phrase "her
homeland" is the object of the preposition "to." Note also that the form "hers" is not used to modify
nouns or noun phrases.

We have lost our way in this wood.

In this sentence, the possessive adjective "our" modifies "way" and the noun phrase "our way" is the
direct object of the compound verb "have lost". Note that the possessive pronoun form "ours" is not
used to modify nouns or noun phrases.

In many fairy tales, children are neglected by their parents.

Here the possessive adjective "their" modifies "parents" and the noun phrase "their parents" is the
object of the preposition "by." Note that the possessive pronoun form "theirs" is not used to modify
nouns or noun phrases.
 The cat chased its ball down the stairs and into the backyard.

In this sentence, the possessive adjective "its" modifies "ball" and the noun phrase "its ball" is the
object of the verb "chased." Note that "its" is the possessive adjective and "it's" is a contraction for "it
is."

Demonstrative Adjectives

The demonstrative adjectives "this," "these," "that," "those," and "what" are identical to the
demonstrative pronouns, but are used as adjectives to modify nouns or noun phrases, as in the
following sentences:

When the librarian tripped over that cord, she dropped a pile of books.

In this sentence, the demonstrative adjective "that" modifies the noun "cord" and the noun phrase
"that cord" is the object of the preposition "over."

This apartment needs to be fumigated.

Here "this" modifies "apartment" and the noun phrase "this apartment" is the subject of the sentence.

Even though my friend preferred those plates, I bought these.

In the subordinate clause, "those" modifies "plates" and the noun phrase "those plates" is the object
of the verb "preferred." In the independent clause, "these" is the direct object of the verb "bought."

Note that the relationship between a demonstrative adjective and a demonstrative pronoun is similar
to the relationship between a possessive adjective and a possessive pronoun, or to that between a
interrogative adjective and an interrogative pronoun.

Interrogative Adjectives

An interrogative adjective ("which" or "what") is like an interrogative pronoun, except that it modifies
a noun or noun phrase rather than standing on its own (see also demonstrative adjectives and
possessive adjectives):

Which plants should be watered twice a week?

Like other adjectives, "which" can be used to modify a noun or a noun phrase. In this example,
"which" modifies "plants" and the noun phrase "which plants" is the subject of the compound verb
"should be watered":

What book are you reading?

In this sentence, "what" modifies "book" and the noun phrase "what book" is the direct object of the
compound verb "are reading."

Indefinite Adjectives

An indefinite adjective is similar to an indefinite pronoun, except that it modifies a noun, pronoun, or
noun phrase, as in the following sentences:
 Many people believe that corporations are under-taxed.

The indefinite adjective "many" modifies the noun "people" and the noun phrase "many people" is the
subject of the sentence.

I will send you any mail that arrives after you have moved to Sudbury.

The indefinite adjective "any" modifies the noun "mail" and the noun phrase "any mail" is the direct
object of the compound verb "will send."

They found a few goldfish floating belly up in the swan pound.

In this example the indefinite adjective modifies the noun "goldfish" and the noun phrase is the direct
object of the verb "found":

The title of Kelly's favourite game is "All dogs go to heaven."

Here the indefinite pronoun "all" modifies "dogs" and the full title is a subject complement.

An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a
noun or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color,
number, and kind. In the sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazy is an adjective
which gives more information about the noun dog. We can add more adjectives to describe
the dog as well as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug. We can also add
adjectives to describe the rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful,
expensive, new rug. The adjectives do not change the basic meaning or structure of the
sentence, but they do give a lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in
the example above, when more than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the
adjectives.

Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come
after a form of the word beas in The man is tall. More than one adjective can be used in this
position in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn
how to make comparisons with adjectives.

Most adjectivesdo not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For
example we say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times.
There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular andplural forms. The
common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called
demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point out what is being referred to.

Another common type of adjective is the possessive adjective which shows possession or
ownership. The words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogs belong to me. I would
use the plural form our if the dog or dogs belonged to me and other people. The chart below
shows the forms of possessive adjectives.