Adjectives

The word adjectives mean to throw something towards noun. Ject means to through towards something.  Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns or add something to the meaning of the noun. Like hot, red, brave, cold etc. such words describe the quality of a noun or pronoun.

Adjectives indicate the shape, size, time duration, feelings, quality about noun or pronoun.

Example:

• Ali is handsome. Here handsome is adjective that describes the quality of Ali.
• That bottle is hot. Here hot is adjective that describes the quality or characteristic of a bottle.

Some common adjectives 

To describe:

Taste: bitter, sweet, sour, spicy etc.

Touch: cool, fluffy, painful, wet etc.

Sound: melodic, noisy, mute, blaring etc.

Size: jumbo, small, large, medium, massive, thin, thick etc.

Color: red, green, blue, black, white etc.

Shape:  square, round, curved, cylindrical etc.

Amount: heavy, little, many, one, plenty etc.

Gradable and Non-Gradable Adjectives

The quality, size, the duration can vary in intensity. Some of them can have levels like hot, very hot, boiling. But some of them don’t change in intensity like dead or alive. Such adjectives are called gradable or non-gradable. Let’s study them thoroughly.

Gradable Adjectives 

Many adjectives that describe the quality of nouns or pronouns can vary in degree.such attributes are called gradable adjectives because they can vary in intensity or might have a level of difference between them. They can have superlative or comparative forms. Like 

• Tall, taller, tallest.
• Small, smaller, smallest.
• Big, bigger, biggest.

We can use Gradable adjectives with gradable adverbs. Such adjectives show that a person has less or more of something.

In a summarised way, words that modify a noun or pronoun are called adjectives. Adjectives that are modified by adverbs are called a gradable adjective.

Example:  The adjective hot is gradable. Something can be a bit hot, very hot or extremely hot or not hot at all.

Some of the gradable adjectives are:

Cold, fairly cold, very cold, extremely cold. Here very, fairly, extremely are adverbs, and cold is a gradable adjective.

Small, medium, large, extra-large. These are gradable adjectives.

Non-Gradable Adjectives

Some adjectives are non-gradable, which means they are either wholly present or wholly absent but nothing between them. You can be either dead or alive. You can not be half-dead or half alive. 

Such adjectives do not have a degree of variation. They can occur with non-gradable adverbs like completely.

Example:

• Freezing, nuclear, electronic, western etc.

It would be so unsatisfying and Grammarly incorrect if we use very, exceptionally or fair with such adjectives. Things can be either freezing, nuclear, western, or they cannot. There’s nothing between them.

Types of adjectives

Adjectives are the most commonly used part of speech. There are different uses of adjectives which divides them into different categories. There are many types of adjectives. Basic types are described below.

Demonstrative Adjectives

A demonstrative adjective describes which noun or pronoun you are referring to. Such adjectives directly refer to something or someone. Demonstrative adjectives always come before noun unlike demonstrative pronouns that do not modify the noun.

Demonstrative adjectives are this, that, those, these. 

This and that are used for singular nouns. Those and these are used for the plural nouns.

Example:

• do you like that car?
• This building is beautiful.
• Are those shoes yours?
• These kids are very naughty.

Descriptive Adjectives:

Descriptive adjectives are the most common adjectives. When we talk about words modifying a noun, we refer to descriptive adjectives. They describe the quality or characteristic of a noun or pronoun. 

Example:

• That silly girl is always late to work.
• He is an annoying friend.
• He’s such an excellent room-mate I ever had.

Quantitative Adjectives 

Quantitative adjectives are such words that describe the quantity of something. There is an exception in quantitative adjectives that they can’t be only used before noun or pronouns, but they can be used to answer questions like how many? How much? Like one, two, three are quantitative adjectives.

Example:

• I have 20 lipsticks of different shades.
• How many mobiles do you have? One.
• You must complete this whole assignment before 6 o’clock.

Proper Adjectives

Proper adjectives are almost the same as proper nouns. They are derived from proper nouns. One can think of proper adjectives as proper nouns which modify another noun.

Example:

• Chinese restaurant.
• Zainab's shoes.
• I love McDonald's ice-cream.

Possessive Adjectives 

Possessive adjectives are almost like possessive pronouns. They describe the ownership of the noun. The only difference between possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives is that possessive pronouns do not come before a noun, but they replace a noun. Possessive adjectives always come before a noun.

His, her, my, your, our, their, it's are possessive adjectives.

Example:

• I love my mobile.
• She forgot her key at home.
• After a long time, he has returned to his homeland.

Interrogative Adjectives

Interrogative adjectives are words that are used to ask questions. A noun or pronouns follow them. 

What, whose, which are interrogative adjectives. ‘whose’ also belong to possessive adjectives. 

If “which, whose and what” are not followed by a noun or pronoun they are not considered as interrogative adjectives.

Example:

• What colour do you suggest for my room?
• Whose bag is it?
• Which dress is yours?

Indefinite Adjectives

Indefinite adjectives are used to modify a noun or pronoun without mentioning them. They point to non-specific items.

Any, few, many, several, all; are indefinite adjectives.

Example:

• Many people come to visit Paris every year.
• A few students are hard working.
• All students should be treated equally.

Conclusion:

In this lesson, we learned what adjective is, and types of adjectives are.  Always remember that adjectives must follow a noun or pronoun. Few of the types of adjectives are same as pronouns, but they differ only in one aspect that adjectives follow a noun or pronoun, but pronouns do not follow the noun. Instead, it replaces the noun.