What is an Adjective?

adjective (noun): a part-of-speech that modifies or describes a noun or a

pronoun

An adjective is one of the eight parts of speech.

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. It "describes" or

"modifies" a noun (The big dog was hungry). In these examples, the
adjective is in bold and the noun that it modifies is in italics.

An adjective often comes BEFORE a noun:

• a green car
• a dark sky
• an interesting story

And sometimes an adjective comes AFTER a verb:

• My car is green.
• The sky became dark.
• His story seemed interesting.

But adjectives can also modify pronouns (She is beautiful). Look at these
examples:

• They were empty.

• I thought it seemed strange.
• Those are not expensive.

Note that we can often use two or more adjectives together

(a beautifulyoung French lady / it is black and white).

The adjective is the enemy of the noun

This is sometimes said because, very often, if we use the precise noun we
don't need an adjective. For example, instead of saying "a large, impressive
house" (2 adjectives + 1 noun) we could simply say "a mansion" (1 noun).

Adjective Form
Some adjectives have particular endings, for example:

• -able/-ible: washable, credible

• -ish/-like: childish, childlike
• -ful/-less: careful, careless
• -ous: dangerous, harmonious
• -y: dirty, pretty

However, many adjectives have no obvious form.

Comparative, Superlative
Most adjectives can be comparative or superlative, for example:

• big, bigger, biggest

• good, better, best
• beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful

What is an Adjective? Quiz

It tests what you learned on What is an Adjective?

1. An adjective is a word that tells us more about

a verb
a noun

2. In the language of grammar, adjectives ________ nouns.

modify
activate

3. "These flowers are beautiful!" Which is an adjective?

these
beautiful
4. "His new apartment's nice, but it's a bit small." How many adjectives are
there?

two
three

5. An adjective usually comes BEFORE a noun or AFTER

a verb
a noun

6. In which sentence does a verb come between a noun and the adjective that
modifies it?

The movie was boring.

It was a boring movie.

7. Adjectives modify nouns, and they can also modify

verbs
pronouns

8. "She's very smart, so the exam was easy for her." Which modifies a
pronoun?

smart
easy

9. Which endings are often found on adjectives?

-able, -ful, -ous

-ness, -ment, -ity

10. "This quiz is harder than the others." The adjective "harder" is

superlative
comparative
Correct Answers
1. a noun 6. The movie was boring.
2. modify 7. pronouns
3. beautiful 8. smart
4. three 9. -able, -ful, -ous
5. a verb 10. comparative

Superlative Adjectives
A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality.
We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in
a group of things.

We can use superlative adjectives when talking about three or morethings

(not two things).

In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big":

AB
A is the biggest.
C

Formation of Superlative Adjectives

As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative
adjective:

• short adjectives: add "-est"

• long adjectives: use "most"

We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

Short adjectives

1-syllable adjectives old, fast

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy

RULE: add "-est" old → the oldest

Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -st late → the latest

Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, big → the biggest
double the last consonant

Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy → the happiest

Long adjectives

2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y modern, pleasant

all adjectives of 3 or more syllables expensive, intellectual

RULE: use "most" modern → the most modern

expensive → the most expensive
With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use "-est" OR "most":

quiet → the quietest/most quiet

clever → the cleverest/most clever
narrow → the narrowest/most narrow
simple → the simplest/most simple

Exception: The following adjectives have irregular forms:

• good → the best

• bad → the worst
• far → the farthest/furthest

Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or
more things. Look at these examples:

• John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is the tallest.

• Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is the biggest.
• Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

If we talk about the three planets Earth, Mars and Jupiter, we can use
superlative adjectives as shown in the table below:

Earth Mars Jupiter

Diameter (km) 12,760 6,790 142,800 Jupiter is the biggest.

Distance from Sun 150 228 778 Jupiter is the most distant from
(million km) the Sun.

Length of day (hours) 24 25 10 Jupiter has the shortest day.

 Earth Mars Jupiter

Moons 1 2 16 Jupiter has the most moons.

Surface temp. (degrees 22 -23 -150 Jupiter is the coldest.

Celcius)

When we compare one thing with itself, we do not use "the":

England is coldest in winter. (not the coldest)

My boss is most generous when we get a big order. (not the most generous)

Superlative Adjectives Quiz

It tests what you learned on the Superlative Adjectives .

1. Superlative adjectives can be used when talking about _______ things,

people or groups.

two
two or more
three or more

2. Which is correct? "None of our players is taller than James. He's our
_______ player."

most tall
tallest
most tallest

3. Many adjectives with one syllable can be changed into the superlative form
by adding
 -er
-est
-er OR -est

4. Which is correct? "That was _______ movie I've ever seen!"

the most scary

the scaryest
the scariest

5. Which is correct? "Do you really think Japanese is the world's _______
language?"

most difficult
difficultest
the most difficult

6. All adjectives of 3 or more syllables are made superlative by using

-est
most
-est OR most

7. Which is the superlative form of the adjective "clever"?

cleverest
most clever
cleverest OR most clever

8. Ariana sang her latest songs and _______ of her old songs.

the best
her best
best
9. In 2019 NASA stated that the previous five years were _______ ever
recorded.

the most hottest

the hottest
the most hot

10. Choose the superlative form: "It looks like our _______ fears are coming
true."

bad
worse
worst

Correct Answers
1. three or more 6. most
2. tallest 7. cleverest OR most clever
3. -est 8. the best
4. the scariest 9. the hottest
5. most difficult 10. worst

Comparative Adjectives
When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same or
different. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can use
comparative adjectives to describe the differences.

We use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things).

In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the adjective "big":
A1 A2
A1 is bigger than A2.
Formation of Comparative Adjectives
There are two ways to make or to "form" a comparative adjective:

• short adjectives: add "-er"

• long adjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives: add -er examples

1-syllable adjectives old, fast

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy

RULE: add "-er" old → older

Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r late → later

Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double big → bigger
the last consonant

Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy → happier

Long adjectives: use more examples

 Short adjectives: add -er examples

2-syllable adjectives not ending in modern, pleasant

-y

all adjectives of 3 or more expensive, intellectual

syllables

RULE: use "more" modern → more modern

expensive → more expensive

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use "-er" OR "more":

quiet → quieter/more quiet

clever → cleverer/more clever
narrow → narrower/more narrow
simple → simpler/more simple
Exception: The following adjectives have irregular forms:

good → better
well (healthy) → better
bad → worse
far → farther/further

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things,
only 2 things).

Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than".

Look at these examples:

• John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is taller than John.

• America is big. But Russia is bigger.
• I want to have a more powerful computer.
• Is French more difficult than English?
If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table
below:

Earth Mars

Diameter (km) 12,760 6,790 Mars is smaller than Earth.

Distance from Sun (million 150 228 Mars is more distant from the Sun.
km)

Length of day (hours) 24 25 A day on Mars is slightly longer than a

day on Earth.

Moons 1 2 Mars has more moons than Earth.

Surface temperature (degrees 22 -23 Mars is colder than Earth.

Celcius)

Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more
things), in fact one or both of the things may be a group of things.
• Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains.
Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt
Everest) to one other thing (all other mountains).

Comparative Adjectives Quiz

It tests what you learned on the Comparative Adjectives page.

1. Comparative adjectives are used when comparing _______ things, people

or groups.
 two
two or more
three or more

2. Which is the comparative form? "I'm strong, but my brother is _______ ."

strongest
stronger
as strong

3. Many adjectives are changed into the comparative form by adding

-er
-est
-ies

4. Which is the correct comparative form? "My phone's expensive, but Joe's is
_______ ."

expensiver
most expensive
more expensive

5. A long adjective of 3 or more syllables is changed into a comparative

adjective by

adding -er to it
adding -est to it
putting "more" before it

6. Which is correct? "Do you think Maria is _______ than Selena?"

prettier
more pretty
more prettier
7. Which is not a comparative form of the adjective "clever"?

cleverer
cleverrer
more clever

8. Which is correct? "English is _______ Japanese."

easier
more easy
easier than

9. Which is correct? "This year the weather is ______ than last year."

badder
worse
worser

10. Which is comparative? "Whose English is _______? Mine or his?"

good
better
best
Correct Answers
1. two 6. prettier
2. stronger 7. cleverrer
3. -er 8. easier than
4. more expensive 9. worse
5. putting more before it 10. better

Adjective Order
There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:
 1. Adjective Before Noun
2. Adjective After Verb

adj. adj.
before after
noun verb

1 I have a big dog.

2 Snow is white.

Adjective Before Noun

We often use more than one adjective before the noun:

• I like big black dogs.

• She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. First of all, the general order is:

opinion, fact
"Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is
definitely trueabout something.

• a lovely new dress (not a new lovely dress)

• a boring French film (not a French boring film)

2. The "normal" order for fact adjectives is

size, shape, age, colour / origin / material / purpose

• a small 18th-century French coffee table
 • a rectangular black wooden box

3. Determiners usually come first, even though some grammarians regard

them as fact adjectives:

• articles (a, the)

• possessives (my, your...)
• demonstratives (this, that...)
• quantifiers (some, any, few, many...)
• numbers (one, two, three)

Note that when we want to use two colour adjectives, we join them with
"and":

• Many newspapers are black and white.

• She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

Here are some examples of adjective order:

adjectives

fact adjectives

size,
shape,
opinion age, head
determiner adjectives other colour origin material purpose* noun

two ugly black guard dogs

a well- Chinese artist

known
 adjectives

fact adjectives

size,
shape,
opinion age, head
determiner adjectives other colour origin material purpose* noun

a small, French coffee table

18th-
century

your fabulous new sports car

a lovely pink and Thai silk dress

green

some black Spanish leather riding boots

a big dog
black
and
white

this cheap plastic rain coat

 adjectives

fact adjectives

size,
shape,
opinion age, head
determiner adjectives other colour origin material purpose* noun

an old wooden fishing boat

my new tennis racket

a wonderful 15th- Arabic poem

century

*often a noun used as an adjective

Not all grammarians agree about the exact order of adjectives, and the
detailed rules are complicated. The rules on this page are for the normal,
"natural" order of adjectives. These rules are not rigid, and you may
sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following
conversations:

Conversation 1
A "I want to buy a round table."
B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?"

Conversation 2
A "I want to buy an old table".
B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"

Adjective After Verb

An adjective can come after some verbs, such as: be, become, feel, get, look,
seem, smell, sound

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always
refers to and qualifies the subject of the clause, not the verb.

Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective

• Ram is English.
• Because she had to wait, she became impatient.
• Is it getting dark?
• The examination did not seem difficult.
• Your friend looks nice.
• This towel feels damp.
• That new film doesn't sound very interesting.
• Dinner smells good tonight.
• This milk tastes sour.
• It smells bad.

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not
"dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative
in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in another (she
looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not include all
stative verbs.

Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective), the adjective
can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.

Adjective Order Quiz

It tests what you learned on the Adjective Order.

1. Andrea had a ________ in her hair yesterday.

nice yellow bow

yellow nice bow
bow nice yellow
2. She lost a ________ .

small white cat

cat small white
white small cat

3. I bought ________ oranges.

great some big

big great some
some great big

4. We met ________ people at the conference.

very smart two

two very smart
very two smart

5. The clown was wearing a ________ hat.

big green-yellow
big green and yellow
yellow and green big

6. The cookies that you ________ .

smell delicious baked

baked smell delicious
delicious smell baked

7. Is it ________ ?

cold getting outside

getting cold outside
getting outside cold
8. The course you are ________ .

taking sounds interesting

sounds interesting taking
interesting sounds taking

9. My uncle wore a ________ to the wedding.

silk blue tie

tie blue silk
blue silk tie

10. Have you met that _____ next door?

cute boy new

cute new boy
new boy cute
Correct Answers
1. nice yellow bow 6. baked smell delicious
2. small white cat 7. getting cold outside
3. some great big 8. taking sounds interesting
4. two very smart 9. blue silk tie
5. big green and yellow 10. cute new boy