An adjective is a word that describes a person or thing. It provides more details about a noun or a pronoun. This information can be anything from color to size to temperature to personality. Examples: Big, pretty, expensive, green, round, French, loud, quick, fat, etc.
Example sentences:
- She has big blue eyes.
- The new car broke down.
- The old lady was talking in a quiet voice.
Adjectives describe nouns by giving some information about a person’s or an object’s—
- Determiner: a, an, the, this, that, these, those, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, some, any, many, much, few, little, all, both, each, every, either, neither, which, what, whose, etc.
- Opinion or judgement or value: Good, bad, lovely, strange, beautiful, nice, brilliant, excellent, awful, important, wonderful, nasty, pretty, stupid, original, expensive, delicious, comfortable, uncomfortable, clever, intelligent, friendly, etc.
- Size: Big, small, large, tiny, enormous, little, etc.
- Age: Young, old, new, ancient, antique, etc.
- Shape: Round, square, flat, straight, etc.
- Color: Blue, red, white, black, dark, bright, yellowish, etc.
- Origin: Italian, British, Mexican, western, southern, etc.
- Material: Metal, wooden, plastic, gold, etc.
- Feelings or qualities: Lonely, honest, brave, shy, calm, etc.
THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVE
A noun can have several adjectives describing it. Example: “She bought a new red Italian table.”
There are certain rules about the correct order of those adjectives. This is the order you should generally follow:
Determiner → Opinion → Size → Age → Shape → Color → Origin → Material → Purpose/function (DOSASCOMP)
- A nice little coffee shop (Determiner → opinion → size → purpose/function)
- My huge new swimming pool (Determiner → size → age → purpose/function)
- Several Chinese plastic cups (Determiner → origin → material)
- The round yellow ball (Determiner → shape → color)
Adjectives of the same type: When you have several adjectives of the same type, you should separate them with commas or a conjunction (and, but). Example:
- A cheap, good meal
- A happy, smart man
- The beautiful, orginal painting
- My nice and sweet cat
- An expensive but important trip
Word Order: Adjective + Noun
Adjectives can be used to add more detail about the noun and pronoun in a sentence, thus making the sentence more informative. When you write, you can make a sentence much more interesting by adding descriptive words. In this writing section, we are going to practice using adjectives in sentences.
Good writers avoid writing too many simple sentences about one subject. When you have two short sentences about the same noun with an adjective, you can combine the sentences by putting the adjective before the noun. This will make your writing more interesting.
- I have a book. It is heavy. → I have a heavy book.
- This is my car. It is new. → This is my new car.
- Maliha goes to a college. The college is excellent. → Maliha goes to an excellent college.
- Nazia draws small pictures. She draws ink pictures. → Nazia draws small ink pictures.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you put the adjective before the noun, not after.
- I have a car red with a top black. (wrong) → I have a red car with a black top.
- We ate a salad green with potatoes fried. (wrong) → We ate a green salad with fried potatoes.
DEGREE OF ADJECTIVE
Adjectives change in form when they show comparison. These various forms of adjectives are called degrees of adjective. There are three Degrees of Adjectives:
Positive Degree
The positive degree of an adjective makes no comparison.
- A tall building.
- This is a beautiful car.
Comparative Degree
The comparative degree compares two people, things, activities, or qualities.
- She is a better student than her brother.
- Hasib is stronger than Sahadat.
- Sobuj seems healthier.
- Oishi is more beautiful than Tuba.
Superlative Degree
The superlative degree compares a person, thing, activity, or quality with the group.
- This is the most beautiful car I have ever seen.
- You are my best friend.
- This is the worst day of my life.
- Even the smallest donation helps.
Forming Comparative and superlative
Rule 1: With one syllable adjective simply add -er or -est to the end of the word to make comparative or superlative. Examples:
- Longer-longest | Darker-darkest
- Brighter-brightest | Quicker-quickest
- Warmer-warmest | Colder-coldest
- Older-oldest | Younger-youngest
- Stronger-strongest | Smarter-smartest
- Weaker-weakest | Neater-neatest
Rule 2: When a one syllable adjective ends in a single vowel and a single consonant, you must double the final consonant, then add -er or -est. Examples:
- Bigger-biggest | Fatter-fattest
- Hotter-hottest | Sadder-saddest
- Madder-maddest | Thinner-thinnest
*Exception: We do not double the final letter when the adjective ends in -y, -w, -x. Examples:
- Greyer-greyest
- Slower-slowest
- Laxer-laxest
Rule 3: When the adjective ends in a y, you must change the y to an i, then add -er or -est to form the comparative or the superlative. Examples:
- Prettier-prettiest | Angrier-angriest
- Happier-happiest | Busier-busiest
- Lovelier-loveliest | Sillier-silliest
- Sleepier-sleepiest | Thirstier-thirstiest
Rule 4: For adjectives that end in e, you must only add -r to make a comparative and -st to make a superlative. Examples:
- Closer-closest | Wiser-wisest
- Stranger-strangest | Huger-hugest
- Ruder-rudest | Looser-loosest
- Safer-safest | Cuter-cutest
- Gentler-gentlest | Simpler-simplest
Rule 5: Adjectives with three or more syllables add the word “more” before them to become comparative, and “most” to become superlative. Most two-syllable adjectives will take “more” or “most,” but if they end in -y, -er, -le, or -ow, they follow the rules above. Examples:
- more interesting – most interesting | more complete-most complete
- more beautiful – most beautiful | more important-most important
- more dangerous-most dangerous | more colorful-most colorful
- more exciting-most exciting | more complicated-most complicated
Rule 6: There are some very common adjectives that have irregular forms for their comparatives and superlatives. Here are the most important ones for you to remember:
| Adjective | Comparative | Superlative |
| good | better | best |
| bad | worse | worst |
| far | farther /further | farthest /furthest |
Common Mistakes
A very common mistake regarding the use of adjectives is the use of double comparatives:
- Incorrect: She is more stronger than her sister.
- Correct: She is stronger than her sister.
Avoid double comparatives. Adjectives of one syllable usually form their comparatives by adding -er to the positive. Longer adjectives take more.
- Incorrect: Children are more curiouser than adults. → Correct: Children are more curious than adults.
- Incorrect: Cars are more powerfuler than rickshaws. → Correct: Cars are more powerful than rickshaws.
- Incorrect: The flu is more worser than common cold. → Correct: The flu is worse than common cold.
- Incorrect: Silver jewelry is more shiner than gold jewelry. → Correct: Silver jewelry is shinier than gold jewelry.
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