Kinds of Adjectives in English Grammar

An adjective is used to define and describe nouns and even other adjectives. Let us study what is an adjective and what are the types of adjectives used in English grammar.

What is the Meaning of Adjective?

An adjective is a part of speech used in a sentence to define the qualities of a noun or an adjective. In a nutshell, you can depict an adjective as a describing word. There are different kinds of adjectives you will find in English grammar. These adjectives can define a person, place, animal, thing, event, action, etc. Now that you have understood what is the definition of an adjective, let us study the different kinds of adjectives used in English grammar.

Kinds of Adjectives

• Descriptive Adjectives

This kind of adjective is used to define the features and quality of a noun. If you ask questions- ‘of what kind’, ‘of what nature’, etc, you will get the adjective as the answer.

The fluffy dog rolled on the green grass.

Kolkata is a big city.

‘Fluffy’ and ‘big’ are used as adjectives to define the dog and Kolkata respectively.

• Quantitative Adjectives

Quantitative adjectives are used to define an amount or quantity of a noun. These adjectives can either define a particular amount or an estimation. For example- some, many, much, few, etc.

Let us find out what is meant by the adjective used in this case.

1. Definitive Adjectives

As you can figure out from the name, these adjectives indicate a particular number of amount of a noun. 

For example:

I have two apples in my bag.

She has three pens.

2. In-Definitive Adjectives

These adjectives fall in the quantitative section but are unable to define a proper amount or quantity of a noun. For example, few, much, many, some, etc.

Some of my friends were absent today.

A few of us fell sick on the way.

3. Distributive Adjectives

These adjectives are used to define a specific number among a group. For example-

They have two apples each in their bags.

            Neither of you was able to answer.

• Possessive Adjectives

These adjectives are used to declare possession or expressing ownership of a particular noun in a sentence.

My dog is very energetic.

His way of describing a fact is fun.

You can easily understand that these adjectives are the answer to the question of ‘Whose?’. The other examples of this kind are ours, mine, theirs, his, her, our, etc.

• Demonstrative Adjectives

If you consider the literal meaning of this kind of adjective, you will find that they are used to answer the question ‘which?’.

Look at this girl singing!

Such rains cause floods in the cities.

This edition is the best in class.

• Interrogative adjectives

These adjectives are used to ask a question and generally precede all the words.

What kind of cats do you like?

Which is your favourite player?

Not all interrogative adjectives ask a question. ‘What’ adjective can also be used in an exclamatory sentence.

What a beautiful flower!

This adjective is used to exclaim that the flower is beautiful.

How to Form Adjectives?

After learning the adjective and its types, we can infer that they are generally formed by adding a suffix. The general rules are:

• Adding ‘y’ (after removing ‘e’ if present at the end of a word)- hairy, glossy, scary.

• Adding ‘al’ (after removing ‘e’ if present at the end of a word)- natural, national, financial.

• Adding ‘ly’- kindly, timely.

• Adding ‘ful’(replace ‘y’ at the end with ‘i’)- beautiful, playful.

• Adding ‘ory’ (removing ‘e’ at the end)- advisory, introductory.

• Adding ‘ic’ (removing ‘y’)- energetic, mystic.

• Adding ‘ous’ (if ends with ‘e’, remove it. Replace ‘y’ with ‘I’)- famous, mysterious.

• Adding ‘ive’ (remove ‘ion’ and ‘e’)- impulsive, descriptive.

• Adding ‘ish’- reddish, brownish.

There are many other ways to learn how to form different types of adjectives.

The Importance of Adjectives in the English Language

An adjective is a word that changes meaning so that the noun or pronoun makes it more expressive. For example, with the increase of adjectives, the word “man” becomes “a tall, attractive man” or “a short, stocky man.”

Descriptive words include the phrases “a, an,” and “the.” Although the words “a” and “no” are often referred to as uncertain because they do not determine the person or thing. "I" is known as a specific article as it describes a person or thing. For example, “man” (any man) is compared to “man” (a certain man). In each language, adjectives are important parts of sentences. Using adjectives means that we can express the nature of any person or thing. Without descriptive words, we could not say what any article looked like. They are not just pronouns and nouns that are used to express something or someone.

In addition; when we read the clear paper, the adjectives help us to convey a picture of what we are reading.

Considering the importance of adjectives in the English language, the following comes to our knowledge.

1.  Definitely a noun. Mark, what is the name about? Location, person or thing?

2. It also tells us a descriptive concept of the same noun so that we can find the correct meaning and context of a particular article.

3. An adjective completely affects the meaning of a sentence. Its presence makes the sentence interesting.

Use of Comparative Adjectives

The comparative adjective is used to indicate the symbol of one object (noun or pronoun) compared to another object (only one object).

It makes comparisons between two items (not more than two).

Words like 'kuna' and 'to' are used after the comparative adjective in a sentence.

Examples:

• The bus is bigger than a car.

• The bed is heavier than a chair.

• John is taller than Sarah

• He is three years older than I am.

• A car is faster than a bicycle.

Use of Superlative Adjective

The superlative adjective is used to indicate the symbol of one object compared to many other (more than one) objects. Comparing one thing with many other things A very high degree produces the highest thickness (i.e., quality or quantity) of an object compared to other objects. In other words, the higher adverb indicates that one thing exceeds all other things in certain respects.

For example, John is the tallest boy in his class.

It means that John is taller than all the boys in his class. No other boy, in his class, is taller than John. It compares John's height with that of all the other students in his class. See the following additional examples.

Conclusion

Study this summary to understand the different kinds of adjectives. Increase your knowledge by understanding this part of speech. Learn the adjective definition and types properly and escalate your grammar skills.