Adjective: Definition & Types with Examples
Lesson 5
An adjective is a word that's used to give some extra information about a noun (Know more about noun ) or pronoun. (Know more about pronoun)
In the following examples, ‘good’, ‘Indian’ and ‘your’ are adjectives that give information about boy, food and friend respectively.
Examples:
(a) Ram is a good boy.
(b) Indian food is delicious.
(c) Your friend is my friend.
Types of Adjectives
Adjectives are mainly classified into the following eight kinds.
(1) Adjectives of quality
(2) Adjectives of quantity
(3) Adjectives of number
(4) Proper adjectives
(5) Possessive adjectives
(6) Distributive adjectives
(7) Demonstrative adjectives
(8) Interrogative adjectives
Tip to Remember:- “The QueeN gave ProPosal to the Doctor of Italy.”
Here, Q stands for adjective of Quality and Quantity, N stands for adjective of Number and so on.
1. Adjectives of quality, as the name implies, are words that tell us about the qualities of a noun or pronoun.
In the given below sentences, (Know more about sentence ) ‘beautiful’ and ‘intelligent’ are adjectives of quality, modifying or describing the noun, ‘house’ and the pronoun, ‘you’ respectively.
Examples:
(a) This is a beautiful house.
(b) You are intelligent.
2. Adjectives of quantity, as the name suggests, are words that tell us about the quantity or amount of the noun or pronoun for which they are used.
In the following examples, ‘much’ and a ‘little’ are adjectives of quantity that describe how much time should be spent or how much milk should be added.
Examples:
(a) You need not spend much time on grammar.
(b) Put a little milk in the cup.
3. Adjectives of number show the number (Know more about number ) of persons or things. They tell us about how many persons or things are being referred to in the sentence. (Know more about sentence )
Adjectives of number are of two types.
1. Ordinal and 2. Cardinal
(Ordinal adjectives show the order of a noun and Cardinal adjectives show the number of it)
‘Second’ in the first example is an ordinal adjective and ‘One’ in the second example is a cardinal adjective.
Examples:
(a) He got the second rank.
(b) One student was absent yesterday.
4. Proper adjectives are made of proper nouns and are always capitalised.
‘Indian’ and ‘American’ in the following examples are proper adjectives, describing ‘food’ and ‘English’ respectively.
Examples:
(a) Indian food is delicious.
(b) American English is easy to speak.
5. Possessive adjectives show possession or ownership. They tell us about who or what something belongs to.
‘my’ and ‘your’ in the given below sentences are possessive adjectives.
Examples:
(a) This is my car
(b) Your brother loves her.
6. Distributive adjectives are words that show to us that every member of a group is meant individually.
‘Every’ and ‘Each’ are distributive adjectives here in the following examples.
Examples:
(a) Every teacher and every student is present in the class today.
(b) Each person will be given a chance.
7. Demonstrative adjectives are used to show that someone or something is near or far.
‘This’ and ‘That’ are demonstrative adjectives.
Examples:
(a) This boy has real talents.
(b) That girl is going to school.
8. Interrogative adjectives are the noun-modifying words that are used to ask questions.
In the following examples, ‘What’ and ‘Which’ are interrogative adjectives.
Examples:
(a) What time will it take to reach there?
(b) Which book do you like most?
Order or Position of Adjectives
Rule 1. When adjective of number and demonstrative adjective are used together, they are placed in the following order.
• Adjective of number + Demonstrative adjective
Examples:
(a) Both these girls were fighting.
(b) All these pens are mine.
Rule 2. If demonstrative adjective and possessive adjective are used together, then they are placed in the following order.
• Demonstrative + Possessive
Examples:
(a) This my pen writes well.
(b) That my house is beautiful.
Rule 3. When using adjective of quality and adjective of age together, we use the following order.
• Adjective of quality + adjective of age
Examples:
(a) I bought a good new bike yesterday.
(b) I have a bad old car.
Exercise
Specify the types of adjectives in bold.
1. I have a bad friend.
2. You're spending much time to complete it.
3. I have three children.
4. British English is hard to speak.
5. Our team is working for the development of our community.
6. Each and every student needs to work hard.
7. Those girls are gorgeous.
8. Whose book is this?
Answer keys:-
(1) Adjective of quality
(2) Adjective of quantity
(3) Adjective of number
(4) Proper adjective
(5) Possessive adjective
(6) Distributive adjective
(7) Demonstrative adjective
(8) Interrogative adjective
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