Adjectives
An Adjective is a describing word. It says something more
about a noun.
An adjective can be modified by an adverb of degree like
‘very’ or ‘true’. An adjective has comparative and superlative forms.
Kinds of Adjectives
There are different kinds of adjectives.
Adjectives of Quality or Qualitative Adjectives
Qualitative adjectives describe the shape, size, color, or
manner of a thing or a person.
Example: The tall, slim girl standing near the
big gate is my sister.
Adjectives of the Quantitative or Numerals
The adjectives of quantity/number refer to ‘how much’ or
‘how many’ of a thing, e.g. ‘some’, ‘no’, ‘many’, ‘much’, ‘five’, and ‘few’.
Example: There are forty-five students in this class.
Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives are used to point at a person or a
thing, e.g. ‘this’, ‘these’, ‘those’, and ‘that’.
Example: These mangoes are very sweet.
Interrogative Adjectives
Adjectives that are used for asking questions are called
interrogative adjectives, e.g. ‘who’, ‘whose’, ‘which’, and ‘what’.
Example: Whose book have you borrowed?
Participles AS Adjectives
Both present participles (-ing) and past participles (-ed)
can be used as adjectives.
Present participle adjectives are active and are used to
denote a particular effect.
Example: I watched an interesting movie last night.
Past participles are passive and are used to mean ‘affected’
in a particular way’.
Example: A tired traveler was walking down the road.
Proper adjectives are
formed form proper nouns especially form names of places (continents,
countries, states, and cities) and persons, e.g. ‘Chinese’, ‘Victorian’,
‘Tibetan’, ‘Pakistan’, etc.
Example: Ralph is a Swede who has married a French
lady.
Exercise No.1
Identify the adjectives and say what kind they
are.
This town has withstood many fierce battles
I write every day in my little red personal diary.
The British rule of the Indian Sub-continent ended in 1947.
Which dress would you like to buy? This one or that?
It was a glorious day with a clear blue sky.
Forming Adjectives
Adjectives may be formed from
Nouns
Examples: Dirt-dirty, hope-hopeful/hopeless,
silk-silken/silky,
Verbs
Examples: Tire-Tiresome, Talk-Talkative, cease-ceaseless,
Other Adjectives
Examples: whole-wholesome, white-whitish, sick-sickly,
Exercise No.2
Fill in the blanks with adjectives formed form the words in
brackets.
Atif is a______ boy. (Mischief)
Her _____ behavior won her no friends. (outrage)
The dishonest man’s money and his________ property was
seized by the authorities. (move)
I am _________ no one. (envy)
The ________ violence seen in the film is repulsive. (sense)
Snoopy is the most _____ dog I have seen. (meddle)
It is not a _______ crime. (pardon)
Dark __________ clouds gathered in the sky. (storm)