Adjective

In linguistics, an adjective is a describing word, the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a
noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified.[1]

Adjectives are one of the English parts of speech, although historically they were classed
together with the nouns. Certain words that were traditionally considered to be adjectives,
including the, this, my, etc., are today usually classed separately, as determiners.

Etymology
See also the history sections under Part of speech and Noun.

Adjective comes from Latin (nōmen) adjectīvum "additional (noun)",[2] a calque of

Ancient Greek: ἐπίθετον (ὄνομα) epítheton (ónoma) "additional (noun)".[3][4] In the grammatical
tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like
nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a subtype of noun. The words that are
today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns (nōmen substantīvum).[5] The
terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English, until the word noun
came to refer only to the former type, and the second type came to be known simply as
adjectives.

Types of use

A given occurrence of an adjective can generally be classified into one of three kinds of use:

1. Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify; for
example, happy is an attributive adjective in "happy people". In some languages,
attributive adjectives precede their nouns; in others, they follow their nouns; and in yet
others, it depends on the adjective, or on the exact relationship of the adjective to the
noun. In English, attributive adjectives usually precede their nouns in simple phrases, but
often follow their nouns when the adjective is modified or qualified by a phrase acting as
an adverb. For example: "I saw three happy kids", and "I saw three kids happy enough to
jump up and down with glee." See also Postpositive adjective.
2. Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or
pronoun they modify; for example, happy is a predicate adjective in "they are happy" and
in "that made me happy." (See also: Predicative expression, Subject complement.)
3. Nominal adjectives act almost as nouns. One way this can happen is if a noun is elided
and an attributive adjective is left behind. In the sentence, "I read two books to them; he
preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy", happy is a nominal adjective, short
for "happy one" or "happy book". Another way this can happen is in phrases like "out
with the old, in with the new", where "the old" means, "that which is old" or "all that is
old", and similarly with "the new". In such cases, the adjective functions either as a mass
noun (as in the preceding example) or as a plural count noun, as in "The meek shall
inherit the Earth", where "the meek" means "those who are meek" or "all who are meek".

Distribution

Adjectives feature as a part of speech (word class) in most languages. In some languages, the
words that serve the semantic function of adjectives may be categorized together with some
other class, such as nouns or verbs. For example, rather than an adjective meaning "big", a
language might have a verb that means "to be big", and could then use an attributive verb
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construction analogous to "big-being house" to express what English expresses as "big house".
Such an analysis is possible for the Chinese languages, for example.

Different languages do not always use adjectives in exactly the same situations. For example,
where English uses to be hungry (hungry being an adjective), Dutch and French use honger
hebben and avoir faim respectively (literally "to have hunger", the words for "hunger" being
nouns). Similarly, where Hebrew uses the adjective ‫ זקוק‬zaqūq (roughly "in need of"), English
uses the verb "to need".

In languages which have adjectives as a word class, they are usually an open class; that is, it is
relatively common for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation. However,
Bantu languages are well known for having only a small closed class of adjectives, and new
adjectives are not easily derived. Similarly, native Japanese adjectives (i-adjectives) are
considered a closed class (as are native verbs), although nouns (an open class) may be used in
the genitive to convey some adjectival meanings, and there is also the separate open class of
adjectival nouns (na-adjectives).

Adjectives and adverbs

Many languages, including English, distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and
pronouns, and adverbs, which mainly modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Not all
languages have exactly this distinction and many languages, including English, have words that
can function as both. For example, in English fast is an adjective in "a fast car" (where it
qualifies the noun car), but an adverb in "he drove fast" (where it modifies the verb drove).

In Dutch and German, adjectives and adverbs are usually identical in form and many
grammarians do not make the distinction, but patterns of inflection can suggest a difference:

Eine kluge neue Idee.

A clever new idea.
Eine klug ausgereifte Idee.
A cleverly developed idea.

A German word like klug ("clever(ly)") takes endings when used as an attributive adjective, but
not when used adverbially. (It also takes no endings when used as a predicative adjective: er ist
klug, "he is clever".) Whether these are distinct parts of speech or distinct usages of the same part
of speech is a question of analysis. It is worth noting that while German linguistic terminology
distinguishes adverbiale from adjektivische Formen, school German refers to both as
Eigenschaftswörter ("property words").

Determiners

Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate
parts of speech (or lexical categories), but formerly determiners were considered to be adjectives
in some of their uses. In English dictionaries, which typically still do not treat determiners as
their own part of speech, determiners are often recognizable by being listed both as adjectives
and as pronouns. Determiners are words that are neither nouns nor pronouns, yet reference a
thing already in context. Determiners generally do this by indicating definiteness (as in a vs.
the), quantity (as in one vs. some vs. many), or another such property.

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Adjective phrases

An adjective acts as the head of an adjective phrase or adjectival phrase (AP). In the simplest
case, an adjective phrase consists solely of the adjective; more complex adjective phrases may
contain one or more adverbs modifying the adjective ("very strong"), or one or more
complements (such as "worth several dollars", "full of toys", or "eager to please"). In English,
attributive adjective phrases that include complements typically follow the noun that they qualify
("an evildoer devoid of redeeming qualities").

Other modifiers of nouns

In many languages, including English, it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike
adjectives, nouns acting as modifiers (called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) usually are not
predicative; a beautiful park is beautiful, but a car park is not "car". The modifier often indicates
origin ("Virginia reel"), purpose ("work clothes"), or semantic patient ("man eater"); however, it
may generally indicate almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for adjectives to be
derived from nouns, as in boyish, birdlike, behavioral (behavioural), famous, manly, angelic, and
so on.

Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can act as noun modifiers
(alone or as the head of a phrase). Sometimes participles develop into pure adjectives. Examples
of this in English include relieved (the past participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in
sentences such as "I am so relieved to see you"), spoken (as in "the spoken word"), and going
(the present participle of the verb go, used as an adjective in such phrases as "the going rate").

Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in "a rebel without a
cause"), relative clauses (as in "the man who wasn't there"), and infinitive phrases (as in "a cake
to die for"). Some nouns can also take complements such as content clauses (as in "the idea that I
would do that"), but these are not commonly considered modifiers. For more information about
possible modifiers and dependents of nouns, see Components of noun phrases.

Adjective order

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. In general, the
adjective order in English is:[6][7]

1. Determiners — articles, adverbs, and other limiters.

2. Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a perfect idiot)
and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting), or objects with a
value (e.g., best, cheapest, costly)
3. Size and shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round),
and physical properties such as speed.
4. Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old).
5. Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale).
6. Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American,
Canadian).
7. Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woolen,
metallic, wooden).
8. Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting
cabin, passenger car, book cover).

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This means that in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age
("little old", not "old little"), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to color ("old
white", not "white old"). So, we would say "One (quantity) nice (opinion) little (size) round
(shape) old (age) white (color) brick (material) house."

This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, like Spanish, it may only
be a default (unmarked) word order, with other orders being permissible.

Due partially to borrowings from French, English has some adjectives that follow the noun as
postmodifiers, called postpositive adjectives, as in time immemorial and attorney general.
Adjectives may even change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in
proper: They live in a proper town (a real town, not a village) vs. They live in the town proper (in
the town itself, not in the suburbs). All adjectives can follow nouns in certain constructions, such
as tell me something new.

Comparison of adjectives

In many languages, some adjectives are comparable. For example, a person may be "polite", but
another person may be "more polite", and a third person may be the "most polite" of the three.
The word "more" here modifies the adjective "polite" to indicate a comparison is being made,
and "most" modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative).

Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared, different means are used to indicate the
comparison. Many languages do not distinguish comparative from superlative forms.

In English, there are three different means to indicate comparison: most simple adjectives take
the suffixes "-er" and "-est", as

"big", "bigger", "biggest";

a very few adjectives are irregular:

"good", "better", "best",

"bad", "worse", "worst",
"old", "elder", "eldest" (in certain contexts only)
"far", "farther/further", "farthest/furthest"
"many", "more", "most" (usually regarded as an adverb or determiner)
"little", "less", "least";

all others are compared by means of the words "more" and "most". There is no simple rule to
decide which means is correct for any given adjective, however. The general tendency is for
simpler adjectives, and those from Anglo-Saxon to take the suffixes, while longer adjectives and
those from French, Latin, Greek do not—but sometimes sound of the word is the deciding factor.

Many adjectives do not naturally lend themselves to comparison. For example, some English
speakers would argue that it does not make sense to say that one thing is "more ultimate" than
another, or that something is "most ultimate", since the word "ultimate" is already absolute in its
semantics. Such adjectives are called non-comparable or absolute. Nevertheless, native speakers
will frequently play with the raised forms of adjectives of this sort. Although "pregnant" is
logically non-comparable (either one is pregnant or not), one may hear a sentence like "She
looks more and more pregnant each day". Likewise "extinct" and "equal" appear to be non-

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comparable, but one might say that a language about which nothing is known is "more extinct"
than a well-documented language with surviving literature but no speakers, while George Orwell
wrote "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". These cases may be viewed
as evidence that the base forms of these adjectives are not as absolute in their semantics as is
usually thought.

Comparative and superlative forms are also occasionally used for other purposes than
comparison. In English comparatives can be used to suggest that a statement is only tentative or
tendential: one might say "John is more the shy-and-retiring type," where the comparative
"more" is not really comparing him with other people or with other impressions of him, but
rather, could be substituting for "on the whole". In Italian, superlatives are frequently used to put
strong emphasis on an adjective: Bellissimo means "most beautiful", but is in fact more
commonly heard in the sense "extremely beautiful".

Restrictiveness

Attributive adjectives, and other noun modifiers, may be used either restrictively (helping to
identify the noun's referent, hence "restricting" its reference) or non-restrictively (helping to
describe an already-identified noun). For example:

"He was a lazy sort, who would avoid a difficult task and fill his working hours with
easy ones."
"difficult" is restrictive - it tells us which tasks he avoids, distinguishing these from the
easy ones: "Only those tasks that are difficult".
"She had the job of sorting out the mess left by her predecessor, and she performed this
difficult task with great acumen."
"difficult" is non-restrictive - we already know which task it was, but the adjective
describes it more fully: "The aforementioned task, which (by the way) is difficult"

In some languages, such as Spanish, restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example, in

Spanish la tarea difícil means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task that is difficult"
(restrictive), whereas la difícil tarea means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task, which is
difficult" (non-restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives, but is marked
on relative clauses (the difference between "the man who recognized me was there" and "the
man, who recognized me, was there" being one of restrictiveness).

Agreement

In some languages, adjectives alter their form to reflect the gender, case and number of the noun
that they describe. This is called agreement or concord. Usually it takes the form of inflections at
the end of the word, as in Latin:

puella bona (good girl, feminine)

puellam bonam (good girl, feminine accusative/object case)
puer bonus (good boy, masculine)
pueri boni (good boys, masculine plural)

In the Celtic languages, however, initial consonant lenition marks the adjective with a feminine
noun, as in Irish:

buachaill maith (good boy, masculine)

girseach mhaith (good girl, feminine)
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Often a distinction is made here between attributive and predicative usage. Whereas English is
an example of a language in which adjectives never agree and French of a language in which
they always agree, in German they agree only when used attributively, and in Hungarian only
when used predicatively.

The good (Ø) boys. The boys are good (Ø).

Les bons garçons. Les garçons sont bons.
Die braven Jungen. Die Jungen sind brav (Ø).
A jó (Ø) fiúk. A fiúk jók.

Recognize an adjective when you see one.

Adjectives describe nouns by answering one of these three questions: What kind is it? How many
are there? Which one is it? An adjective can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause.

Check out these examples:

What kind is it?

Dan decided that the fuzzy green bread would make an unappetizing sandwich.

What kind of bread? Fuzzy and green! What kind of sandwich? Unappetizing!

A friend with a fat wallet will never want for weekend shopping partners.

What kind of friend? One with money to spend!

A towel that is still warm from the dryer is more comforting than a hot fudge sundae.

What kind of towel? One right out of the dryer.

How many are there?

Seven hungry space aliens slithered into the diner and ordered vanilla milkshakes.

How many hungry space aliens? Seven!

The students, five freshmen and six sophomores, braved Dr. Ribley's killer calculus exam.

How many students? Eleven!

The disorganized pile of books, which contained seventeen overdue volumes from the library
and five unread class texts, blocked the doorway in Eli's dorm room.

How many books? Twenty-two!

Which one is it?

The most unhealthy item from the cafeteria is the steak sub, which will slime your hands with
grease.

Which item from the cafeteria? Certainly not the one that will lower your cholesterol!
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The cockroach eyeing your cookie has started to crawl this way.

Which cockroach? Not the one crawling up your leg but the one who wants your cookie!

The students who neglected to prepare for Mrs. Mauzy's English class hide in the cafeteria rather
than risk their instructor's wrath.

Which students? Not the good students but the lazy slackers.

Know how to punctuate a series of adjectives.

To describe a noun fully, you might need to use two or more adjectives. Sometimes a series of
adjectives requires commas, but sometimes it doesn't. What makes the difference?

If the adjectives are coordinate, you must use commas between them. If, on the other hand, the
adjectives are noncoordinate, no commas are necessary. How do you tell the difference?

Coordinate Adjectives

Coordinate adjectives can pass one of two tests. When you reorder the series or when you insert
and between them, they still make sense.

Look at the following example:

The tall, creamy, delicious milkshake melted on the counter while the inattentive waiter flirted
with the pretty cashier.

Now read this revision:

The delicious, tall, creamy milkshake melted on the counter while the inattentive waiter flirted
with the pretty cashier.

The series of adjectives still makes sense even though the order has changed.

And if you insert and between the adjectives, you still have a logical sentence:

The tall and creamy and delicious milkshake melted on the counter while the inattentive waiter
flirted with the pretty cashier.

Noncoordinate Adjectives

Noncoordinate adjectives do not make sense when you reorder the series or when you insert and
between them.

Check out this example:

Jeanne's two fat Siamese cats hog the electric blanket on cold winter evenings.

If you switch the order of the adjectives, the sentence becomes gibberish:

Fat Siamese two Jeanne's cats hog the electric blanket on cold winter evenings.

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Logic will also evaporate if you insert and between the adjectives.

Jeanne's and two and fat and Siamese cats hog the electric blanket on cold winter evenings.

Form comparative and superlative adjectives correctly.

To make comparisons, you will often need comparative or superlative adjectives. You use
comparative adjectives if you are discussing two people, places, or things. You use superlative
adjectives if you have three or more people, places, or things.

Look at these two examples:

Stevie, a suck up who sits in the front row, has a thicker notebook than Nina, who never comes
to class.

The thinnest notebook belongs to Mike, a computer geek who scans all notes and handouts and
saves them on the hard drive of his laptop.

Comparative Adjectives

You can form comparative adjectives two ways. You can add er to the end of the adjective, or
you can use more or less before it. Do not, however, do both! You violate the rules of grammar if
you claim that you are more taller, more smarter, or less faster than your older brother Fred.

One-syllable adjectives generally take er at the end, as in these examples:

Because Fuzz is a smaller cat than Buster, she loses the fights for tuna fish.

For dinner, we ordered a bigger pizza than usual so that we would have cold leftovers for
breakfast.

Two-syllable adjectives vary. Check out these examples:

Kelly is lazier than an old dog; he is perfectly happy spending an entire Saturday on the couch,
watching old movies and napping.

The new suit makes Marvin more handsome than a movie star.

Use more or less before adjectives with three or more syllables:

Movies on our new flat-screen television are, thankfully, less colorful; we no longer have to
tolerate the electric greens and nuclear pinks of the old unit.

Heather is more compassionate than anyone I know; she watches where she steps to avoid
squashing a poor bug by accident.

Superlative Adjectives

You can form superlative adjectives two ways as well. You can add est to the end of the
adjective, or you can use most or least before it. Do not, however, do both! You violate another
grammatical rule if you claim that you are the most brightest, most happiest, or least angriest
member of your family.
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One-syllable adjectives generally take est at the end, as in these examples:

These are the tartest lemon-roasted squid tentacles that I have ever eaten!

Nigel, the tallest member of the class, has to sit in the front row because he has bad eyes; the rest
of us crane around him for a glimpse of the board.

Two-syllable adjectives vary. Check out these examples:

Because Hector refuses to read directions, he made the crispiest mashed potatoes ever in the
history of instant food.

Because Isaac has a crush on Ms. Orsini, his English teacher, he believes that she is the most
gorgeous creature to walk the planet.

Use most or least before adjectives with three or more syllables:

The most frustrating experience of Desiree's day was arriving home to discover that the onion
rings were missing from her drive-thru order.

The least believable detail of the story was that the space aliens had offered Eli a slice of
pepperoni pizza before his release.

Examples of Adjectives
Looking at examples of adjectives can make it easier to understand how these important parts of
speech are used within the English language.

Popular Adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes, identifies or further defines a noun or a pronoun. There are
thousands of adjectives available to describe how something feels, looks, sounds, tastes and acts.
Here are a few examples:

To Describe Taste
Bitter Lemon-flavored Spicy
Bland Minty Sweet
Delicious Pickled Tangy
Fruity Salty Tasty
Gingery Sour Yummy

To Describe Touch
Auricular Fluffy Sharp
Boiling Freezing Silky
Breezy Fuzzy Slick
Bumpy Greasy Slimy
Chilly Hard Slippery
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Cold Hot Smooth
Cool Icy Soft
Cuddly Loose Solid
Damaged Melted Steady
Damp Painful Sticky
Dirty Plastic Tender
Dry Prickly Tight
Dusty Rough Uneven
Filthy Shaggy Warm
Flaky Shaky Wet

To Describe Sound
Blaring Melodic Screeching
Deafening Moaning Shrill
Faint Muffled Silent
Hoarse Mute Soft
High-pitched Noisy Squealing
Hissing Purring Squeaking
Hushed Quiet Thundering
Husky Raspy Voiceless
Loud Resonant Whispering

To Describe Color
Azure Gray Pinkish
Black Green Purple
Blue Indigo Red
Bright Lavender Rosy
Brown Light Scarlet
Crimson Magenta Silver
Dark Multicolored Turquoise
Drab Mustard Violet
Dull Orange White
Gold Pink Yellow

To Describe Size
Abundant Jumbo Puny
Big-boned Large Scrawny
Chubby Little Short
Fat Long Small
Giant Majestic Tall
Gigantic Mammoth Teeny
Great Massive Thin
Huge Miniature Tiny
Immense Petite Vast
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To Describe Shape
Blobby Distorted Rotund
Broad Flat Round
Chubby Fluffy Skinny
Circular Globular Square
Crooked Hollow Steep
Curved Low Straight
Cylindrical Narrow Triangular
Deep Oval Wide

To Describe Time
Annual Futuristic Rapid
Brief Historical Regular
Daily Irregular Short
Early Late Slow
Eternal Long Speed
Fast Modern Speedy
First Old Swift
Fleet Old-fashioned Waiting
Future Quick Young

To Describe an Amount
All Heavy One
Ample Hundreds Paltry
Astronomical Large Plentiful
Bountiful Light Profuse
Considerable Limited Several
Copious Little Sizable
Countless Many Some
Each Measly Sparse
Enough Mere Substantial
Every Multiple Teeming

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