An adjective is a part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun.In addition to their basic (or positive) forms (for example, big and beautiful), most adjectives have two other forms: comparative (bigger and more beautiful) and superlative (biggest and most beautiful). Adjectives often—but not always—serve as modifiers, providing additional information about another word or word group, such as a noun or noun phrase. But adjectives can alsothemselvesact as nouns in a sentence.
Learning a few basic grammatical rules and recognizing the various types of adjectives will have you correctly using these important parts of speech in no time. Below are the main types of adjectives you are likely to encounter in English, together with accompanying explanations for each.
Absolute Adjectives
Anabsolute adjective—such assupremeorinfinite—is an adjective with a meaning that cannot beintensifiedorcompared. It is also known as anincomparable,ultimate, orabsolute modifier.English Language Centresgives this example of an absolute adjective:
- He is dead.
In the sentence, the worddeadis an absolute adjective. The person is eitherdeador he is not, says the firm that offers online and in-person English language courses. You cannot bedeaderthan someone else and you cannot be thedeadestamong a group. According to somestyle guides, absolute adjectives are always in thesuperlative degree. However, some absolute adjectives can be quantified by the addition of the wordalmost,nearly, orvirtually.
AttributiveandPredicative Adjectives
Anattributive adjectiveusually comes before thenounit modifies without alinking verb. For example, take this sentence fromMaya Angelou's work "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings":
"In thosetendermornings, the Store was full of laughing, joking, boasting, and bragging."
The wordtenderis an attributive adjective because it precedes and modifies the nounmornings.Attributive adjectives are directmodifiersofnominals.
By contrast, apredicative adjectiveusually comesafteralinking verbrather thanbeforeanoun. Another term for a predicative adjective is asubject complement. The Oxford Online Living Dictionaries gives this example:
- The cat isblack.
In general,when adjectives are used after a verb such asbe,become,grow,look,orseem, they’re calledpredicativeadjectives, says the dictionary.
Appositive Adjectives
An appositive adjective is a traditional grammatical term for anadjective(or a series of adjectives) that follows anounand, like anonrestrictiveappositive, is set off bycommasordashes. For example:
"Arthur was a big boy,tall, strong, and broad-shouldered."
– Janet B. Pascal, "Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street"
As the example shows, appositive adjectives often appear in pairs or groups of three, calledtricolons.
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
Thecomparativeadjective is the form of anadjectiveinvolving the comparisons of more or less as well asgreater or lesser.
Comparative adjectives in English are either marked by thesuffix-er(as in "thefasterbike") or identified by the wordmoreorless("themore difficultjob"). Almost allone-syllableadjectives, along with some two-syllable adjectives, add-erto thebaseto form the comparative. In most adjectives of two or moresyllables, the comparative is identified by the wordmoreorless.
Thesuperlative adjective, by comparison, is the form ordegreeof anadjective that indicates the most or the least of something. Superlatives are either marked by thesuffix-est(as in "thefastestbike") or identified by the wordmostorleast("themost difficultjob"). Similar to comparative adjectives, almost allone-syllableadjectives, along with some two-syllable adjectives, add-estto thebaseto form the superlative.In most adjectives of two or moresyllables, the superlative is identified by the wordmostorleast.Not all adjectives have superlative forms.
After a superlative,inorofplus anoun phrasecan be used to indicate what is being compared (as in "thetallestbuildinginthe world" and "thebesttimeofmy life").
Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is made up of two or more words (such aspart-timeandhigh-speed) that act as a single idea tomodifyanoun(apart-timeemployee, ahigh-speedchase). Compound adjectives are also called phrasal adjectivesorcompound modifiers.
As a general rule, the words in a compound adjective arehyphenatedwhen they come before a noun (awell-knownactor) but not when they come after (The actor iswell known). Compound adjectives formed with anadverbending in-ly(such asrapidly changing) are usually not hyphenated.
Demonstrative Adjectives
Ademonstrative adjectiveis adeterminerthat comes before andpoints to a particularnoun. Indeed, ademonstrative adjective is sometimes called ademonstrative determiner. For example:
- Son, takethisbat and hitthatball out of the park.
There are four demonstratives in English:
- The "near" demonstratives:thisandthese
- The "far" demonstratives:thatandthose
- Thesingulardemonstratives:thisandthat
- The pluraldemonstratives:theseandthose
Denominal Adjectives
Adenominal adjectiveis formed fromanoun, usually with the addition of asuffix—such ashopeless, earthen, cowardly, childish, andReaganesque. An example would be:
- Our new neighborhood seemed romantic, somehow, and verySanFranciscoish, especially to a couple of young people who hailed from Idaho.
In this sentence, theproper nounSan Francisco is altered with the suffix-ishto form the denominal adjective. These kinds of adjectives can heighten the drama and descriptiveness of a sentence, as in this example:
"The president's oration was...Lincolnianin its cadences, and in some ways, was the final, impassioned, heart-felt rebuke to all those, including his opponent, who tried to portray him as somehow un-American."
– Andrew Sullivan, "The American President."The Daily Beast, Nov. 7, 2012
Nominal Adjectives
The termnominaladjectiverefers to an adjective or group of adjectives that functionasa noun. "The Complete English Grammar Rules" by Farlex International notes that nominal adjectives are generally preceded by the word the and can be found as the subject or the object of a sentence or clause. For example:
- The elderly are a great source of wisdom.
The wordelderlygenerally acts as a true adjective—anelderlygentleman—but in the previous sentence, it functions as acollective nounand as the subject of the sentence. Nominal adjectivesare also known as substantiveadjectives.
Participial Adjectives
Aparticipial adjectiveis anadjectivethat has the same form as theparticiple(averbending in-ingor-ed/-en) and usually exhibits the ordinary properties of an adjective. For example:
"What kind of a man was he to fall in love with alyingthief?"
– Janet Dailey, "The Hostage Bride"
In the sentence, the verblieis altered by adding the ending-ing to form the participial adjectivelying, which then describes the nounthief.Also, the comparativeandsuperlativeforms of participial adjectives are formed withmoreandmostand lessandleast—not with the endings-erand-est.
Adjectival Observations
Not everyone is a fan of adjectives. Constance Hale, in "Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose," noted that the famous humorist and author Mark Twain had some rather negative comments about this part of speech:
"When you catch anadjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart."
And in his 2002 memorialeulogyto former British Cabinet Minister Barbara Castle, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recalled her remark:
"Bugger theadjectives. It's the nouns and verbs people want."
– Ned Halley, "Dictionary of Modern English Grammar"
Nouns generallyarethe subject of a sentence, while verbs dodescribe the action or state of being. But used effectively and correctly, as you see from the previous examples, adjectives can indeedenhance many sentences by adding colorful, vivid, and detaileddescription, increasing interest in an otherwise mundane sentence.
