Adjectives

                                                      

Index:- 

•  Introduction

•  Definition

•  Kinds of Adjectives  and their uses

 

 Introduction:- 
            Adjectives in English are equivalent of  विशेषण in Hindi. However, Hindi has so far, no exclusive entity of Determiners.

 Definition :- 
          Adjective says something more about a noun. An adjective can take an adverb of degree (intensifier) like too/very. It has comparative and superlative forms as well.
   Adjectives in English are not affected by number or gender or case because they do  not have to agree with the noun they modify.  

Common types of adjectives

1. Comparative adjectives
2. Superlative adjectives
3. Predicate adjectives
4. Compound adjectives
5. Possessive adjectives
6. Demonstrative adjectives
7. Proper adjectives
8. Participial adjectives
9. Limiting adjectives
10. Descriptive adjectives
11. Interrogative adjectives
12. Attributive adjectives
13. Distributive adjectives

1. Comparative adjectives:- 

                                                these are used to compare two different people or things to each other. Some examples of comparative adjectives include words such as smaller, faster, more expensive, and less reasonable.

For example:-

 

• Elephants are larger animals than lions.
• We prefered to a cheaper apartment.
• The sequel was even more incredible than the first movie.

2. Superlative adjectives:- 

                                                 these are used to compare more than two people or things by indicating which one is the most supreme or extreme. Some examples of superlative adjectives include words such as smartest, loudest, most impressive, and least valuable.

For example:-

 

• Vaishnavi is the fastest member of our team.
• Out of all of my dresses, this one is the oldest.
• I am trying to figure out the least confusing way to explain the lesson to all of you.

3. Predicate adjectives:-

                these are adjectives that appear in the predicate of a sentence as a  subject compliment rather than directly next to the nouns or pronouns that they modify. 

For example:-

 

• Vikram is Smart.
• Mona became angry.
• The food looks delicious.

4. Compound adjectives:- 

                                                 these are adjectives that are formed from multiple words, which are usually connected by hyphens. Some examples of compound adjectives include never-ending, cross-eyed, and run-of-the-mill.

For example:-

 

• Vikram had enough of the double-dealing salesman.
• My happy-go-lucky wife loved our journey to Manali.
• The better-off members of the city live by the river.
• This is a four-foot table.
• Golu is a part-time worker.
• This is an all-too-common error.
• Beware of the drunken-eyed girls.
• He is a cold-blooded man.
• I love this brightly-lit room!
• He is an obedient and well-behaved dog.
• You have to be open-minded about things.

5. Possessive adjectives :- 

                                                   these are often used to express possession or ownership. The most commonly used possessive adjectives are my, your, its, her, his, our, their, and whose.

For example:-

 

• My favorite song is Thumri.
• Ayush spent the day with his parents.
• Indians celebrated their team’s victory.
• My computer is not working as fast as it worked in the beginning.
• Our father told us not to quarrel with anyone.
• Your cycle has been stolen yesterday.
• Your child is not doing well in the school.
• We are concerned about his performance.
• The students of class seven submitted their assignment.
• I could not understand her intentions.
• Her thoughts are too complex.
• My mind stops working when I think about that.
• Stop messing with my hair.
• I cannot believe that you broke my glasses.
• I don’t want to see your shadow again.
• She made her life miserable by pessimism.
• Their favorite teacher is Mr. Vikram veer.

6. Demonstrative adjectives :- 

                                                     these are used to express relative positions in space and time. The most commonly used demonstrative adjectives are this, that, these, and those.

For example:-

 

• This computer is cheaper than that one.
• This weekend is going to be really fun.
• Watch out for those prickly alkanet bushes next to you.
• Give me that blue water bottle.
• This time I won’t fail you.
• I want those gorgeous marbles.
• I wanted to propose you that day.
• These mangoes are rotting.
• I can’t forget that incident.
• Those people were mean to her.
• I cannot give you money at this moment.
• I could not manage it at that moment.
• Those rascals are back in the town.
• This pen is smoother than that pen.
• Will you please grant me that loan we talked about?
• That building is stronger than this hut 
• But this hut is more beautiful than that building

7. Proper adjectives:-

                                these are adjectives formed from proper nouns.  In general, proper adjectives are commonly used to say that something is related to a specific person or place. Proper adjectives include words such as African, Napoleonic, and Shakespearian.

For example:-

 

• Aditi was reading a Russian newspaper.
• I think Indian food is tasty.
• We studied the history of Victorian England in school today.

8. Participial adjectives**

these are adjectives that are based on participles. which are words that usually end in -ed or -ing and derive from verbs. Participial adjectives include words like amazing, impressed, and fascinating.

For example:- 

 

• Aladin was late for his Yoga lessons.
• Please hand me my reading glasses.
• The silly clown cheered up the bored children.
• I was really bored during the flight.
•  (NOT: I was really boring during the flight).
• She's interested in history.
• (NOT: She's really interesting in history).
• Adi's frightened of spiders.
• (NOT: John's frightening of spiders)                                                                 Some participles (like 'bored' or 'boring') can be used as adjectives. These are used in a slightly different way from normal adjectives. We usually use the past participle (ending in -ed) to talk about how someone feels:
  • I was really bored during the flight  .                             (NOT: I was really boring during the flight).
  • She's interested in history .                                         (NOT: She's really interesting in history).
  • John's frightened of spiders.                                        (NOT: John's frightening of spiders).
  We usually use the present participle (ending in -ing) to talk about the person, thing, or situation which has caused the feeling:
  • It was such a long, boring flight.           (so I was bored).
  • I read a really interesting book about history .                      (so I was interested).
  • Many people find spiders frightening .                          (so they're frightened when they see spiders).
  Be careful! 'I'm boring' is very different from 'I'm bored'! 'I'm boring' means I cause other people to be bored. This is not good! Here are some examples of when one person causes a feeling in another person:
  • I was talking to such a boring guy at the party. He talked about himself for an hour!
  • She's a really interesting woman. She's lived all over the world and speaks five languages.
  • My maths teacher at school was really frightening! He was always shouting at the students.
  These participle adjectives make their comparative by using 'more' (not -er) and their superlative by using 'most' (not -est):
  • I was more frightened of dogs than spiders when I was a child.
  • That book is more boring than this one.
  • I think Dr Smith's lesson was more interesting than Dr Brown's.
  • For 24 hours on the flight to Australia, I was the most bored I've ever been.
  • I think this is the most interesting talk we've heard today.
  • It was the most frightening film that he'd ever seen.

9. Limiting adjectives:-

                 these  are adjectives that restrict a noun or pronoun rather than describe any of its characteristics or qualities. Limiting adjectives overlap with other types of adjectives such as demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives. Limiting adjectives include words such as these, your, and some.

For example:-

 

• Vikram purchased some flutes from the store.
• She found three coins in my pocket.
• Take a look at that house over there.

10. Descriptive adjectives:-

these are adjectives that describe the characteristics, traits, or qualities of a noun or pronoun. Most adjectives are descriptive adjectives. Words such as purple, friendly, and attractive are examples of descriptive adjectives.

For example:- 

 

• A lot of interesting people visit this park.
• She told a scary story.
• The leaves turned orange and red.

11. Interrogative adjectives:-

These are adjectives that are used to ask questions. The interrogative adjectives are what, which, and whose.

   WH word + Noun = Interrogative adjectives

 For example:-

 

• What color is your favorite? 
• Which button switches on the fan?
• Whose turn is it to sing a song?

12. Attributive adjectives :-

                                                      These are adjectives that are directly next to the noun and pronoun that they modify. Usually, attributive adjectives come directly before nouns and pronouns but they modify. But they can sometimes appear after them.

For example:-

 

• She has beautiful handwriting.
• The hungry elephant ate the fresh bananas.
• Shanu gave his dad something special for his birthday.

13. Distributive adjectives:- 

                                                     These are used to refer to members of a group individually. Examples of distributive adjectives include each, every, either, neither, any, both.

For example :-

 

• Either option sounds good to me.
• Any person can make a donation.
• Every member of the team scored a goal.
• I’ll be happy if either candidate wins the election.
• Either path will get us out of the woods.
• There could be a hairy spider in either box.
• Neither man knew how to fly a plane.
• Neither answer sounded right.
• Both cats chased the mouse.
• He carried the bucket using both hands.
• Any member of the club can come to the party.
• I can outrun any person here.

Difference between Attributive adjectives and Predicate adjectives :- 

Most adjectives can be used in two positions. When they are used before the noun    they describe, they are called attributive.

For Example:- 

a black cat

a gloomy outlook

a slow journey

a large suitcase

 

When they are used after a verb such  as be, become, grow, look, 

or seem, they’re called predicative:

The cat was black.

The future looks gloomy.

The journey seemed slow.

They were growing tired.

 

There are some adjectives that can only be used in one position or the other. For example, these two sentences are grammatically correct:

✓ She was alone that evening. [‘alone’ = predicative ]

✓ It was a mere scratch. [‘mere’ = attributive]

 

These sentences, on the other hand, are not correct:

✗ I saw an alone woman. [‘alone’ cannot be used in the attributive position]

✗ The scratch was mere. [‘mere’ cannot be used in the predicative position]

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