Adjectives Usages and Examples in English

An adjective tells us more and gives us additional information about something. For example, if someone says, "It's a warm day," the adjective warm gives us additional information about the day.

 

What are the adjectives?

 

Adjectives are words that make sentences more interesting and add spice to writing.

 

What are the types of adjectives?

 

There are 13 different 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

 

Uses of adjectives

 

Here are 7 uses of adjectives with examples: 

1. Adjectives tell us something about a person or thing, and adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns.

• This is a nice car. 
• The car is nice. 
• It is nice. 

• Hoda is a careful girl.
• Hoda is careful.
• She is careful. 

 

2. Adjectives can be placed before the noun.

• Thing: This is a nice car.
• Person: Hoda is a careful girl.

 

3. Adjectives can be placed after the verb to be (is), and this is called a predicative position.

• This car is nice.
• The girl is careful. 
  

a. Adjectives can follow the following verbs:

• appear... / become... / feel... / get... / go... / keep... / turn...
  

 

See: All Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

 

4. When we talk about how something looks, smells, sounds and tastes we use adjectives to remember the difference between an adjective and an adverb.

• I feel great.
• She looks good.
• It seems impossible.
• The steak smells fantastic. 

 

5. Adjectives can be used without nouns and remember the definite article "the":

• The rich = rich people
• The good must be put in the dish, the bad you may eat if you wish.
• The Scottish live in the North of the United Kingdom. 

 

6. Two or more adjectives can be used together. If you use more adjectives, you can put them in front of the noun:

• A fat old cat
• It was cold, wet and windy. 

 

7. Adjectives end in "ing" and "ed" and are used like adjectives.

A. Here adjectives are placed before nouns:

• Yesterday I read an amusing story in a magazine.
• Doris has a boring job.
• We watched the group of excited people. 
  

B. Here the adjectives are placed after the "verbs":

• I was not at all amused by the discussion.
• Children get bored very quickly.
• The end of the film was really exciting for me.

 

Adjective phrase examples

 

As we know, an adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence. An adjective in an adjective clause can appear at the beginning, end, or middle of the phrase. An adjective phrase can be placed before or after a noun or a pronoun in a sentence.

1. Her eyes were incredibly mesmerizing to the young man.
2. The highly emotive actor gave a wonderful performance.
3. She is rather fond of skiing.
4. By the end of the date, I was fairly bored with him.
5. The overly enthusiastic fans painted their bodies with the team’s colors.
6. The valedictorian was far too serious about her GPA 
7. That complex has quite small but cheap apartments. 
8. That apple pie smells very tempting. 
9. Dining out is usually not very healthy. 
10. The extremely tired kitten fell asleep by her food dish. 
11. A dog covered in sticky and disgusting mud makes a mess in a car.

 

See: Opposites of Adjectives by Adding Prefixes

 

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References

thesaurus - gingersoftware -  yourdictionary