The document defines an adjective as a word used to describe a noun and provide extra information about it. It discusses different types of adjectives including opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose adjectives. Examples are provided to illustrate adjective order and placement before nouns, with rules indicating general opinion adjectives come before specific opinion adjectives.
2. What is an adjective?
The simplest definition of an adjective is …
An adjective is a word
used to describe a noun
IT GIVES THE READER EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT IT
4. What is an adjective?
When you write the noun "dog"
you give the reader basic information.
When you add an adjective,
you give the reader information that they can use
to create a more detailed picture of the dog.
In this way, adjectives transform the general idea of a dog
into the more specific idea of a "muddy old sheep dog".
Adjectives transform the man into the ”elderly man”
or the ”fragile elderly man”
And the cake into the ”ornate wedding cake”
7. Activity 2. Can you recognize an adjective when you see one?
Underline the adjectives in the following sentences.
1. He is an honest man.
2. The wretched girl sat in the back row.
1. The racing boat zoomed over the calm surface of the lake.
2. Our adventurous tour guide led us up he rocky, mountainous path.
3. The tall, creamy, delicious milkshake melted on the counter while the
inattentive waiter flirted with the pretty cashier.
4. Jeanne's two fat Siamese cats hog the electric blanket on cold winter
evenings.
8. How many adjectives before a noun?
Sometimes we use more than one adjective in front of a noun.
• We often have 2 adjectives in front of a noun:
It’s a nice
comfortable car.
• We sometimes have 3 adjectives in front of a noun, but this is unusual.
It’s a nice
comfortable
convertible car
• It is very unusual to have more than 3 adjectives.
9. Order of Adjectives
Adjectives cannot be written in any order. There are rules.
When you list several adjectives in a row, you have to put them in the right order,
Some adjectives give a general opinion. Some adjectives give a specific opinion.
BIG COMFORTABLE
Place
general opinion adjectives
Use a comma
before when writing similar adjectives.
specific opinion adjectives “It was a dark, gloomy night”.
However,
A big comfortable car
if the adjectives
have different meanings,
skip the comma.
“It was a dark sad night”
10. Types of adjectives
NUMBER A number adjective gives information about how many of the noun.
Five, several
OPINION An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not
agree with you). Silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult, interesting, stupid
SIZE A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
Large, tiny, enormous, little, big, thin
AGE An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Ancient, new, young, old, modern
SHAPE A shape adjective describes the shape of something.
Square, round, flat, rectangular
COLOUR A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.
Blue, pink, reddish, grey
ORIGIN An origin adjective describes where something comes from.
French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek, beach
MATERIAL A material adjective describes what something is made from.
Wooden, metal, cotton, paper, plastic
PURPOSE A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often
end with “-ing”. Sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”)
11. Types of adjective
ACTIVITY 3. Classify the adjectives according to their type.
BEAUTIFUL - BIG - BROWN - INDIAN - NEW - SQUARE - WOODEN
opinion size age shape colour origin material
It’s a box.
ACTIVITY 4. What type of adjectives are these? Can you make a sentence?
opinion size age shape colour origin material purpose
It’s a table.
12. Adjectives describing the noun CAR
It's a convertible car
It's an expensive car
It’s a big car
It's
a beautiful car.
It’s a German car
It's a new car
It's a black car
It’s a sports car It’s an elegant car
It’s a comfortable car
13. Can you describe the car using sentences with more than one adjective?
14. Continue with these exercises
Adjective Order 1. Choose the correct answer for each sentence.
(University of Victoria’s English Language Centre)
The order of adjectives. Are these adjectives in the natural order?.
(Better English Lessons)
Quiz. Order of adjectives. (UsingEnglish.com)