Adjectives in a nutshell

The following is based off of: Grammar and Usage for Better Writing.

What is the difference between a dog and that short, white dog? Dog means any dog at all. The words that, short, and white modify (change) the meaning of dog from any dog to a specific dog. These words are called adjectives.

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.

Here are some examples:

There are many kinds of adjectives, such as:

Adjectives of Type: color, size, taste, cost and age. Examples include: blue, huge, delicious, cheap, recent.

Adjectives that come from nouns: smelly (which comes from smell) and friendly (which comes from friend)

Compound adjectives: They are multiple adjectives in one, and are often connected by hyphens. Examples include: black-and-white photography, New Year’s Day celebration.

Numbers: A hundred years old. Grace has one apple.

Demonstrative adjectives: These adjectives show something. They are: this, that, these, and those.

Time: For example, a seven o’clock train, Monday afternoon, and an early riser.

Adjectives of feeling: You can make entire sentences with these, a noun and a verb! Here are a few example sentences. “I feel sad”. “She seems lonely.” “He sounds cheerful”.

For more detailed explanations of the following, check out the post from English-online.org.uk!

Adjectives must be said in a certain order.

Therefore, going back to the dog from the example, we can say that is is an amazing, short, old, white, Mexican dog! What other long adjective sentence can you make?

Here is another adjective challenge. How many adjectives are in this selection?

Once you are done with those two activities, go ahead and do the missing adjective activity!