Adjectives as Part of Speech

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Before moving ahead with the Adjectives, let’s have a look at what are parts of speech in brief:

Parts of Speech The parts of speech are the basic categories of words according to their function in a sentence. It is a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic functions. English has eight main parts of speech, namely, Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions & Interjections. In grammar, the parts of speech, also called lexical categories, grammatical categories or word classes is a linguistic category of words.

Adjectives as Part of Speech

Adjectives are words that describe or modify a noun or a pronoun in the sentence. The adjectives are easy to spot because they come immediately before the nouns they modify. They are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things and are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences also contain multiple adjectives.

Examples:

• Priya is an obedient girl. (obedient describes what kind of girl Priya is, therefore it is an adjective.)
• Many birds are flying in the sky. (Many describes the quantity of birds flying in the sky.)

A group of words with a subject and a verb can also function as an adjective. In such cases, the group of words is called an adjective clause. While

Example – My mother, who works at the departmental store, is an admirable woman.

The clause in bold modifies the noun “mother” and is called an adjective clause.

Types of Adjectives as Part of Speech

1. Adjectives of Quality:

They describe the kind, quality or characteristic of a noun or a pronoun they are referring to.

Examples:

• Parth is clever.
• Jigisha is a voracious reader.
• Mitali’s gestures are amazing.

2. Adjectives of Quantity:

They indicate how much of a thing is meant in indefinite terms, or it answers the question How much?These adjectives are mostly used with uncountable nouns. Some of these adjectives are many, much, some, little, great, any, enough, etc.

Examples:

• Can I have some water?
• I had enough rest for the day.

3. Adjectives of Number:

They indicate how many people or things are meant and it answers the question How many? It can also demonstrate a noun’s position or place in a certain order. Adjectives of number are used with countable nouns. The adjective of numbers are of three types:

1. Definite Numeral Adjective: It denotes the exact number of nouns or their exact position like one, two, three, first, second, third, etc.

Example – The class consists of forty- five students.

2. Indefinite Numeral Adjective: These adjectives indicate an approximate amount like several, few, many, some, etc.

Example – Several books are torn.

3. Distributive Numeral Adjective: refers to individual nouns within the whole amount like each, every, either, neither, etc.

Example – Every student is required to participate.

4. Demonstrative:

These adjectives point out at pronouns and nouns and always come before the words that they are referring to: these, that, those.

Examples:

• I used to wear these type of trousers.
• Those are the bangles you were looking for.

5. Interrogative:

The Interrogative adjectives are used to ask questions and are always followed by a noun: which, what, who etc.

Examples:

• Which song should I sing?
• What date is it?

6. Exclamatory:

They Exclamatory Adjectives indicate strong emotions and are used with the noun.

Example:

• What an idea!
• What a beautiful flower it is!

7. Possessive:

They show ownership or possession and always come before the noun: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their, etc.

Examples:

• I will use my pencil.
• This is her camera.

Degree of Adjectives:

There are three degrees of adjectives, also known as degrees of comparison, namely, positive, comparative, and superlative.

• Positive Degree – When you talk about or describe only a single person, place, or thing, you should use the positive degree.

Examples:

Sudha is an elegant lady.
The indoor game was interesting.

• Comparative Degree – When two persons, places, or things are compared, the comparative degree of the word is used. Normally, “-er” is added at the end of the word to transform the word into its comparative form. Some words do not take “-er” as a suffix. So, the word “more” is put before them. Also, the word “than” should be added after the adjective in the comparative degree.

Examples:

Priya is more intelligent than Meera.
Medha runs faster than Divya.

• Superlative Degree – When two or more things are compared, the superlative form of the adjectives should be used and the word “the” should be added before the adjective. In order to transform the adjective into its superlative form, the suffix “-est” or the word “most” should be added before the word.

Example:

I think this is the best movie that I ever watched in my life.
This is the most expensive bicycle available.

Order of Adjectives as Part of Speech:

We often use multiple adjectives to describe/ modify the same noun or pronoun. Each of these adjectives works independently to modify the same word. To avoid inappropriate- sounding sentences when we use more than one adjective, they are required to be put in a specific order according to the type of description they provide. This is known as the order of adjectives which are stated below:

1. Determiner – An article (a, an, the), a number or amount, a possessive adjective (my, his, her, its, your, our, their), or a demonstrative (this, that, these, those).
2. Opinion – good, bad, strange, lovely
3. Size – big, small, tiny, huge
4. Shape – curved, straight, round, square
5. Quality – wet, dry, clean, sad, happy
6. Age – old, young, new, ancient
7. Color – red, yellowish, transparent, blue
8. Pattern – checked, striped, plaid, flowered
9. Origin – American, British, eastern, western
10. Material – wooden, plastic, steel, cloth
11. Type – human, chemical, domestic, electronic, money (problems), etc.
12. Purpose – sleeping, shopping, work, gardening

Consider the following examples:

• A new cloth bag. (Article + age + material)
• A Canadian IT company. (Article + origin + type)
• Three small square brown plates. (Number + size + shape + colour)

Rules to Use Adjectives as Part of Speech:

1. There are some adjectives which denote absolute positions and of which comparative and superlative degrees remains the same. Some of these words are complete, perfect, excellent, chief, ulterior, ideal, major, superior, junior, posterior, etc.

Examples:

Incorrect – Let’s discuss the most major problem first.

Correct – Let’s discuss the major problem first.

Incorrect – Success is the chiefest motive of my life.

Correct – Success is the chief motive of my life. 

2. There are some adjectives which use ‘to’ instead of ‘than’ while making comparisons. These adjectives end in “-ior”: superior, inferior, ulterior, exterior, posterior, junior, etc.

Examples:

Incorrect – He is junior than you.

Correct –  He is junior to you.

3. If two adjectives are separated by ‘and ‘, then they must be in same degree.

Example: Shilpa is the most progressive and the wisest member of the union.

4. Possessive adjectives are different from possessive pronouns.

Example: This is my (possessive adjective) notebook and this is yours (possessive pronoun).

5. Its and their are possessive adjectives.

Examples:

Its appearance is beautiful.

Their dog is barking.

6. It’s, they’re and there are not possessive adjectives. It’s is a contraction of it is or it has; they’re is a contraction of they are; there is an adverb of place.

Examples:

It’s not your camera → It is not your camera.

They’re my enemies → They are my enemies.

Kindly go there. (adverb)

7. When two qualities of the same person or thing are compared, the comparative in “-er” form is not used. Instead ‘more’ is used for this purpose.

Incorrect – She is braver than intelligent.

Correct – She is more brave than intelligent. 

8. Articles (a, an, the) are words that combine with a noun. Articles are actually adjectives because they describe the nouns that they precede.

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
• The Himalayas cover the northern part of India.

8. Sometimes, a word that is normally used as a noun can function as an adjective, depending on its usage.

Example – The history teacher asked us to work on a project. (History is a noun, but in the sentence, it modifies teacher.)

Similarly, some words that are normally adjectives can function as nouns.

Example – Ritika is associated with an organisation that works for the poor. (Poor is usually used as an
adjective, but here it functions as a noun with the article ‘the’ preceding it)

Therefore, note that the terms “adjective” and “noun” are not only about a word’s form but also about its function.

Now, that you have read the Adjectives as Part of Speech and also gained some other parts of speech, continue to read more about the following important articles on Nouns & others.