What Is an Adjective?

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

What is an adjective?

That is a nice, short definition. I bet that you can memorize that pretty easily. In fact, make it your goal to memorize that definition.

Bianca's cute, small, furry monkey ate a yellow banana.

(Seriously, folks, isn't this monkey cute?)

This little video tells you more about what an adjective is. To see more, see these English grammar lessons.

More Examples of Adjectives:

The Adjective Questions

Now that you know the answer to the question, "What is an adjective?", there are a few questions that you should memorize.

Knowing these questions will help you know for certain whether any word is acting as an adjective. Every adjective answers at least one of these adjective questions.

The Adjective Questions at Work

What is an adjective? It's a word that describes a noun or pronoun.

For example, let's look at this cute monkey here. How might you describe it?

You could say it is a furry monkey.

The adjective furry describes the noun monkey and answers the adjective question, "Which one?" or "What kind?" (Which monkey? The furry monkey. What kind of monkey? The furry monkey.)

You could also say that it is Bianca's monkey.

The adjective Bianca's describes the noun monkey and answers the adjective question, "Whose?" (Whose monkey? Bianca's monkey.)

Articles

Articles are special kinds of adjectives. (By the way, what is an adjective? Do you remember?... Good.) They are actually the most common type of adjective.

Good news! There are only three articles in the English language! That's easy! They are the, a, and an.

The article the is called a definite article. This is because it points out a definite, or specific person, place, or thing.

If I said, "Read the book." I am not referring to any old book, but to a specific book.

The articles a and an are called indefinite articles. This is because they do not point out specific people, places, or things.

If I said, "Read a book." You could read any book that you wanted to read.

Use a before a word that begins with a consonant sound, and use an before a word that begins with a vowel sound.

So, you would say, "a game" (g is a consonant sound), but "an ant" (a is a vowel sound).

It seems kind of funny, but articles answer the adjective question, "Which one?"

Proper Adjectives

Just like proper nouns, proper adjectives start with a capital letter. In fact, proper adjectives are made from proper nouns. They normally answer the adjective question, "What kind?"

Take a look:

Comparatives and Superlatives

Many adjectives can have different degrees. By this I mean that something can have more or less of an adjective's quality.

For instance, you may find the weather in California to be hot, Tahiti's weather to be hotter, and the Sahara Desert's to be the hottest.

See how there are different degrees of the adjective hot? We've just used the comparative and superlative forms of the word hot to show this adjective's different degrees.

Comparative Adjectives

Use the comparative form when you are comparing two things.

In the examples below, we are comparing Talia and her neighbor.

Examples:

Okay, now that we'd all like to meet the rich and beautiful Talia, let's look at the patterns of comparative adjectives.

Most comparative adjectives end in -er (richer, happier, taller...) or begin with more (more beautiful, more peaceful, more spontaneous). There are also irregular comparatives which do not follow this -er or more pattern (better, less, worse...).

Superlative Adjectives

Use the superlative form when you are comparing three or more things.

In the examples below, we are comparing Talia with her neighbor AND her librarian.

Examples:

Most superlative adjectives end in -est (richest, happiest, tallest...) or begin with most (most beautiful, most peaceful, most spontaneous). But, just like comparative adjectives, there are some irregularities (best, least, worst...).

Examples

In the chart below, positive simply means the form of the adjective before it is in its comparative or superlative form.

Regular Comparatives and Superlatives

Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives

Neither Comparative Nor Superlative!

For example, a woman is either pregnant or she isn't. There is no "pregnanter" or "pregnantest."

Your best buddy might be your main man, but you don't have a "mainer" or "mainest" man.

Feeling overwhelmed? Just remember the answer to the question, "What is an adjective?" (It's a word that describes a noun or pronoun, remember?) That's the most important thing to remember.

Want to see more examples of adjectives? Click here.

Adjective or Pronoun?

Some words can be either adjectives or pronouns depending on how they are acting in the sentence.

How are you going to tell the difference?

Well, what is an adjective? It's a word that describes a noun or pronoun, right?

So, if a word describes a noun or pronoun, it's an adjective. If a word takes the place of a noun instead of describing it, then it is a pronoun. Confused? Here are a few examples:

Predicate Adjectives

Predicate adjectives are a bit tricky because they involve linking verbs. You will learn all about them when you are diagramming. Go ahead and read about them, but don't loose any sleep over memorizing this stuff right now.

Focus on memorizing the answer to the question, "What is an adjective?" and the adjective questions.

Predicate adjectives come after linking verbs and describe the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

Start Basic Sentence Diagramming!

Do you know your stuff? Click here to learn how to diagram adjectives.

If you still can't answer the question, "What is an adjective?", the diagramming page will help you.

Back to Parts of Speech

Still asking, "What is an adjective?" Click here to see a list of adjectives.

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