Adjectives

An adjective describes a noun: it tells us what something is like. ⟦a tall girl⟧, ⟦a red bus⟧, ⟦The soup is hot.⟧ In English an adjective comes before the noun, or after verbs like ⟦is⟧ and ⟦looks⟧. When there are several, they go in a fixed order.

Key facts

  • An adjective goes before its noun: ⟦a red car⟧ (not ⟦a car red⟧), or after ⟦be⟧, ⟦look⟧, ⟦feel⟧, ⟦seem⟧: ⟦She looks happy.⟧
  • Adjectives don't change for the plural: ⟦a big dog⟧, ⟦two big dogs⟧.
  • Several adjectives usually go in this order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, then the noun: ⟦a lovely little old red wooden box⟧.
  • Adjectives ending in ⟦-ed⟧ describe how someone feels: ⟦I was bored.⟧ Adjectives ending in ⟦-ing⟧ describe what causes the feeling: ⟦The film was boring.⟧
  • Precise adjectives make writing better: ⟦enormous⟧, ⟦freezing⟧ and ⟦delighted⟧ say more than ⟦big⟧, ⟦cold⟧ and ⟦happy⟧.

Worked examples

Example 1

Find the adjective: ⟦She quickly opened the heavy door.⟧

  1. The nouns are ⟦door⟧ (and ⟦she⟧ is a pronoun).
  2. ⟦heavy⟧ tells us what the door is like: it is the adjective.
  3. ⟦quickly⟧ describes how she opened it: that's an adverb.

Answer: ⟦heavy⟧

Example 2

Put in order: ⟦red / a / big / bus⟧

  1. ⟦big⟧ is size and ⟦red⟧ is colour.
  2. Size comes before colour, and the noun comes last: ⟦a big red bus⟧.

Answer: ⟦a big red bus⟧

Example 3

Choose: ⟦The trip was very (tiring / tired).⟧

  1. The trip is the thing that causes the feeling.
  2. The cause takes ⟦-ing⟧: ⟦The trip was very tiring.⟧ The people were ⟦tired⟧.

Answer: ⟦tiring⟧