Adjectives Add Life to Writing

Look at these two sentences: The girl sat down on the bench near the flowers. The young girl with curly red hair sat down on the white marble bench near the large, colorful flowers. Which sentence gives you more information? Which sentence allows you to visualize, or see, the scene? The second sentence gives you more information. It allows you to see the scene more clearly. What is the difference between them? The second sentence uses moreadjectives. Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. In the second sentence, young describes the girl. Curly and red describe her hair.White and marble describe the bench. Colorful and large describe the flowers. Adjectives add life to your sentences. Read on to find out about different types of adjectives.

Types of Adjectives
Adjectives tell which, what kind, or how many. Look at these examples: Which: the, this, these, either. What kind: bright, red, gentle, scary, smart. How many: two, several, many, few, every. When youre writing, look to see if you can add adjectives to your sentences. Ask yourself if you have explained which, what kind, or how many for the nouns and pronouns in your sentence. Look at these examples: Before: The woman stood by the door. After: The lovely, brown-skinned woman wearing a black coat stood by the bright red door.

Quick Check!
Type True or False in response to the following statement. Adjectives help describewhich, what kind, andhow many in a sentence.

Add Life

Use your notebook to write in these sentences. Make them more vivid and specific by adding adjectives in place of the blanks. You can add more than one adjective for each blank. 1. The ___ river flows by his ___ house. 2. His ___ house sits in the ___ woods. 3. The woods are full of ___ trees and ___ animals. 4. The animals use ___ rocks, ___ sticks, and ___ leaves to build their ___ homes in the woods. Example: You might use blue, wavy, fast-moving, or quiet to describe the river.

Specific and Informative

Look at the sentence below. Which words are adjectives? What do they tell you? (Which, what kind, or how many.) Use your notebook to list each adjective you find in this sentence. List what each adjective tells you. The first one is done for you. There are a total of eight adjectives in this sentence. Those two little kittens played happily while that big, lazy dog watched from his fluffy, cozy bed. Adjective 1. Those 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Tells You which

Practice with Adjectives

Read the paragraph below. Find the adjectives. Explain what they tell you about the noun they describe. Use your notebook to record your answers. You will find a total of seven adjectives in this paragraph. For this exercise, you may skip the adjectives a and the. Stamp collecting is a popular hobby in the United States and around the world. Stamp collecting involves many different aspects. For example, there is the historical and artistic value of a stamp. Furthermore, a great number of stamps can make a collection more valuable.

Post the Adjectives!

Pick an object that could have many adjectives to describe it. You might choose a poster, picture, stuffed animal, or a kitchen utensil. Next, think of all the adjectives that describe your object. Think of: color size shape feel how many Write each adjective on a small strip of sticky-note paper. Post the adjectives on your object. Write three sentences about your object on your own paper using the adjectives.

Find the Adjectives

Identify the adjectives in the sentences below. For each highlighted noun, one, two, or three adjectives are provided. Write the name of the adjective or adjectives for each noun in your notebook. 1. Have you ever seen a rainbow, a giant arc of seven different colored lights in the sky? 2. A rainbow occurs because the sunlight is bent by many falling raindrops or the spray of a waterfall. 3. When the light is bent, the beautiful colors emerge as a red band, followed by an orange strip, next to a yellowribbon and a green stripe, then a blue cascade and an indigo beam, and ending with a violet band, all coming together as one, brilliant rainbow.

Which, What Kind, How Many

Adjectives make sentences more easily seen and understood. Read this paragraph. The nouns that are described by adjectives are highlighted. Identify the adjectives for each noun and what they tell you (which, what kind, how many). For example, for the first noun,animals, you would indicate: many (how many), rare (what kind), unusual (what kind). Use your notebook for your answers, and have your guide check them. There are many rare and unusual animals whose names begin with the letter A. Theres the aardvark, a large, chubby, burrowing animal of southern Africa. It licks up

destructive termites with its long, sticky tongue. Theres also the albatross, a huge, black-andwhite seabird found in nearly all oceans. The anteater has a long, bushy tail and a long, thin snout. Its whip-like tongue licks up insects. In addition, the antelope is an African animal that has thickhooves and heavy horns. Look at these sentences. Which one gives you a picture in your head? The man ran down the street. The young man wearing a brown zippered vest and a red knit cap ran down the crowded, snowy street. You probably could picture the second sentence more easily than the first. It has more information. This allows you to see the sentence in your head. When you read, you want to be able to see the characters, action, and scenery. You want to see them as the writer sees them. As a writer, you want to provide a clear picture for your readers. You can do this by using adjectives. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns.

Be Specific
Good writing is specific. Adjectives make writing more specific. By describing nouns and pronouns, adjectives add a lot of information to your writing. Look at these phrases, before and after adding adjectives.

BEFORE the music

AFTER the soft, peaceful, harmonious music the loud, screeching, noisy music the smooth, white, sandy beach

the beach

the dark and rocky beach the broad, happy smile

the smile

the small, tearful smile

Make It Your Way

For each noun, type two adjectives to describe the noun one way. Then type another two adjectives to describe the noun in a different way. The first two are done for you. Record your answers in your notebook.

NOUN cupcake chair plane ride movie dog coat bed

DESCRIPTION A light, fluffy cupcake big, comfortable chair

DESCRIPTION B dry, tasteless cupcake uncomfortable, hard chair

Answers to Questions
Adjectives answer one of three questions: which, what kind, or how many. Look at these examples: chocolate ice cream: chocolate tellswhat kind of ice cream seven apples: seven tells how manyapples these candles: these tells whichcandles Here are some adjectives that tell which, what kind, or how many: Which: the, these, this, either. What kind: wooden, painted, funny, sweet. How many: three, few, many, several, each.

Flo juggled those seven, red, shiny apples in her hands.

Wheres the Adjective?

Find two adjectives in each of the following sentences. Type the adjectives in the spaces provided below. Separate the two adjectives by typing a slash, like this: brown/silent. (For this exercise, do not count the adjectives a, an, or the.) 1. The golden light from the flame flickered in the dark night. 2. The quiet neighborhood slowly became covered in a white blanket of snow. 3. A gray owl peered out from the bare tree. 4. The howling wind blew through the sleepy town.

Find Fifty Fabulous Adjectives

The newspaper is full of adjectives! Search the newspaper to find 50 adjectives. You can look in articles, ads, and even comics. Cut the adjectives out and glue them on a piece of drawing paper. You may find more than 50!

Find the Adjectives

Identify the adjective that describes the highlighted noun in each sentence. Then type the adjective in the space provided. (For this exercise, do not count the adjectives a, an, or the.)

1. A green apple is on the table. 2. My white shorts are in the laundry. 3. Alans yellow notebook is at school. 4. Four planes landed at the airport. 5. Large geese swim in the lake. 6. Bright lights hurt my eyes. 7. The blue flag had stars on it. 8. This tree is a magnolia. 9. Special presents make me happy. 10. The sixth woman in line is my mother.