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Adjectives
What is an adjective?
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much
more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive,
and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual
people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify.
Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.
Adjective Examples
In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:
Examples of adjectives
Typical adjective endings
1. They live in a beautiful house.
2. Lisa is wearing a sleeveless shirt today. This soup is not edible.
3. She wore a beautiful dress.
4. He writes meaningless letters.
5. This shop is much nicer.
6. She wore a beautiful dress.
7. Ben is an adorable baby.
8. Linda’s hair is gorgeous.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Types of Adjectives
Remember that adjectives can modify as well as describe other words, and you’ll find it much easier
to identify different types of adjectives when you see them.
Articles
There are only three articles, and all of them are adjectives: a, an, and the. Because they are used to
discuss non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles. For example:
I’d like a
Let’s go on an
Neither one of these sentences names a specific banana or a certain adventure. Without more
clarification, any banana or adventure will do.
The word the is called the definite article. It’s the only definite article, and it is used to indicate very
specific people or things:
Please give me a banana. I’d like the one with the green stem.
Let’s go on an adventure. The Grand Canyon mule ride sounds perfect!
Possessive Adjectives
As the name indicates, possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession. They are:
My
Your
His
Her
Its
Our
Their
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Demonstrative Adjectives
Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific people,
animals, or things. These, those, this and that are demonstrative adjectives.
Coordinate Adjectives
Coordinate adjectives are separated with commas or the word and, and appear one after another to
modify the same noun. The adjectives in the phrase bright, sunny day and long and dark night are
coordinate adjectives. In phrases with more than two coordinate adjectives, the word and always
appears before the last one; for example: The sign had big, bold, and bright letters.
Be careful, because some adjectives that appear in a series are not coordinate. In the phrase green
delivery truck, the words green and delivery are not separated by a comma because green modifies
the phrase delivery truck. To eliminate confusion when determining whether a pair or group of
adjectives is coordinate, just insert the word and between them. If and works, then the adjectives are
coordinate and need to be separated with a comma.
Numbers Adjectives
When they’re used in sentences, numbers are almost always adjectives. You can tell that a number is
an adjective when it answers the question “How many?”
Interrogative Adjectives
There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what, and whose. Like all other types of adjectives,
interrogative adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these words are used to
ask questions.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Indefinite Adjectives
Like the articles a and an, indefinite adjectives are used to discuss non-specific things. You might
recognize them, since they’re formed from indefinite pronouns. The most common indefinite
adjectives are any, many, no, several, and few.
Attributive Adjectives
Attributive adjectives talk about specific traits, qualities, or features – in other words, they are used to
discuss attributes. There are different kinds of attributive adjectives:
Observation adjectives such as real, perfect, best, interesting, beautiful or cheapest can indicate value
or talk about subjective measures.
Size and shape adjectives talk about measurable, objective qualities including specific physical
properties. Some examples include small, large, square, round, poor, wealthy, slow and
Age adjectives denote specific ages in numbers, as well as general ages. Examples are old, young,
new, five-year-old, and
Color adjectives are exactly what they sound like – they’re adjectives that indicate color. Examples
include pink, yellow, blue, and
Origin adjectives indicate the source of the noun, whether it’s a person, place, animal or thing.
Examples include American, Canadian, Mexican, French.
Material adjectives denote what something is made of. Some examples include cotton, gold,
wool, and
Qualifier adjectives are often regarded as part of a noun. They make nouns more specific; examples
include log cabin, luxury car, and pillow cover.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Adjective Exercises
Find the adjective or adjectives that fit in each of the blanks best.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Answer Key:
Adjective exercises
much vs many
Decide whether you have to use much or many:
1. many
2. many
3. much
4. many
5. much
6. many
7. much
8. much
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
a little vs a few
Decide whether you have to use a little or a few:
1. a few
2. a little
3. a little
4. a little
5. a few
6. a little
7. a few
8. a few
some vs any
Decide whether you have to use some or any:
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
1. any
2. some
3. any
4. any
5. some
6. any
7. any
8. some
some vs many
Decide whether you have to use some or many:
1. some
2. some
3. many
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
4. some
5. many
6. some
7. many
8. some
little vs less
Decide whether you have to use little or less:
1. little
2. little
3. less
4. less
5. less
6. less
7. less
8. less
a little vs a lot
Decide whether you have to use a little or a lot:
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
1. a lot
2. a little
3. a lot
4. a little
5. a little
6. a lot
7. a lot
8. a little
few vs little
Decide whether you have to use few or little:
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Answers:
1. little
2. few
3. little
4. little
5. little
6. few
7. little
8. few
fewer vs less
Decide whether you have to use fewer or less:
1. fewer
2. less
3. less
4. fewer
5. less
6. fewer
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
7. less
8. fewer
farther vs further
Decide whether you have to use farther or further:
1. farther
2. further
3. further
4. farther
5. farther, further
6. further
7. farther
8. farther
later vs latter
Decide whether you have to use later or latter:
1. My neighbours have a son and a daughter : the former is a teacher, the _______ is a nurse.
2. I will address that at a _______ time.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
1. latter
2. later
3. latter
4. later
5. latter
6. later
7. latter
8. latter
last vs latter
Decide whether you have to use last or latter:
1. Jack, Jill and Bob went up the hill; the _______ watched the other two fall down.
2. The former half of the film is more interesting than the _______ half.
3. Out of chapters 1, 2, and 3, the _______ one is the most difficult to learn.
4. Dan is now friends with Ruth, Maya and Ben. The _______ is his cousin.
5. Jane speaks Italian and English : the former language fairly well and the _______ fluently.
6. There are two versions, A and B, but the _______ is more popular.
7. Tom and Dick were both heroes but only the _______ is remembered today.
8. I study math, English and history. I enjoy the _______ one most.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
Answers:
1. last
2. latter
3. last
4. last
5. latter
6. latter
7. latter
8. last
A. water
B. ice
C. syrup
Answers:
A. Watery
B. Icy
C. Syrupy
2.Form adjectives from the following verbs:
A. walk
B. amaze
C. decay
Answers:
A. walking
B. amazing
C. decaying
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
A. He speaks Russian.
B. He speaks the Russian language.
Answers: B,A,B
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
C. Just because it’s the shortest dress doesn’t mean it’s the most stylish.
A. interesting
B. colorful
C. hilarious
7. Fill in the blanks with the best compound adjective for the situation.
A. below-zero
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
B. gorgeous diamond
C. ten-year-old
8. Choose the sentence containing the denominal adjective:
10. For each of the following sentences, choose the correct order of adjectives to fill in the blank.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
A. open door
B. fun time
C. Parmesan flavor
Answer: C
12. Some compound adjective contain hyphens. Which of the following sentences is correct?
14. For each of the following sentences, choose the correct order of adjectives to fill in the blank.
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English Grammar Handouts - Adjectives
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