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ADJECTIVE
“Adjective is a word that is used to modify a noun or pronoun”
E.g. Sujata is an intelligent student.
I watched a fantastic movie last night.

Explanation: in above sentences “intelligent” and “fantastic” are used as an

adjective to qualify “student” and “movie” respectively.

Use of Adjectives
There are two uses of adjective.
a. Attributive
b. Predicative
Attributive: “If an adjective is used before a noun”

E.g. Mohan is a biased manager.

There are red roses in the garden.

Predicative: “If adjective is used in predicative part and not before a noun”

E.g. He is not well.

You are fantastic.

There are ten kinds of Adjectives

1. Proper Adjective
2. Adjective of Quality
3. Adjective of Quantity
4. Adjective of Number
5. Demonstrative Adjective
6. Distributive Adjective
7. Possessive Adjective
8. Interrogative Adjective
9. Emphatic Adjective
10. Participle Adjective
Proper Adjective:
“It is framed with Proper Noun”
Proper Proper Proper Proper
Noun Adjective Noun Adjective
India Indian China Chinese
Switzerland Swiss Australia Australian
Africa African Nepal Nepalese
America American France French

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E.g. Indian people are hard working.

They are not interested to buy American gold.
Note: “Indian” and “American” are used as Proper Adjectives.

Adjective of quality:
“It shows colour, shape, origin and size of a noun”

E.g. I saw a strange man in the street.

It is a beautiful morning.

Note: “strange” and “beautiful” are adjectives of quality.

Adjective of Quantity:
“It shows the quantity of a noun”
Key: “how Much”

E.g. A good deal of, a great deal of, a large amount of, a large quantity of, some,
lots of, a lot of and plenty of etc.

E.g. There is plenty of water on the moon.

A lot of ground water in Delhi and N.C.R. is not potable.

Adjective of Number:

“it shows the number of a noun”

Key “how many”

E.g. I have read many novels to improve my reading skills.

There are twenty chairs in the room.

There are two kinds of adjective of number:

a. Definite number
b. Indefinite number.

Definite number:
It shows the certain number which is fixed. It is divided into two parts.
a. Ordinal number (first, second and third……etc.)
b. Cardinal number (one, two and three……etc.)

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Usages

1. We always us definite article “the” before ordinal numbers.

E.g. India is the seventh largest country in the world.
They were travelling in the last coach of this metro.

2. If both “ordinal” and “cardinal” numbers are used in a sentence, we

use “ordinal” before “cardinal”
E.g. The first two works of Shakespeare were comedies.
The last three parts of this sequence are not excellent.

Indefinite number:
“it shows uncertain number”

E.g. Some, few, lots of , a lot of and most etc.

E.g. Some novels of the Romantic age are really interesting.

I bought a few short stories.

Demonstrative Adjective:
This, That, These and Those.

Note. We use singular noun and singular verb after “this” and “that”.
Eg This novel was published in summer last year.

Note. We use plural noun and plural verb after “these” and “those”.
E.g. Those students have applied for certain competitive exams.

Distributive Adjective:

E.g. Either, neither and each.

Note: These adjectives are always followed by singular noun and singular
verb.

E.g. Each player has to start his practice by 7:30 am daily.

Neither poet has composed any interesting piece of poetry.

Possessive Adjective:

E.g. My, our, your, his, her, its, and their.

Note These adjectives are always used before a noun.

E.g. They don’t like your sitting here.
A thief has stolen his diamond.

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Interrogative Adjective:

E.g. Who, whom, which and what etc.

E.g. Which classroom is yours?

Emphatic Adjective:

Very and own

E.g. This is my own car.

I like this very colour.

Participle Adjective:

“If a verb qualifies a noun, is called Participle Adjective”

E.g. I have an interesting novel to read.

I saw a bloomed flower in the garden.

Degrees of comparison
Positive Comparative Superlative
Tall Taller Tallest
High Higher Highest
White Whiter Whitest
Wide Wider Widest
Sad Sadder Saddest
Red Redder Reddest
Easy Easier Easiest
Happy Happier Happiest
Gay Gayer Gayest
Gray Grayer Grayest
Beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful
Useful More useful Most useful
Good/ well Better best
Bad/ill/evil Worse Worst
Fore Former Foremost/first
Late Latter Latest/last
Little Less/lesser Least
Much/many More Most
Old Older/elder Oldest/eldest
Nigh Nigher nighest/next
Fore Further Furthest

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Positive degree:
As………..as (it is used in affirmative sentences)
So………..as (it is used in negative sentences)

E.g. Ram will be as intelligent as his friend.

Ravi won’t be so bad as Rakesh

E.g. No river is the world is as holy as the Ganga.(W)

No other river in the world is as holy as the Ganga. (R)

Explanation: “no + singular countable noun” shows the context of all. Ganga
is a river so it should be separated from all the rivers to diversify the
objects. We should write “no other”

E.g. No metal in the world is as expensive as diamond (R)

Explanation: Here “diamond” is not a metal.

No other city in India is so polluted as Delhi (R)

Comparative degree:

We always use “than” after comparative degrees.

E.g. Burj Khalifa is taller than any other building in the world.
This novel is more readable than any other novel in English literature.

Note: Comparison should be in the same objects.

E.g. The climate of Delhi is more polluted than J&K (W)
The climate of Delhi is more polluted than that of J&K (R)

The contents of “Pearson” are more lucid than “Norman and Lewis” (W)
The contents of “Pearson” are more lucid than those of “Norman and
Lewis” (R)
Note: a. we use article “the” with comparatives if they are used in grading
measures.

E.g. The higher you go the cooler it gets.

The more you study the more confusion you have.

b. If the term of the two is mentioned, we use article “the” before

comparatives.

E.g. Marry is the wiser of the two poets.

Richard is the braver of the two warriors.

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Superlative Degree:
We always use article “the” before superlative degrees.

E.g. This is the easiest question of this book.

After getting selection you will be the happiest person on the earth.

But: We never use article “the” before superlative degree if it is an adverb.

E.g. Every child loves this story book most.

They performed in the last inning best.

Rule: We always use “to” in place of “than” after the following adjectives.

Senior, junior, superior, inferior, anterior, posterior, and preferable

etc.

E.g. My friend is senior than you (W)

My friend is senior to you (R)

Coffee is more preferable than tea in India (W)

Coffee is preferable to tea in India(R)

Note: we never use more before preferable, it is a comparative word.

Note: We never make comparative or superlative of the following

adjectives.

Perfect, unique, brilliant, ideal, chief, singular, awesome, fantastic,

whole, universal, fabulous, circular, angular, blind, dumb, deaf etc.

E.g. Mahatma Gandhi is the most ideal to everyone. (W)

Mahatma Gandhi is the ideal to everyone (R)

This can be the more perfect answer for this question. (W)
The can be the perfect answer for this question (R)

Note: The following adjectives are used after noun “attributively”

Afraid, asleep, ready, unable, glad, well, sure and worth etc.

E.g. I found a baby asleep

I have a novel worth reading.

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Note: If two adjectives require different prepositions, appropriate

prepositions should be used.
E.g. He is senior and more intelligent than your manager. (W)
He is senior to and more intelligent than your manager. (R)

Use of Some Qualifiers

Little/ a little/ the little “used for uncountable nouns”

Little (not much/ hardly any)

A little (some)
The little (not much but all)

Few/ a few/ the few “used for plural countable nouns”

Few (not many/ hardly any)

A few (some)
The few (not many but all)

E.g. I have little money so I cannot buy books.

I have a few coins so I can help you.
A little knowledge is dangerous.
He met me on the way and I have him the little money that I had at that
time.

Later (time)
Latter (position)

E.g. We will discuss it later in the meeting.

Rahul Gandhi put his first step in Indian politics later than Modi ji.
John and Shelley are friends. Latter (Shelley) is a poet and former (John) is
a doctor.

Elder (family)
Older (person/ things)
Eldest (family)
Oldest (person/ things)

E.g. Ram is my elder brother.

Sohan is older than you
Have you visited the oldest temple of Delhi?

First (in position)

Foremost (famous)

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E.g. I have read the first ode of P.B. Shelley.

Who is the foremost prime minister of his time?

Good (adjective)
Well (adjective/adverb)

E.g. It is good for everyone. (Adj)

You are well now. (Adj)
This machine is not working well because of bad weather condition.
(Adverb)

Latest (recent)
Last (position)

E.g. Have you got the latest news of India’s winning the innings?
I have read the last novel of Thomas Hardy.

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