7 Types of English Adjectives That Every ESL Student Must Know - FluentU English PDF

7/24/2020 7 Types of English Adjectives That Every ESL Student Must Know | FluentU English
English Language and Culture Blog

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by YULIYA GEIKHMAN
The Essentials of English

Adjectives: 7 Key Adjective
Types to Know
“My cat had each of these four adorable kittens.”
If you removed all the adjectives from this sentence,

what would you be left with?
“Cat had kittens.”
Crazy, isn’t it? We use adjectives all the time,

sometimes without even realizing it!
An adjective can add color and life to your sentence,

and it can add important information, but that’s not
all. Adjectives have many other uses. They can tell
you the quantity (how much) and quality (how well) of
things, and they can help you compare two things. In
other words, adjectives are wonderful, amazing and
fantastic!
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-adjectives/ 1/16
Adjectives are used much more often than even

native speakers think. They are useful tools for
speaking English well, so it’s important to learn how
to use them correctly.

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convenient and portable PDF that you can take
anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
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Try FluentU for FREE!
What Is an Adjective?
Adjectives are words that modify (change) nouns,

pronouns and other adjectives. In the sentence “he
was fast,” the word “fast” is an adjective that
describes the pronoun “he.” Here’s a special
sentence that uses all the letters of the English
language:
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
In this sentence, the words “quick,” “brown” and

“lazy” are adjectives (and so is the word “the,” but
we’ll explain this later!). All these words are
describing or somehow modifying a noun.
So, you might already know about adjectives like

these, like “quick,” “beautiful” and “ugly,” which are
used to describe people, places and things.
But did you know that adjectives have many other

uses? Words like “every,” “the” and “my” are also
adjectives. When you say “my cat,” the word “my” is
13 modifying the word “cat.” It’s describing that cat as
Shares your possession, or something that belongs to you.
Likewise for the word “every” in the phrase “every
cat.”
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As you can see, adjectives have many uses!
The 3 Different Degrees of Adjectives
Imagine changing the temperature on your air

conditioner. The air conditioner has different degrees
of temperature you can select. Adjectives have
different degrees, as well.
The three degrees of an adjective are positive,

comparative and superlative. When you use them
depends on how many things you’re talking about:
A positive adjective is a normal adjective that’s

used to describe, not compare. For example:
“This is good soup” and “I am funny.”
A comparative adjective is an adjective that’s

used to compare two things (and is often
followed by the word than). For example: “This
soup is better than that salad” or “I am funnier
than her.”
A superlative adjective is an adjective that’s used

to compare three or more things, or to state that
something is the most. For example: “This is the
best soup in the whole world” or “I am the
funniest out of all the other bloggers.”
These three degrees only work for descriptive

adjectives.
If a descriptive adjective has one or two syllables,

you can turn it into its comparative and superlative
forms by adding -er and -est. For example, you can
say that a song is loud, louder (than another song) or
the loudest (out of all the other songs).
Descriptive adjectives with three or more syllables

don’t use the -er and -est endings. The word
beautiful, for example, can’t be turned into
beautifuler or beautifulest—those aren’t words!
Instead, you add the words more and the
most before it to turn it into a comparative or
superlative adjective: Beautiful, more beautiful, the
13 most beautiful.
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There are some exceptions to these rules, as with

most grammar rules. For example, good only has one
13 syllable, but it turns into better and best. You can find
a list of common irregular adjectives here.
Descriptive adjectives are some of the most

common, but adjectives have many other uses!
Below are the different types of English adjectives
you might come across in your English conversations.
To hear them in real-life situations now, you can find

them in authentic English videos on FluentU. FluentU
provides real English music videos, movie trailers,
inspiring speeches and more, which have been
transformed into personalized language lessons.
You can easily search for a word and FluentU will

show you videos where the word is used. You’ll also
get interactive subtitles, flashcards and fun quizzes
so you learn English while you watch!
For example, this video includes lots of descriptive

adjectives, including some that you’ll encounter in
the section below. To watch that video and the full
FluentU video library with all the learning features,
sign up for a free FluentU trial.
7 Types of English Adjectives

That Every ESL Student Must
Know
1. Descriptive
A descriptive adjective is probably what you think of

when you hear the word “adjective.” Descriptive
adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns.
Words like beautiful, cute, silly, tall, annoying,

loud and nice are all descriptive adjectives. These
adjectives add information and qualities to the words
they’re modifying. You can find a list of the 25 most

commonly used adjectives at the English Club.
Examples:
“The flowers have a smell” is just stating a fact, and it

has no adjectives to describe what the flowers or
13 their smell are like.
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“The beautiful flowers have a nice smell” gives us a

lot more information, with two descriptive adjectives.
13
You can say “The cat is hungry,” or “The hungry cat.”

In both cases, the word hungry is an adjective
describing the cat.
2. Quantitative
Quantitative adjectives describe the quantity of

something.
In other words, they answer the question “how

much?” or “how many?” Numbers like one and thirty
are this type of adjective. So are more general words
like many, half and a lot.
Examples:
“How many children do you have?” “I only have one

daughter.”
“Do you plan on having more kids?” “Oh yes, I want

many children!”
“I can’t believe I ate that whole cake!”
3. Demonstrative
A demonstrative adjective describes “which” noun or

pronoun you’re referring to. These adjectives include
the words:
This — Used to refer to a singular noun close to

you.
That — Used to refer to a singular noun far from
you.
These — Used to refer to a plural noun close to
you.
Those — Used to refer to a plural noun far from
you.
Demonstrative adjectives always come before the

word they’re modifying.
Sometimes, like when you’re responding to a

question, you can leave off the noun being described
and only use the adjective. For example, if someone
asks you how many cakes you want to buy you can
13 respond: “I want to buy two cakes,” or you can just
Shares say: “I want to buy two.”
Examples:
13
“Which bicycle is yours?” “This bicycle is mine, and

that one used to be mine until I sold it.”
4. Possessive
Possessive adjectives show possession. They

describe to whom a thing belongs. Some of the most
common possessive adjectives include:
My — Belonging to me
His — Belonging to him
Her — Belonging to her
Their — Belonging to them
Your — Belonging to you
Our — Belonging to us
All these adjectives, except the word his, can only be

used before a noun. You can’t just say “That’s my,”
you have to say “That’s my pen.” When you want to
leave off the noun or pronoun being modified, use
these possessive adjectives instead:
Mine
His
Hers
Theirs
Yours
Ours
For example, even though saying “That’s my” is

incorrect, saying “That’s mine” is perfectly fine.
Examples:
“Whose dog is that?” “He’s mine. That’s my dog.”
5. Interrogative
Interrogative adjectives interrogate, meaning that

they ask a question. These adjectives are always
followed by a noun or a pronoun, and are used to
form questions. The interrogative adjectives are:
Which — Asks to make a choice between

options.
13
What — Asks to make a choice (in general).
Shares Whose — Asks who something belongs to.
Other question words, like “who” or “how,” aren’t

13 adjectives since they don’t modify nouns. For
example, you can say “whose coat is this?” but you
can’t say “who coat?”
Which, what and whose are only considered

adjectives if they’re immediately followed by a noun.
The word which is an adjective in this sentence:
“Which color is your favorite?” But not in this one:
“Which is your favorite color?”
Examples:
“Which song will you play on your wedding day?”
“What pet do you want to get?”
“Whose child is this?”
6. Distributive
Distributive adjectives describe specific members out

of a group. These adjectives are used to single out
one or more individual items or people. Some of the
most common distributive adjectives include:
Each — Every single one of a group (used to

speak about group members individually).
Every — Every single one of a group (used to
make generalizations).
Either — One between a choice of two.
Neither — Not one or the other between a
choice of two.
Any — One or some things out of any number of
choices. This is also used when the choice is
irrelevant, like: “it doesn’t matter, I’ll take any of
them.”
These adjectives are always followed by the noun or

pronoun they’re modifying.
Examples:
“Every rose has its thorn.”
“Which of these two songs do you like?” “I don’t like

either song.”
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7. Articles
There are only three articles in the English language:

13 a, an and the. Articles can be difficult for English
learners to use correctly because many languages
don’t have them (or don’t use them in the same way).
Although articles are their own part of speech,

they’re technically also adjectives! Articles are used
to describe which noun you’re referring to. Maybe
thinking of them as adjectives will help you learn
which one to use:
A — A singular, general item.

An — A singular, general item. Use this before
words that start with a vowel.
The — A singular or plural, specific item.
Simply put, when you’re talking about something

general, use a and an. When you’re speaking about
something specific, use the. “A cat” can be used to
refer to any cat in the world. “The cat” is used to refer
to the cat that just walked by.
Here’s a quick tip that can sometimes help you

decide which article to use: Try using a
demonstrative adjective before the noun. If it makes
sense, use the word the. If it changes the meaning of
what you’re trying to say, use a or an.
For example, if it makes sense to say “I don’t

understand this question,” you can also say “I don’t
understand the question.” On the other hand, it
sounds strange to say “I need this tissue” because
you don’t need that specific tissue. You just need “a
tissue.”
Examples:
“The elephants left huge footprints in the sand.”
“An elephant can weigh over 6,000 pounds!”
We hope you’re leaving this article a bit smarter and

more educated about the wonders of adjectives!

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convenient and portable PDF that you can take
anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
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And One More Thing…
What’s the key to learning English words and

grammar?
Using the right content and tools.
Textbooks are great, but they won’t help you sound

like a real English teacher. Plus, traditional studying
can get tiring fast.
Well, there is a site designed to help you with all of

that: FluentU.
FluentU takes authentic videos like music videos,

commercials, news and inspiring talks, and turns
them into English learning experiences. You’ll learn
English as it’s spoken in real life.
FluentU has a lot of fun videos including popular talk

shows, music videos and funny commercials, as you
can see here:
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FluentU makes it really easy to watch English videos.

Don’t understand a word? Just tap on it to see an
image, definition and useful examples.
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For example, tap on the word “brought” and you see

this:
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And FluentU is not just for watching videos. FluentU

is a complete system for learning English. Learn all
the vocabulary in any video with useful questions.
Multiple examples are always available for the word
you’re learning.
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vocabulary. Using those words, FluentU recommends
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Start using FluentU on the website or practice

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7/24/2020 7 Types of English Adjectives That Every ESL Student Must Know | FluentU English

English Language and Culture Blog

The Essentials of English

If you removed all the adjectives from this sentence,

“Cat had kittens.”

Crazy, isn’t it? We use adjectives all the time,

An adjective can add color and life to your sentence,

Adjectives are used much more often than even

13 Download: This blog post is available as a

Try FluentU for FREE!

Adjectives are words that modify (change) nouns,

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

In this sentence, the words “quick,” “brown” and

So, you might already know about adjectives like

But did you know that adjectives have many other

As you can see, adjectives have many uses!

The 3 Different Degrees of Adjectives

Imagine changing the temperature on your air

The three degrees of an adjective are positive,

A positive adjective is a normal adjective that’s

A comparative adjective is an adjective that’s

A superlative adjective is an adjective that’s used

These three degrees only work for descriptive

If a descriptive adjective has one or two syllables,

Descriptive adjectives with three or more syllables

There are some exceptions to these rules, as with

Descriptive adjectives are some of the most

To hear them in real-life situations now, you can ﬁnd

You can easily search for a word and FluentU will

For example, this video includes lots of descriptive

7 Types of English Adjectives

A descriptive adjective is probably what you think of

Words like beautiful, cute, silly, tall, annoying,

they’re modifying. You can ﬁnd a list of the 25 most

“The ﬂowers have a smell” is just stating a fact, and it

“The beautiful ﬂowers have a nice smell” gives us a

You can say “The cat is hungry,” or “The hungry cat.”

Quantitative adjectives describe the quantity of

In other words, they answer the question “how

“How many children do you have?” “I only have one

“Do you plan on having more kids?” “Oh yes, I want

“I can’t believe I ate that whole cake!”

A demonstrative adjective describes “which” noun or

This — Used to refer to a singular noun close to

Demonstrative adjectives always come before the

Sometimes, like when you’re responding to a

“Which bicycle is yours?” “This bicycle is mine, and

Possessive adjectives show possession. They

All these adjectives, except the word his, can only be

For example, even though saying “That’s my” is

“Whose dog is that?” “He’s mine. That’s my dog.”

Interrogative adjectives interrogate, meaning that

Which — Asks to make a choice between

Other question words, like “who” or “how,” aren’t

Which, what and whose are only considered

“Which song will you play on your wedding day?”

“What pet do you want to get?”

“Whose child is this?”

Distributive adjectives describe speciﬁc members out

Each — Every single one of a group (used to

These adjectives are always followed by the noun or

“Every rose has its thorn.”

“Which of these two songs do you like?” “I don’t like