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What Is An Adjective
What Is An Adjective
Adjectives not only make your writing more interesting, but they also help you to
be specific.
Example:
—I like that house.
—Which one?
—The small green house with the colourful door.
Placement of adjectives
We place adjectives:
before nouns;
Examples:
I live in a small village.
The town hall is a historical building.
The local market sells fresh produce.
after linking verbs (appear, be, look, seem, smell, taste …). Linking verbs
connect a noun with an adjective.
Examples:
The neighbours seem friendly.
The village is famous for its apple juice.
The juice tastes great.
Order of adjectives
In general, we place a maximum of 2-3 adjectives before a noun.
Example:
A nice wooden chair.
There are two general rules that help us to decide on the order of these
adjectives:
If the adjectives come after a linking verb, we connect the final two with and.
Example:
This cheese is delicious, fresh and local.
If two adjectives of the same type come before the noun, they are also
connected with and.
Examples:
A pretty woollen blanket.
one opinion adjective (pretty); one fact adjective (woollen)
but: A pink and yellow blanket.
two colour adjectives
Example:
A black and white photo.
not: A white and black photo.
Although we rarely need it, the complete rule for the order of English adjectives
is as follows:
Non-gradable adjectives
We can classify adjectives into gradable and non-gradable.
Most adjectives are gradable. This means that they can be modified
with adverbs like quite, a bit, really …
Example:
Dan is quite tall.
This hotel is a bit expensive.
Example:
tall – taller – the tallest
expensive – more expensive – the most expensive
Strong adjectives can improve your writing style. They help you avoid overusing
adverbs like very. Compare the sentences below:
Example:
The weather was very hot so the pool was very busy. The water
was very cold but felt very good on such a hot day.
→ The weather was boiling so the pool was packed. The water
was freezing but felt amazing on such a hot day.
The table below shows some of the most common strong adjectives in English:
Normal
Strong Adjective
Adjective
angry furious, livid …
bad terrible, awful, horrific …
big enormous, giant, massive …
cold freezing
crowded/busy packed
dirty filthy
funny hilarious
good amazing, awesome, brilliant, fantastic …
hot boiling
hungry starving
old ancient
pleased delighted
scary terrifying
small tiny
tasty delicious
tired exhausted
ugly hideous
valuable priceless