Adjectives are a Noun's Best Friends!

Simply put, adjectives describe nouns.

They are usually used before a noun. But sometimes, they follow liking verbs as well.

For example:

This is a beautiful house (the adjective ‘beautiful’ is followed by the noun ‘house’).

This house is beautiful (the adjective ‘beautiful’ follows the verb ‘is’).

Order of Adjectives

Consider this: The nice handsome 6 feet tall slim 30 year old white German man gifted me a silk gown.

In this sentence (let me warn you: this sentence is unusual and I hope you do not construct sentences like this!), there are eight adjectives. At first, they appear to be placed randomly. But they are not! There is an order that adjectives follow.

Here it is:

General Opinion	Specific Opinion	Size	Shape	Age	Colour	Nationality	Material
The word can be used for all or most kinds of nouns	The word can be used only for specific kinds of nouns	The word can be used to describe the size of a noun	The word can be used to describe the shape of a noun	The word can be used to describe the age of a noun	The word can be used to describe the colour of a noun	The word can be used to describe the nationality of a noun	The word can be used to describe the material of which the noun is made
nice	handsome	6 feet tall	slim	30 year old	white	German	silk

We shall try another funny sentence, just to understand the correct order of the adjectives.

The beautiful sumptuous large round freshly made red Italian cheesy pizza was delicious!

Phew!! So you see, use your adjectives in the order so that your sentence doesn’t sound funny.

Positives, Comparatives and Superlatives

There are three degrees to adjectives: Positives, Comparatives and Superlatives.

Positives are normal adjectives used to describe nouns.

Comparatives are used to compare the degree to which the description of one noun differs from another; or one state of a noun to another state of the same noun.

For example:

Robert is taller than Tom.

Robert is 8 inches taller since I last met him.

General rule: Comparatives are formed generally by adding –er to the positive form of the adjective; or used by adding ‘more’ to the adjective.

Now how do we decide whether to add –er or to prefix ‘more’?

Simple, count the number of vowel sounds in the adjective (not the vowels!)

A)     If the number of vowel sounds is two or less, add –er

B)      If the number of vowel sounds is three or more, prefix ‘more’.

For example:

Tall- taller (one vowel sound in ‘tall’)

Expensive- More expensive (three vowel sounds in ‘expensive’)

‘Superlatives’ means the best in the category and the comparison in made among numbers more than two.

General rule: They are usually formed by adding –est to the positive form of the adjective or by adding ‘most’ before the adjective. We add the definite article ‘the’ before superlatives.

Now how do we decide whether to add –est or to prefix ‘most’?

Simple, count the number of vowel sounds in the adjective (not the vowels!)

A)     If the number of vowel sounds is two or less, add –est

B)      If the number of vowel sounds is three or more, prefix ‘most’.

For example:

C)      Tall- taller (one vowel sound in ‘tall’)

D)     Expensive- More expensive (three vowel sounds in ‘expensive’)

Intensifiers and Adding Adverbs to Enhance Adjectives

Consider this: The beautiful girl from Venezuela was crowned Ms. Universe. Vs. The extremely beautiful girl from Venezuela was crowned Ms. Universe.

The second sentence sounds more impactful because of the word ‘extremely’.

Adding an adverb to an adjective can enhance the adjective. However, there are certain adjectives that can create an even better impact without using the adverb.

For example:

The stunning girl from Venezuela was crowned Ms. Universe.

Intensifiers are the adjectives that intensify the description of a noun without generally using an adverb.

Mitigators

The opposite of intensifiers are mitigators. They make the adjective less intense.

This is usually done by adding pretty, fairly, quite, rather before the adjective.

For example:

I didn’t like the movie, but the plot was pretty interesting.

The interview was fairly decent.

However, please remember that ‘quite’ can be used as a synonym for ‘absolutely’ as well and there it acts as an intensifier rather than a mitigator.

For example:

The meal was quite awful!

Any questions?

Well, please go through the concepts once again and then try this test to check how much you have grasped.

Adjectives- How Well Do You Know Them?

Let us see how well you have understood the concept. It is OK if you haven't for you can always go back to the concept to understand it!

1. Choose the sentence with correct order of adjectives.

An ancient Indian bronze watch was found by archaeologists.
An Indian ancient bronze watch was found by archaeologists.


2. The world is _________ without wars.

more happy
happier


3. 'Nice' is a __________________ adjective

Specific
General


4. Which appears first in the order of adjectives?

Shape
Size


5. Which adverb should you use before the adjective 'brilliant'?

exceptionally
very


6. Which intensifier can replace 'extremely horrible'?

unpleasant
disgusting


7. I like the hues beautiful of the flowers.

Correct
Incorrect


8. Adjectives are a beautiful concept to understand.

Correct
Incorrect


9. The test was quite simple.

Mitigator
Intensifier


10. The girl was quite fast on the keyboard!

Mitigator
Intensifier