ADJECTIVES
Identifying adjectives
An adjective is a word that refers to a characteristic of a noun. How can you identify an adjective?
If you can put a word between the and a noun (like boy, or idea), then that word is an adjective.
Quick tip
If you can put a word between the and a noun (for example, the _____ boy), then that word is an adjective.
For example, since we can say the tall boy, tall is an adjective. Similarly, we can say the silly boy, the interesting boy, and the young boy. Therefore, silly, interesting, and young are alladjectives.
A number of adjectives, all used in the phrase the ________ boy are listed below. The adjectives are underlined:
1. the brilliant boy
2. the embarrassed boy
3. the blonde boy
4. the hungry boy
5. the delightful boy
Compare these phrases to*the very boy,*the a boy, and*the talk boy. Very, a, and talk are not adjectives.
What do adjectives actually do? Adjectives always tell us something about a noun.
Another way of saying this is that they modify a noun. In the phrases we’ve just looked at, the underlined adjectives tell us something about, or modify, the noun boy.
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As we’ve said, a good way to decide if a word is an adjective is to see if it can be placed between the and a noun. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the only place where an adjective can occur; it’s just a way to test a word to see if it’s an adjective.
Here are some sentences where the adjective is in a different place. In each case, the adjective is underlined.
6. He is a tall boy.
7. My best friend loves chocolate cake.
8. The house had a low roof.
9. Large cars are harder to drive than small cars.
Let’s make sure that each of the underlined words above passes the adjective test, that is, that it can appear between the and a noun.
10. tall: the tall boy
11. best: the best movie
12. chocolate: the chocolate bar
13. low: the low ceiling
14. large: the large window
15. small: the small window.
As you can see, each of these words passes the adjective test. Notice also that each of these words describes a characteristic of a noun.
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What do you notice about the underlined adjectives in the phrases below?
16. the delicious rich cake
17. my tall, red-haired, entertaining friend
18. a bright, colorful, blue, striped pattern
As you can see, a noun can have more than one adjective modifying it. In fact, there is no limit to the number of adjectives that can modify a noun (except the patience and tolerance of the listener!).
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Remember that sometimes a word can function as one word category, or part of speech, in one sentence, and as another word category in another sentence (see Concrete and abstract nouns). For example, let’s look at the word cream. In the sentence I brought the cream, cream is a noun. But in the sentence That’s a cream cake, cream is an adjective, telling us more about the noun cake.
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