TYPES OF ADJECTIVES

 TYPES OF ADJECTIVES

We are now going to look at the various / different types of adjectives that can be used to spice up your sentences. There are two main types of adjectives as shown below.

A: Descriptive adjectives describe quality of the noun or pronoun. In fact, descriptive adjectives can be attributive adjectives or predicative adjectives.

What is a descriptive adjective in English?

Generally, a descriptive adjective is probably what you think of when you hear the word “adjective.” In fact, descriptive adjectives can be attributive adjectives or predicate adjectives.

1: Attributive Adjectives

Adjectives which appear directly beside the noun, most commonly before, are called attributive, because they attribute a quality to the noun they modify. And, more than one adjective can modify the same noun.

Examples:

The flowers have a nice smell. (“Nice” is an attributive adjective, as it is placed).

The chatter made the room noisy. (This is an instance in which the attributive adjective appears directly behind the noun. “Noisy” is describing the “room.”)

2: Predicative Adjectives

Adjectives which appear after a linking verb are predicative adjectives, because they form part of the predicate. Hence, they modify the subject of the sentence or clause (a clause is a portion of a sentence which contains a subject and a predicate).

Examples:

The pickles are salty. (noun: pickle, linking verb: are, adjective: salty (describing the noun “pickles”))

Tornadoes appear menacing. (noun: tornadoes, linking verb: appear, adjective: menacing (describing the noun “tornadoes”))

B: While, Limiting adjectives limit the noun being described. There are eleven types of limiting adjectives as follows:

A: Definite & Indefinite Articles

B: Possessive Adjectives

C: Demonstrative Adjectives

D: Indefinite Adjectives

E: Interrogative Adjectives

F: Cardinal Adjectives

G: Ordinal Adjectives

H: Proper / Origin / Nationality Adjectives

I: Nouns used as Adjectives