Adjectives

Adjectives: Degree of Comparison and Examples 

Adjectives describe or modify nouns and pronouns.  

They may name qualities of all kinds.  

The objective of an adjective is to describe a noun or pronoun and provide more information about it. 

• Example: Excellent writing is required for this job. 

The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. [only the comparative and superlative show degrees] 

Comparative adjectives are utilized to compare two different people or things to each other. 

Superlative adjectives are utilized to compare more than two people or things by indicating which one is the most supreme or extreme. 

• He is good swimmer. (basic adjective) 
• She is a better swimmer than him. (comparative adjective) 
• Caeleb Dressel is the best swimmer. (superlative adjective) 

A compound adjective is created by two or more words that work jointly to modify the same noun. 

• She had bright, blue-green eyes.  
• His orange-yellow skin looked very unhealthy. 

A possessive adjective precedes a noun (or a pronoun) to show who or what owns it. 

He do not choose that his grave should be dug while He is still alive. 

A demonstrative adjective revises a noun or pronoun in a sentence while emphasizing its importance.  

• This toy is my brother’s favorite. (The speaker is close to “this toy.”) 

Proper adjective modifies nouns and pronouns and is formed from a proper noun.  

• Asia-Asian: How many Asian countries have you visited? 

A participial adjective: 

It is an adjective identical in form to a participle. 

A participial adjective is similar in form to a participle. 

• I put on my running shoes. 
• She was really tired. 

A limiting adjective defines the noun rather than describes it.  

• a tree 
• a pen 
• an apple 

A descriptive adjective describes a noun and pronouns.  

• The hungry cats are crying.  
• I saw a flying Eagle.  

 Interrogative adjectives (also known as interrogative determiners) modify nouns and pronouns. 

• What book are you reading? 
• Which shirt are you going to buy? 

Attributive adjectives describe a characteristic (or attribute) of the noun or pronoun that they modify. 

• The black dog is barking 

Predicate adjectives appear in the predicate of a sentence as a subject complement directly next to the nouns or pronouns that they modify. 

• Andrea is tall. 
• Freddy became angry. 

Distributive adjective refers to members of a group individually. 

• Each book in the series had a foreword by a noted scholar. 
• Each player was asked to complete a report.