Adjective

An adjective is a word that modifies (gives more information about) a noun or a pronoun.

Examples: hot tea, old man, beautiful girl, white shirt, intelligent student, interesting story, handsome boy, huge room.

In these examples, the words hot, old, beautiful, white, intelligent, interesting, handsome, and huge are adjectives because they modify the attached nouns by providing more information about these nouns.

See the following example:

John bought a shirt.
John bought a red shirt.

In the first sentence, we only know that John purchased a shirt. In the second sentence, the adjective ‘red’ adds information about the shirt’s color. We now also know that the color of the shirt was red. This is how an adjective modifies a noun.

Adjectives can describe various aspects of nouns, such as quality, quantity, size, color, and other characteristics.

A sentence can have one or more adjectives.

Examples:

The intelligent boy won the competition. (one adjective).
The intelligent and handsome boy won the competition. (two adjectives).
The intelligent, handsome, and tall boy won the competition. (three adjectives).
The intelligent, handsome, tall and thin boy won the competition. (four adjectives).

Common Adjectives:

Colors: Red, white, black, purple, green, yellow, brown.
Physical characteristics: Thin, fat, short, tall, beautiful, ugly.
Personality traits: Brave, intelligent, courageous, exuberant, diligent, determined.

■ Using Adjectives in a Sentence

An adjective is used in two places in a sentence:

Before a noun.
After a stative verb (e.g., resemble, look, seem, feel, etc.).

Before understanding the usage adjective, it is better to briefly explain stative verbs. Most verbs express an action, such as eat, buy, go, wash, and run. These are called dynamic verbs. Some verbs, however, express a state or condition rather than an action; these are called stative verbs such as look, seem, appear, and feel.

Example of stative verb:

He looks handsome.
She seems angry.

In these examples, the verbs ‘look’ and ‘resemble’ do not express any action (like normal dynamic verbs) but only express a state of being handsome and angry.

1. Use of adjectives before a noun

Adjectives are most commonly placed before the noun they modify.
See the following examples, where the red word is an adjective whereas the blue word is a noun.

He gifted me a nice shirt.
She bought a beautiful car.
We ate a delicious pizza.
I saw a red rose in the garden.
He told us an interesting story.
We watched a funny movie.
I bought a small cup.
A beautiful girl was singing a song.
He was standing near a huge building.
A kind-hearted man helped the boys.
She was suffering from a severe fever.
They were running a small business.
He faced many serious problems in his life.

2. Use of Adjectives After a Stative Verb

When a sentence contains a stative verb (or a verb functioning as a stative verb), the adjective is typically placed after the verb.

Common stative verbs include seem, appear, look, consist, and feel. Additionally, auxiliary verbs (e.g., is, am, are, was, were) may also function as stative verbs in certain sentences.

Consider the following examples, where red words are adjectives, blue words are stative verbs (or verbs acting as stative verbs), and the underlined word is the noun or pronoun modified by the adjective:

He looks handsome.
She is feeling sad.
The idea seems good.
This food tastes bad.
She was angry.
The movie is interesting.
My shirt is new.
The kids became happy.
The soldier is brave.

■ Multiple Adjectives and Their Order

When a noun is described by more than one adjective, English follows a natural order for clarity and correctness. The typical order is:

Quantity → Opinion → Size → Age → Shape → Color → Origin → Material → Purpose → Noun

Example:

A lovely small old round red Italian wooden dining table.

This explains why “the intelligent, handsome, tall, and thin boy” sounds natural, while “thin, tall, handsome, intelligent boy” would sound awkward.

More Examples:

He bought three large old square brown German leather suitcases.
They live in a charming little new brick cottage.
I saw several tiny young round yellow kittens in the garden.
He drives a sleek modern silver Japanese sports car.

■ Degrees of Adjectives

Adjectives can express different degrees of quality:

Positive Degree – Describes a noun or pronoun without comparison.

Example: She is intelligent.

Comparative Degree – Compares two nouns or pronouns, usually formed by adding -er or using more.

Example: She is more intelligent than her brother.
Example: This book is thicker than that one.

Superlative Degree – Compares three or more nouns or pronouns, usually formed by adding -est or using most.

Example: She is the most intelligent student in the class.
Example: This is the thickest book on the shelf.

Note: Some adjectives are irregular:

good → better → best
bad → worse → worst
far → farther/further → farthest/furthest

Understanding the degrees of adjectives helps describe nouns and pronouns more precisely and compare them effectively.