What are Adjectives?
Large, grey, and friendly are all examples of describing words, or adjectives. Adjectives are an important part of our daily speech and writing. They help the listeners or readers see, feel, and hear what is described.
The large, grey, friendly elephant.
Adjectives Modify Nouns
"Elephant," in the example above, is a noun. Adjectives are found before the noun in the sentence to tell us more about it -- what kind, what colour, or how many. There are endless types of adjectives. You can find some of the commonly used types of adjectives and examples within each category in the table below.
| Type of Adjective | Size | |
| Example adjectives | huge, little, bulky, thin, vast, tiny, lean, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | Look at that tiny caterpillar! |
| Type of Adjective | Quality |  |
| Example adjectives | honest, kind, large, bulky, beautiful, ugly etc. | |
| Example Sentence | What a beautiful flower! |
| Type of Adjective | Colour |  |
| Example adjectives | red, orange, blue, maroon, pink, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | The walls were a repulsive, pink colour. |
| Type of Adjective | Shape |  |
| Example adjectives | circular, crooked, triangular, oval, wavy, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | Square tiles were aligned all across the top of the bathroom wall. |
| Type of Adjective | Age |  |
| Example adjectives | young, old, teenage, mature, recent, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | My brother is still a very young child. |
| Type of Adjective | Number |  |
| Example adjectives | one, two, three, twenty, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | There's only one baby seal! |
| Type of Adjective | Quantifiers (recall from lesson 2-5) |  |
| Example adjectives | all, half, many, few, little | |
| Example Sentence | Many people came to the party! |
| Type of Adjective | Origin |  |
| Example adjectives | Mexican, American, Japanese, Oriental, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | Japanese green tea ice cream mochi is delicious! |
| Type of Adjective | Material |  |
| Example adjectives | wooden, plastic, steely, metallic, cottony, etc. | |
| Example Sentence | I just love the cottony material of these curtains. |
Exercise
Open the exercise to begin the activity. Follow the instructions in the document.