Adjectives

(Definition- Classification- Model Questions)

An adjective is generally defined as a word which modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun.

Adjectives extend more information about a noun or pronoun by supplementing attributes or
qualities

Different types of Adjectives

Descriptive adjective
Numeral adjective
Quantitative adjective
Demonstrative adjective
Interrogative adjective
Possessive adjective
Proper adjective
Distributive adjective
Coordinate Adjectives
Cumulative Adjectives
Compound Adjectives
Definite Adjectives
Indefinite Adjectives

Descriptive adjective
It is used to describe the quality of a person or an animal or a thing. These can be used as the
subject complement of a sentence as it describes the noun or pronoun by expressing its quality.
(So, they are called Adjectives of Quality)
Example:

1. I met a handsome boy.

2. I always like hot water.

3. It was a sweet dream

4. He was a young man

Demonstrative Adjective:
Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific
people, animals, or things. Demonstrative adjectives are used to identify or express the relative
position of a noun in time or space.
Examples of demonstrative Adjectives. Examples:

1. This pen will be on my table

2. That child is running.

3. These are cute puppies

4. Those books are mine.

Distributive Adjective:
hey are used to indicate that a noun refers to each or every individual of a group or to
emphasize the separate identity of each member of a group. Examples of distributive adjectives
include “each,” “every,” “either,” “neither,” “any,” “all,” “both,” “half,” “several,” “many,” and
“few.”
Examples:
1. Every child reacted in the same way.
2. Few children enjoyed the rain.
3. I drink milk every day.
4. Any person can join the club.
5. Each player scored a goal.
Since the number is not exact, they can be called Indefinite Adjectives too
Interrogative adjective:
An adjective that modifies a noun by asking a question is called an Interrogative Adjective.
Examples are: "what," "which," and "whose." These modify the nouns and are used in
interrogative sentences.
Example:
1. Do you know what sort of ice cream she likes?

2. Whose book is this?

3. Who was the last speaker?

4. Which subject is most difficult?

Numerical Adjective:
Numeral adjectives are numbers or numerical orders that describe the number of nouns or the
order of the noun being described. These provide more details and accurate information in a
sentence.
Examples:

1. He won three badges in the competition.

2. There were seven rooms in my house.
3. Two girls are talking to each other.
4. There are five rooms in a house.
Since the number is exact, they can be called Definite Adjectives too

Quantitative Adjective:
Quantifying adjectives are adjectives that describe the amount of a thing, without specifically
measuring its quantity.
Examples:
1. She gave the full amount of money.
2. He speaks the least in his group.
3. Half the glass is empty
4. The whole class is silent.
5. She has many clothes to wear for her birthday party.

Proper Adjective:
An adjective that is formed from a proper noun is called a Proper Adjective.
Examples:
1. The British prime minister will visit there soon.
2. I love my new Georgian life.
3. He is a Buddhist.
4. The Chinese doctor has apologised for his negligence

Possessive Adjective:
A possessive adjective is an adjective that modifies a noun by identifying who has ownership or
possession of it
Example:
1. He is riding my bike.
2. This is your book.
3. She took his book yesterday itself.
Coordinate Adjectives
Coordinate adjectives are two or more adjectives (which are equally significant) that describe
the same noun. Coordinate adjectives are separated with commas or the word and, and appear
one after another to modify the same noun.
Examples
1. He got married on a bright, sunny day (or, He got married on a bright and sunny day)
2. That was Long, dark and horrible night

Cumulative Adjectives
Unlike coordinate adjectives, cumulative adjectives modify the noun in a specific order that
can’t be rearranged. You don’t need to separate cumulative adjectives with a comma.
Cumulative adjectives are also called hierarchical adjectives because they exist in hierarchy. In
other words, they’re not all equally important within the sentence.
For example,
He bought a dark blue dress.
In this example, dark modifies blue while blue modifies dress. The words dark and blue are not
modifying the same noun, so they’re not coordinate adjectives.
If you tried to switch the order of the adjectives, the sentence would no longer make sense:
Compound Adjectives
These adjectives are composed of two or more wordsto describe a noun. E.g. well-known
doctor, Blue-eyed boy

Identify the Types of Adjectives:

1. Which kind of adjective uses this, that, these, and those?

2. Which kind of adjectives uses who, what, and which?

3. She had less juice in her glass.

4. Congress is made up of two government houses.

5. There are six apples on the table

Answers:

1. Demonstrative Adjective.

2. Interrogative Adjective.

3. Quantitative Adjective.

4. Numerical Adjective.

5. Numerical adjective.

Identify the adjective in the sentence.

1. The young class was nervous about the test.

2. She is very beautiful.

3. Which book did you read yesterday?

4. My shirt is in that bag.

5. She is an aggressive girl.

Identify the type of adjectives in the following paragraph

Expansion of international trade created concomitant demand for more transport. The rise in
productivity of the maritime sector took place through massive increases in ship sizes and the
number of container ships. These have contributed to a considerable reduction in unit transport
costs, thereby shrinking the economic distance between raw material sources, producers and
consumers. The efficiency of the transport sector further increased with the arrival of multimodal
transport, linking maritime and surface transport. As a result, countries became better linked,
both internally as well as with neighbours, through highways and roads. During the 1990s, air
traffic in the Asia-Pacific region grew at a much faster rate than in the rest of the world. Demand
for air cargo services increased sharply owing to increased movement of high-value products.
These included many niche items such as flowers and fresh vegetables as well as parts and
components to feed the needs of the international production networks, particularly those of ICT
equipment manufacturers. In fact, the growth in commercial air services continues to outstrip the
available capacity of more and more airports, forcing Governments, airlines and airports to
tackle problems of insufficient airport capacity