What is an Adjective?

ADJECTIVE – adds something to the meaning of a noun.

What is an Adjective? An adjective is a word or group of words used to describe or modify a noun or pronoun. It usually adds something to their meaning.

The adjectives are usually used before a noun or a pronoun, but sometimes they may be used after the verb as predicatively.

Adjectives can be used in two ways attributively and predicatively.

When an Adjective is used before the noun, it is called an Attributive Adjective.

• I saw a black cat.
• It was a slow journey.
• The rose is a beautiful flower.
• She is carrying a large suitcase.

When an Adjective is used after the verbs like be, become, grow, look, or seem, it is called a Predicative Adjective.

• The dog is black.
• The rose is beautiful.
• After a long journey, they look tired.
• By virtue of hard work, they grew rich.

There are 12 types of adjectives according to their uses.

Types of Adjectives

• Proper Adjectives
• Adjectives of Quality (Qualitative Adjectives/Descriptive Adjectives)
• Adjectives of Quantity (Quantitative Adjectives)
• Adjectives of Number (Numeral Adjectives)
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Interrogative Adjectives
• Distributive Adjectives
• Possessive Adjectives (Pronominal)
• Emphasizing Adjectives
• Exclamatory Adjectives
• Participle Adjectives
• Relative Adjectives
• Compound Adjectives

Proper Adjectives:

Proper Adjectives have been derived from Proper Nouns and describe people, places and things. 

These adjectives are based on personal names of people, places and things. 

Therefore, Proper Adjectives should be capitalized just like Proper Nouns.

Proper Adjectives are mostly seen in two different types:

1. Formed from the names of places like countries, continents, regions, cities.

• Italy – Italian
• India – Indian

          2. Formed from the names of famous and historical people like

• Christ – Christian
• Shakespeare – Shakespearean

Here are a few more examples based on place names in sentences. Curious to know more based on place names.

Examples based on place names:

1. He is a German sailor.
2. Sachin is an Indian cricket player.
3. Alex is an Australian player.
4. Krishna likes Chinese food.
5. Can I get some Indian tea?
6. This shop is famous for French wines.
7. The British ambassador is visiting India next month.
8. Many people like Hyderabadi biryani.
9. African people were not respected in those days.
10. They have imported Japanese cars recently.

Proper adjectives that have been derived from real or fictional people’s names are called  EPONYMOUS.  Curious to know more about Eponymous adjectives 

Examples of Eponymous adjectives  based on famous people’s names:

1. Everybody likes Shakespearean dramas.
2. He has been influenced by  Marxist philosophy.
3. Where do we find Platonic love these days?.
4. It is not a Herculean task for him to climb Himalayan mountains.
5. We have recently visited the most famous Buddhist temple
6. It is better to introduce Gandhian Thoughts in the school curriculum

Recommended Readings:

BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

TONGUE TWISTERS IN ENGLISH

PHONETIC ALPHABET

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE