Comprehensive Guide to Adjectives in English Grammar

Are you a non-native English speaker aspiring to become a writer, proofreader, or editor in English? If so, a comprehensive understanding of English grammar is crucial to your success, especially in learning about adjectives.

Adjectives are one of the 22 types of grammar that I learned from the grammar guide on ProWritingAid. To perfect your grammar understanding and skills, it is essential to have an overall understanding of what adjectives are.

Here are five complete explanations of what adjectives are:

1. Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns.
2. Adjectives can describe the qualities of nouns.
3. Adjectives can describe the quantity of nouns.
4. Adjectives come in three forms: absolute, comparative, and superlative.
5. Adjectives have strong and weak forms.

Below are example sentences and an explanation of each:

1. Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns.

Based on my research, adjectives only describe or modify nouns. They do not describe or modify verbs, adverbs, or other adjectives.

2. Adjectives can describe the qualities of nouns.

Adjectives can describe the qualities of nouns, such as size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose, or an opinion on something.

For example:

• Anna has a large house. (The word "large" describes the quality of the house.)
• Anna is tall. (The word "tall" describes the quality of Anna.)
• Anna's car was blue. (The word "blue" describes the quality of Anna's car.)
• Anna's dog was lovely. (The word "lovely" describes the quality of the dog.)

3. Adjectives can describe the quantity of nouns.

Adjectives can describe the quantity of nouns to describe the number of something.

For example:

• Anna has many horses. (The word "many" describes the quantity of the horses.)
• Anna's house is surrounded by many mountains. (The word "many" describes the quantity of the mountains.)

4. Adjectives come in three forms: absolute, comparative, and superlative.

Absolute adjectives cannot compare two or more things.

For example:

• Anna is beautiful. "Beautiful" describes Anna as a subject. She's not being compared to anything else.
• Anna is tall. "Tall" describes Anna as a subject. She's not being compared to anything else.

Comparative adjectives compare two or more things.

For example:

• Anna is more beautiful than her friend, Cloe. The comparative adjective "more beautiful" is used to compare Anna's beauty factor to her friend, Cloe. Anna comes out on top.
• Anna is taller than Cloe. The comparative adjective "taller" is used to compare Ana's tall factor to her friend, Cloe.

For one-syllable adjectives, you can form their comparative forms by adding the suffix "er" to them. For two-syllable adjectives that end with "y" (e.g., happy), drop the "y" and add "ier" (happier). For multisyllabic adjectives, add the word "more" as a modifier.


Superlative adjectives show something that has the highest quality.

For example:

• Anna is the most beautiful among her friends. The superlative adjective "most beautiful" shows that Anna has peak levels of beauty. Her friends can't be "more beautiful" than Anna.
• Anna is the tallest among her friends. The superlative adjective "tallest" shows that Anna has achieved peak levels of "tall". Her friends can't be "taller" than Anna.

5. Adjectives" can be either strong, providing clear and specific images of the things they describe, or weak and unclear.

Examples of strong and weak adjectives:

• Anna is very happy. (Weak adjective)
• Anna is ecstatic. (Strong adjective)
• Today's weather is very hot. (Weak adjective)
• Today's weather is sweltering. (Strong adjective)
• Anna will be very glad to see her friend, Cloe. (Weak adjective)
• Anna will be delighted to see her friend, Cloe. (Strong adjective)
• Anna is very funny. (Weak adjective)
• Anna is hilarious. (Strong adjective)

When choosing adjectives, it's important to use strong adjectives that accurately convey your intended meaning.

However, there are cases where weak adjectives can be used to soften your writing and make it more elegant.

For instance:

• Even though I was so tired and my body was full of wounds, I felt great; I finally got to the peak of the Himalayas.
• Even though I was so tired and my body was full of wounds, I felt good; I finally got to the peak of the Himalayas.
• Even though I was so tired and my body was full of wounds, I felt pretty good; I finally got to the peak of the Himalayas.

These examples show that weaker adjectives can help illustrate situations that are in the middle of the continuum between perfect and worst. In this case, "pretty good" means you're okay, but not at 100%.

Best regards,
Santosa Laksana.