Intro. to Adjectives

Intro. to Adjectives

An adjective describes a person, place, thing, or idea. Descriptive adjectives provide information about the size, shape, color, texture, feeling, sound, smell, number, or condition of a noun or pronoun.

• Ex. Many groups of visitors admire the huge new building.

Most adjectives come before the nouns or pronouns they modify. Some adjectives follow linking verbs and modify the noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. These are called predicate adjectives or subject complements.

• Ex. Some architects are skillful and creative.

Adjectives that follow the verb but modify an OBJECT in the sentence are not considered predicate adjectives.

• Ex. The artist painted the ceramic vase.

Sometimes, the order of adjectives doesn’t matter and they can be switched. These are called coordinate adjectives and a comma should be placed between them.

• Ex. The friendly, brown dog came over to us.

• Ex. The brown, friendly dog came over to us.

Sometimes, the order of adjectives does matter and they can’t be switched. These are called non-coordinate adjectives and commas shouldn’t be used between them.

• Ex. Fido went into his green dog house.

• Ex. Fido went into his dog green house. (doesn't sound right)

​Identify the adjectives in the following sentences.

Multiple Choice

The quarrelsome children settled into a peaceful slumber.

• children, slumber

• quarrelsome, peaceful

• settled

• into

Multiple Choice

Jay is so calm and thoughtful.

• Jay

• calm

• thoughtful

• calm, thoughtful

Multiple Choice

Heather hauled nine boxes to the new apartment.

• Heather

• nine

• nine, new

• new

Multiple Choice

Beth drove two miles.

• Beth

• drove

• two

• miles

Multiple Choice

I eased into the warm water for a nice swim.

• warm, nice

• water, swim

• eased

• for

Multiple Choice

Ellie kept strawberry gum in her overnight bag.

• strawberry

• gum, bag

• overnight

• strawberry, overnight

Multiple Choice

Bobby took a long nap.

• Bobby

• took

• long

• nap

Multiple Choice

Valerie brought that book to class.

• that

• book

• to

• class

Multiple Choice

Lacey made fruit popsicles for the neighborhood kids.

• popsicles, neighborhood

• fruit, neighborhood

• popsicles, kids

• fruit, kids

Multiple Choice

Keri wore black pants with new boots.

• black, new

• black, boots

• pants, new

• pants, boots