English Grammar Lesson 2 Adjectives

Would you like to describe something?

Big Blue Fun Pretty

Adjectives are describing words. When you use an adjective, you describe how something looks, how it works, or other things about the noun.

Adjectives have different categories:

An adjective can be a Determiner
A, An, The both, Either, Some, Many, My, Your, Our

Example: You can have either a hot dog or a salad.

An adjective can be an Opinion.
Fun, Boring, Good, Bad, Great, Terrible, Silly, Beautiful, Ugly, Etc.

Example: This is a terrible sandwich.

An adjective can describe size.
Tiny, Little, Small, Medium, Large, Gigantic, Enormous, Average

Example: She has a gigantic dog.

An adjective can explain a shape.
Flat, Round, Square, Triangular, Circular

Example: They have a round table.

An adjective can describe the age of something.
Young, Old, Ancient

Example: The young girl was pretty.

An adjective can explain the color of a noun.
Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, Orange

Example: The green grass is long.

An adjective can describe the origin of a noun.
French, Canadian, American, Korean, Chinese

Example: Those tourists are Canadian.

An adjective can describe the material something is made of.
Cotton, Gold, Steel, Cloth, Fubber

Example: These cotton clothes are good for summer.

An adjective can tell about the purpose of a noun.
For writing, For running, For cooking

Example: I want to buy this swimsuit for swimming.

Let’s take a look at some simple sentence patterns for adjectives. How can you use adjectives in a sentence?

Most of the time, adjectives come before the noun you are describing.

I am wearing a blue dress.
Here, blue is the color adjective and dress is the noun.

I have a gold necklace.
The materials adjective gold describes the necklace.

This is a round ball.
The ball’s shape is explained by the adjective round.

There is a Japanese flag.
The origin adjective Japanese tells where the flag is from.

I am writing on an orange piece of paper.
The color adjective orange tells the color of the paper.

She has an ugly backpack.
The opinion adjective ugly describes what the backpack looks like.

What if you need more than 1 adjective to describe the noun?

Here is the order all adjectives go in for correct grammar.

Determiner > Opinion > Size > Shape > Age > Color > Origin > Material > Purpose

Make Sure to put a comma between your adjectives!!!

Let’s look at some examples of sentences with more than one adjective.

-The girl has a beautiful, gold necklace.
-There is a large, circular, French table.
-I have a small, American flag.
-She has an old, blue backpack.
-It is a bad, square, brown chair.

Try making your own sentences with adjectives. A good sentence has between 1-3 adjectives. More than 3 adjectives can become a confusing sentence.

Get more grammar practice and learn about nouns. Click here for English grammar lesson 1 nouns

WORKSHEET

Which sentence is correct?

1. This is a Canadian, small flag.
2. This is a small Canadian flag.
3. This is a small, Canadian flag.

Which sentence is wrong?

1. The girl has a beautiful, gold locket.
2. It is a bad, square, brown chair.
3. The girl has a gold, beautiful locket.

Put the following sentences in the right order.

backpack / She / an ugly / has / old / backpack.

apple / It is / round / a

Describe the object in the picture:

ANSWERS

c. This is a small, Canadian flag.

c. The girl has a gold, beautiful locket.

She has an ugly, old backpack.

It is a round apple.

Answers may vary.