Adjective and its Types.

A part of speech is any single word in a sentence.
The parts of speech can be divided into eight parts:

1. Noun,
2. Pronoun,
3. Adjective,
4. Verb,
5. Adverb,
6. Preposition,
7. Conjunction,
8. Interjection.

Adjective

What is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that qualifies or describes a noun or a pronoun. It describes the quality, quantity, shape, color, taste, smell of a noun or a pronoun.

E.g.-

 (a) It was an interesting  story. 

– Here ‘interesting’ is describing how the story is. So it's an adjective.

(b) I have a pen. The pen is red.

  – Here ‘red’ is the color of the pen. As the word ‘red’ describes the noun ‘pen’, it is an adjective.

Use of Adjectives:

You can divide adjectives into two on the basis to their positions in a sentence —

A. Attributive Adjectives,   and

B. Predicative Adjectives. 

A.  Attributive Adjective :-

When you use an adjective just before the noun it qualifies, it is called an attributive adjective. It is also known as Epithets.

E.g. –

• What a beautiful day it was.
• A large pool was there. 
• A yellow bird is singing.

B. Predicative Adjectives:-

In a sentence, when you describe a noun/pronoun by putting the adjectives predicatively after the verb (usually be verbs), it is a predicative adjective. 

For example,

• The garden is spectacular.
• Her mother has been unwell for a week..
• The lecture was boring.
• They are dangerous. Beware of them.

In the examples above, you see that the adjectives spectacular, unwell, boring and dangerous are used after the verbs. but still they qualify the nouns/pronouns before the verbs (garden, mother, lecture, they respectively).

Is it clear?

Nice. 

Now let's see classification of adjectives on the basis of their functions.

Classifications of Adjectives -

I) Qualitative Adjective:-

The words you use to describe the quality of a person, or thing or animal are qualitative adjectives. 

For example, 

• Your aunt is a nice lady.
• Muhammed Ali was a great boxer.
• A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• The man brought some unripe oranges.

II) Quantitative or Numeral Adjective:-

Quantitative adjectives denote the quantity of a noun or a pronoun.

As,

• Some people are not happy with the move that the Government took.
• Twelve hundred employees made a voluntary exit.

  a) Indefinite Numeral Adjective:-

Indefinite means vague or not clearly defined.

We often use all, some, many, much, no, few, a few, several, none, certain etc. to denote the quantity of people, objects and animals. 

Right?

But these words do not express the exact number of the noun/pronoun. So we call them indefinite adjectives.

Let's have a look at the uses of the indefinite numeral adjective —

• Some children are playing in the park.
• All the employees were happy when they got ten percent increment in their salaries.
• Many people have got the opportunity to become billionaire.
• A few people have remained homeless. 
• No man is immortal.
• Thou shalt have none other gids before me.

b) Number Adjective:-

Number adjectives denote the exact number of persons, things or animals. They are called adjectives of number too.

E.g. —

• There are ten people in the park.
• I have two mobile phones.
• The girl bought four chocolates.
• Only five girls have been selected.

III) Demonstrative Adjectives:-

We use some words to indicate a noun specifically. These words are demonstrative adjectives.  

E.g. –

This, that, these, those, such, same and so on.

Use —

• This tree bears sweet fruits.
• You can trust the products of that company.
• The US Federal Reserve takes the same measures to control inflation.
• That employee got the best employee of the year award.
• This website is my favourite.
• Those people are homeless.
• These girls danced gracefully.
• Such people like him are called stupid.

Let's have a look at this table to know how demonstrative adjectives differ from Demonstrative Pronouns...

Examples of Demonstrative Pronouns	Examples of Demonstrative Adjectives
That is my question paper.	That question is easy.
These are my pens.	These pens are mine.
This was our car.	This car was ours.
Those are apples.	Those apples are sweet.

IV) Interrogative Adjectives:-

The wh words we use in a sentence just before a thing or a person, are interrogative adjectives. We mainly use what, which and whose as the interrogative adjectives. 

Use —

• Which machine is not working well?
• What place do you like the most?
• What time will you start from?
• Which movie is being played here?
• Whose cycle is this?

Each wh word modifies the noun next to it.

 

V) Distributive Adjective:-

The adjectives we use to denote a single person or thing among many. Every, each, either, neither are distribute adjectives. 

Use —

• Each boy participated in the annual sports. 
• Every student is present today.
• Either of the students will be punished.
• Neither of you has failed.

VI) Possessive Adjectives:-

The words we use to show one’s possession on something and relationship with other people.

Use —

• This is my laptop. 
• She asked for your pen. (Showing possession)

• I saw your sister there.
• My brother is an entrepreneur. (Showing relationship)

VII) Emphasizing Adjectives:-

The words we use before a noun to emphasize our speech Emphasizing adjectives. Own and very are such words.

Use —

• I used my own camera to take photos. 
• My grandfather used to sit in this very chair. 
• Peter is her own brother. 
• Sunlight enters the room from that very window. 

VIII) Proper Adjectives:-

We derived proper adjectives from proper nouns.

How?

We derived the adjective American from the proper noun America, European from the noun Europe, Asian from Asia, Gandhian from M.K. Gandhi, Marxist from Karl Marx, and many more.

You got it?

Let’s see how you can use them in a sentence:

• She is a European.
• I am a US citizen.
• The French Revolution took place in late eighteenth century. 
• That Pakistani girl sang some fantabulous songs.

IX) Articles:

 The articles a, an, the are also adjectives. 

Because you use them to indicate people or things non-specifically (with A and An), and specifically (with The).

Use —

• There is a big tree in front of my house.  

– ‘a tree’ is there, but what type of tree is not said specifically. So a here indicates a noun non-specifically. Therefore it is an adjective.

You can apply tye same to in the following example to claim that an is an adjective. 

• Give me an umbrella.

And the third article the is definite article. It denotes specific persons or things.

There is a tree in front of our house. The tree bears sweet fruits. 

Alright.

So that’s all about adjectives. 

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