All About Adjectives

English Just Wouldn't be the Same Without These Descriptive Words

This cleverly written descriptor is a great
example of an opinion adjective.

Are adjectives causing you aggravation? Are you unsure how and when to use a descriptive word? Perhaps you are unclear about what, exactly, an adjective is. Whatever the case, our English proofreading professionals are here to help!

Adjectives in a nutshell

To put it most simply, adjectives are words used to describe. They describe or modify nouns (people, places, and things) and pronouns (e.g., I, she, he, it, they, etc.) by depicting, quantifying, or identifying them. What can make adjectives confusing is that they don't always immediately signal to readers that they are adjectives. Luckily, there's a foolproof method when it comes to locating these tricky descriptors: simply find the noun/pronoun in a sentence and decide if there are any words that describe it. Consider the following example:

Your friend (noun) ripped my football (adjective) jersey (noun)!

While you may be tempted to identify football as a noun (which it most often is), closer inspection shows us that football is actually describing the jersey, telling us what kind of jersey it is, which therefore makes football an adjective. In this case, your is actually an adjective, but we'll get to that later.

Proper placement for adjectives

Another signal that a word is an adjective is its placement in a sentence. An adjective usually precedes the noun/pronoun that it modifies. However, this is not always the case. When an indefinite pronoun (e.g., something, someone, anybody) is modified by an adjective, the adjective follows the pronoun:

Anyone capable of hating kittens is someone awful.

Learn how to list adjectives in a sequence properly

Being able to identify adjectives is one thing, but what may be most confusing to those learning English as a second language is the order that adjectives must follow when listed in a series. It can seem arbitrary at first, but there is a basic order that you should use when listing adjectives:

1. Determiners: Are articles and other limiters (e.g., a, your, the, five, her).
2. Observations/Opinions: Describes what is thought about the noun (e.g., pretty, expensive, delicious).
3. Size: Describes how big or small the noun is (e.g., small, big, tiny, enormous).
4. Age: Describes how young or old the noun is (e.g., young, old, ancient, new).
5. Shape: Describes what shape the noun is  (e.g., round, square, flat).
6. Color: Describes what color the noun is (e.g., blue, pinkish, green).
7. Material: Describes what the noun is made out of (e.g., wooden, cotton, silver, metal).
8. Origin: Describes where the noun is from (e.g., American, eastern, lunar).
9. Purpose/Qualifier: Describes what the noun is used for or what it does (e.g., racing [as in racing car], sleeping [as in sleeping bag]).
10. The noun: The word that is being described.

It is also important to remember not to overuse adjectives. Two or three well-chosen adjectives are more than sufficient. Consider this sentence: She had an expensive, big, long, blue, cotton, Coleman sleeping bag. While it is technically correct, the abundance of adjectives should be avoided in favor of something a bit simpler, such as: She had an expensive, blue sleeping bag.

Of course, as with most rules in English, there are sometimes exceptions to this order. For example, you may switch opinion and fact (such as size) adjectives for emphasis: He had a big, ugly truck.

Coordinate and non-coordinate adjectives

Now that you know what adjectives are and how to order an adjective series properly, you may be wondering how to punctuate adjectives, especially if there is more than one before a noun. There are a few easy rules for this: If the adjectives are coordinate, you should use commas to separate them. If they are non-coordinate, no commas are needed. To identify coordinate adjectives, there are two simple tests you can use:

1. Does the sentence still make sense if you insert and between the adjectives?

He had a big and ugly truck.

2. Does the sentence still make sense if you rearrange the adjectives?

He had an ugly, big truck.

Both sentences still make sense, which means that the two adjectives (big and ugly) are coordinate adjectives and a comma should be used. Non-coordinate adjectives will not make sense if you rearrange them or if you insert and in between them. Consider this example:

Mark's two black shirts were in the laundry.

It would not be correct to say:

Mark's two and black shirts were in the laundry.

Nor would it be correct to say:

Mark's black two shirts were in the laundry.

In this example, two and black are non-coordinate adjectives, so there is no need to place a comma between them. Our English proofreaders also advise against using a comma between the final adjective and the noun being described as this will likely result in an awkward, or sometimes even incorrect, sentence. A comma shouldn't be used if the adjective is modified by another word either:

It was an especially sad movie.

Especially modifies the adjective sad, not the noun movie, so you do not use a comma.

Other types of adjectives to watch for

There are several other types of adjectives that you should know:

1. Possessive adjectives: My, your, his, her, their, our, and its. 

Your friend ripped my football jersey.

Your is a possessive adjective in this sentence. It describes whose friend ripped the shirt.

2. Demonstrative adjectives: That, those, this, these, and what.

That car is really fast.

In this sentence that modifies car. It tells us which car is really fast.

3. Interrogative adjectives:  Which and what.

What medicine does she need to take?

Here, what modifies medicine. It is asking what specific type of medicine is required.

4. Indefinite adjectives: Refer to something identifiable but not specific. Some common indefinite adjectives include all, another, something, none, one, several, and many.

Many people went to the party.

In this sentence, many is modifying people, telling us more about who attended the party.

There is a lot to remember when learning about adjectives, but just remember that they generally answer three questions about a noun: How many? What kind? Which ones? If you are still unsure about adjective usage and need a second opinion, Scribendi.com's English editors and proofreaders are available to help 24/7.