Types of Adjective

1. Descriptive Adjective

A descriptive adjective is probably what you think of when you hear the word “adjective.” Descriptive adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns.

Examples of descriptive adjective:

The flowers have a smell” is just stating a fact, and it has no adjectives to describe what the flowers or their smell are like.
The beautiful flowers have a nice smell” gives us a lot more information, with two descriptive adjectives.

2. Quantitative Adjective

Quantitative adjectives describe the quantity of something.

In other words, they answer the question “how much?” or “how many?” Numbers like one and thirty are this type of adjective. So are more general words like many, half and a lot.

Examples of Quantitative adjective:

“How many children do you have?” “I only have one daughter.”
“Do you plan on having more kids?” “Oh yes, I want many children!”

3. Demonstrative Adjective

A demonstrative adjective describes “which” noun or pronoun you’re referring to. These adjectives include the words:

This — Used to refer to a singular noun close to you.
That — Used to refer to a singular noun far from you.
These — Used to refer to a plural noun close to you.
Those — Used to refer to a plural noun far from you.

Demonstrative adjectives always come before the word they’re modifying.

Examples of Demonstrative adjective:

“Which bicycle is yours?” “This bicycle is mine, and that one used to be mine until I sold it.”

4. Possessive Adjective

Possessive adjectives show possession. They describe to whom a thing belongs. Some of the most common possessive adjectives include:

My — Belonging to me
His — Belonging to him
Her — Belonging to her
Their — Belonging to them
Your — Belonging to you
Our — Belonging to us

All these adjectives, except the word his, can only be used before a noun. You can’t just say “That’s my,” you have to say “That’s my pen.” When you want to leave off the noun or pronoun being modified, use these possessive adjectives instead:

Mine
His
Hers
Theirs
Yours
Ours

For example, even though saying “That’s my” is incorrect, saying “That’s mine” is perfectly fine.

Examples of Possessive adjective:

“Whose dog is that?” “He’s mine. That’s my dog.”

5. Interrogative Adjective

Interrogative adjectives interrogate, meaning that they ask a question. These adjectives are always followed by a noun or a pronoun, and are used to form questions. The interrogative adjectives are:

Which — Asks to make a choice between options.
What — Asks to make a choice (in general).
Whose — Asks who something belongs to.

Other question words, like “who” or “how,” aren’t adjectives since they don’t modify nouns. For example, you can say “whose coat is this?” but you can’t say “who coat?”

Examples of Interrogative adjective:

“Which song will you play on your wedding day?”
“What pet do you want to get?”
“Whose child is this?”

6. Distributive Adjective

Distributive adjectives describe specific members out of a group. These adjectives are used to single out one or more individual items or people. Some of the most common distributive adjectives include:

Each — Every single one of a group (used to speak about group members individually).
Every — Every single one of a group (used to make generalizations).
Either — One between a choice of two.
Neither — Not one or the other between a choice of two.
Any — One or some things out of any number of choices. This is also used when the choice is irrelevant, like: “it doesn’t matter, I’ll take any of them.”

Examples of Distributive adjective:

“Which of these two songs do you like?” “I don’t like either song.”

Back to:

Google Sites

Report abuse