Is a descriptive word an adjective

Here you will learn 7 Types of Adjectives with Definitions, and Examples in English. Adjectives are one of the most basic parts of speech and learning adjectives can help in speaking English as a second language. We are going to discuss all 7 different types of adjectives in detail with easy-to-understand definitions and examples.

I remember when I was in school, my English teacher taught us the different types of adjectives. Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. They can also be words that give more information to verbs, adverbs, and other adjectives. It’s important for learners to understand how they work properly because it makes writing easier.

Here are some examples that will help you learn about adjectives.

• James is a friendly man. (friendly modifies the noun man)
• The child was sleeping heavily. (heavy modifies the verb sleeping)
• She had a very sad look on her face. (sad modifies the adjective look)

The weather outside is beautiful. (beautiful modifies the adjective weather)

I hope this gives you a better understanding of adjectives and how they work in sentences. Adjectives are very important to study because they will make sentence structure easier to learn in English.

What is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that modifies or describes other words, it makes your writing and communication much more definite, and a whole lot more interesting. Adjectives are usually pointed before the noun or pronoun to classify or quantify specific people and unique things.

Examples

Words like big, beautiful, gorgeous, and sharp are all examples of adjectives.

1. They are living in a beautiful house
2. Ahmad is living in a big apartment
3. Hina’s hair is gorgeous.

Types of Adjectives with Definitions and Examples

There are seven major types of adjectives. Download types of adjectives in pdf.

1. Proper Adjective

The adjective form of proper nouns is called proper adjectives. When proper nouns define or modify other pronouns/nouns, they turn into proper adjectives. ‘Proper’ means ‘specific’ rather than ‘formal’ or ‘gracious.’ Proper adjectives are generally capitalized just as proper nouns are capitalized.

Examples

1. American instruments are very strong.
2. Turkish food is very famous.
3. I love McDonald’s burgers.

2. Descriptive Adjective

A descriptive adjective is a word that describes nouns and pronouns. This type of adjective is very specific. These adjectives deliver information and point to the nouns/pronouns they modify or describe or modify. These adjectives are also called qualitative adjectives.

Examples

1. I saw a flying parrot
2. Ahmad is very hungry
3. The hungry dogs are barking

3. Quantitative Adjective

A quantitative adjective delivers information about the quantity of the pronoun/nouns. This type belongs to the interrogative classification of ‘how many’ and ‘how much’.

Examples

1. Three children are playing cricket.
2. The hen laid 2eggs.
3. I bought 10 apples.

4. Demonstrative Adjective

A demonstrative adjective directly states to someone or something. Demonstrative adjectives include the words: that, these, those, and this. A demonstrative adjective is always pointed before the word it varies.

Examples

• This restaurant is very gorgeous.
• These eggs are boiled well.
• These animals belong to Africa.

5. Possessive Adjective

A possessive adjective specifies possession or tenure. It proposes the belongingness of something to someone.

Some of the most specific possessive adjectives are his, her, their, our, my, and your. All these adjectives are always derived before a noun. Disparate possessive pronouns, these words claim a noun after them.

Examples

1. Our work is almost done.
2. His dog is very brave.
3. Your cycle is very clean.

6. Interrogative Adjective

An interrogative adjective points to a question. An interrogative adjective must be charted by a pronoun or a noun. The interrogative adjectives are whose, which, and what. A noun will always follow right after them otherwise these will not be considered as interrogative adjectives.

Examples

1. Whose bike is this?
2. What game do you play?
3. Which laptop do you use?

7. Indefinite Adjective

The indefinite adjective modifies or defines a noun categorically. They deliver unspecific info about the noun. The mutual indefinite adjectives are many, much, most, all, few, each, any, either, several, some, every, either, nobody, etc.

Examples

1. I gave some chocolates to Ali.
2. I want a few days to complete the book.
3. Several writers wrote about Allama Iqbal’s poetry.

Why Adjectives are Important to Study?

It is very important to study adjectives because they are the only parts of speech that can modify a noun. This is very useful as it makes sentences easier to understand as you as a reader will be able to identify what type of noun you are reading about by using contextual clues from the surrounding words or phrases even if you do not know what it is called.

For example:

• “Rachel was looking for a new phone to buy, but she couldn’t decide which one was right for her.”

In this sentence, the two adjectives “new” and “right” modify the nouns “phone” and “one“. Without those adjectives, we wouldn’t know what type of phone or one Rachel was talking about.

Adjectives also often help describe things better and give us more detail about nouns which we can understand the meaning of better.

For example:

“Rachel was looking for a bright-blue I-phone to buy, but she couldn’t decide which one was right for her.”

In this sentence, we got extra information about what type of phone Rachel was looking for. Without the adjectives “bright-blue” we would not know that it is an I-phone that she wants, but the adjectives in there help clarify that for us. Adjectives are important because they help make our language more descriptive and easier to understand.

What is an easy way to learn adjectives?

An easy way to learn adjectives is to write out a list of them and memorize them. There are also many games you can play with your friends or family where you pick an adjective and try to create silly sentences using it.

One other easy way to learn adjectives is by attaching suffixes such as -ed, -ing, and -est to root words. For example, you can attach -ed to the end of “tall” and create “tall-ed.” After this, it is very easy to see patterns in adjective formation.

List of Common Adjectives in English

Here are Common Adjectives in English:

Superb	Blank	Acidic
Angelic	Delayed	Unkempt
Familiar	Envious	Impassioned
Agile	Glistening	Ill
Medium	Petty	Admirable
Thrifty	Precious	Gregarious
Dazzling	Repulsive	Sweaty
Quaint	Revolving	Bleak
Positive	Square	Sniveling
Slippery	Tattered	Welcome
Frilly	Untidy	Blissful
Hard	Acceptable	Thorny
Responsible	Angry	Woeful
Ajar	Apt	Dizzy
Shimmering	Equal	Breakable
Stupendous	Ideal	Vivacious
Dry	Judicious	Delicious

Adjectives Exercise

Adjectives Infographics

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Meet Simeron Khan, an experienced ESL teacher with a passion for guiding students towards fluency in English. With a knack for making even the most complex grammar rules accessible and enjoyable, Simeron has helped countless learners achieve their language goals.

What is a Descriptive Adjective?

Descriptive Adjective is one of the types of Adjectives and it is used to add meaning to Noun and Pronoun by describing its qualities. There are thousands of Descriptive Adjectives in English Grammar.

In other words, a Descriptive Adjective can be defined as the words which describe the quality of the person, animals, things, etc. It can describe many factors such as,

• size (big, small)
• colour (pale, dark, light)
• shape (round, oval)
• smell (sweet, fragrant)
• taste (sour, bitter, sweet)
• behaviour (sad, happy, angry)
• character (funny, courageous, dishonest), etc.

Also Read: What is Adjective with examples? | Best English Guide 2021

The adjective is a type of word which describes or modifies the noun. It is also defined as, the word which describes the qualities and states of beings of nouns. It measures the qualities like size, shape, colour, duration, behaviour, quantity, and a lot more. It usually provides additional information on noun with the above mentioned qualities like, … (read more)

Examples of Descriptive Adjectives

Here are some Descriptive Adjective examples with explanations.

Note: The blue coloured words are Descriptive Adjectives in the sentence and S = Subject, V = Verb and O = Object.

• John is a good person.

Sentence: John (S) + is (V) + a good person (O).

In the above sentence, the adjective “good” describes the behaviour of the person. So, it is usually describing the quality of that person.

• He wants to buy a sports car.

Sentence: He (S) + wants (V) + to buy a sports car (O).

In the above sentence, the adjective “sports” describes the type of car that he wants to buy.

• She is a hard-working person.

Sentence: She (S) + is (V) + a hard-working person (O).

In the above sentence, the adjective “hard-working” describes the attitude of the person. So, it is usually describing the quality of that person.

• Rosie is having a severe headache.

Sentence: Rosie (S) + is having (V) + a severe headache (O).

In the above sentence, the adjective “severe” describes the amount of pain/discomfort.

• I want to become a professional footballer.

Sentence: I (S) + want (V) + to become a professional footballer (O).

In the above sentence, the adjective “professional” describes the level of the skills. So, it is about describing the quality of the skill.

How to find Descriptive Adjectives in the sentence?

Previously, we have learned that this Adjective is used to describe the quality. So, it is easy to find out the word. Now let us consider the below example sentence.

• She wants to have a beautiful garden.

Step 1: Identify the Subject, Verb and Object in the given sentence.

Sentence: She + wants + to have a beautiful garden.

Step 2: Now consider the Object and ask “Which one?” or more appropriately, “What does it look like?”, etc in reference to a noun. Then we will get the answer.

Here is the question, “Which type of garden?” – beautiful.

Types of Descriptive Adjectives

There are 2 types of Description Adjectives. These function the same but differs in structure/number of words. Let us learn each of them in detail.

Simple Adjectives

Simple Adjectives are the most basic and common Descriptive Adjective in which it only describes the quality. It describes many different aspects such as feelings, time, sound, taste, appearance, size, colour, shape, and material.

It is also defined as single words of Descriptive Adjectives which describes the quality of the person, things, etc.

• Feelings: aggressive, anxious, dull, graceful, excited, happy, scared, etc.
• Taste: sour, bitter, sweet, spice, delicious, etc.
• Apperance: attractive, fat, thin, ugly, tall, short, average, beautiful, cool, etc.
• Colour: red, green, blue, yellow, brown, black, pink, etc.
• Shape: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, etc.
• Sound: quite, loud, silent, noisy, etc.
• Size: big, small, large, etc.
• Material: cotton, wood, plastic, iron, aluminium, etc.

Example Sentences:

• This food is delicious.
• I usually like red coloured cars.
• She is scared of heights.
• He owns a big house.
• I have a round wooden table.

Compound Adjectives

Two words of Descriptive Adjectives are known as Compound Adjectives. These words are combined with a hyphen (-) to form the adjective and used to describe the quality.

Some of the examples are right-handed, four-sided, short-tempered, ice-cold, self-centered, life-giving, etc.

Example Sentences:

• Rohit is a left-handed batsman.
• Sunil is a short-tempered person.
• This is a life-giving oppurtunity in my career.
• Shall I give you an ice-cold drink?
• Mary always talks about herself a lot. She is a self-centered person.

• Descriptive Adjective is a type of Adjective which is used to describe about the extra information of the person, thing and animal like size, age, colour, behaviour, etc.
• There are 2 different types of Descriptive Adjective. Those are Simple and Compound Adjectives.
• Simple Adjective is a single word Adjective and Compound Adjective is a two word Adjectives which is used to describe the quality.
• Few examples are small, short, shy, poor, long, large, better, cheap, wood, etc.

If you are interested to learn more, then you can refer to Wikipedia here.

I hope that you understood the topic. If you still have any doubts, then comment down below and we will respond as soon as possible.

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An adjective describes or modifies noun/s and pronoun/s in a sentence. It normally indicates quality, size, shape, duration, feelings, contents, and more about a noun or pronoun.

Adjectives usually provide relevant information about the nouns/pronouns they modify/describe by answering the questions: What kind? How many? Which one? How much? Adjectives enrich your writing by adding precision and originality to it.

Example:

• The team has a dangerous batsman. (What kind?)
• I have ten candies in my pocket. (How many?)
• I loved that red car. (Which one?)
• I earn more money than he does. (How much?)

More Examples of Adjective

However, there are also many adjectives which do not fit into these questions. Adjectives are the most used parts of speech in sentences. There are several types of adjectives according to their uses.

Types of Adjectives

• Descriptive Adjectives
• Quantitative Adjectives
• Proper Adjectives
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Possessive Adjectives
• Interrogative Adjectives
• Indefinite Adjectives
• Articles
• Compound Adjectives

Descriptive Adjectives:

A descriptive adjective is a word which describes nouns and pronouns. Most of the adjectives belong in this type. These adjectives provide information and attribute to the nouns/pronouns they modify or describe. Descriptive adjectives are also called qualitative adjectives.

Participles are also included in this type of adjective when they modify a noun.

Examples:

• I have a fast car. (The word ‘fast’ is describing an attribute of the car)
• I am hungry. (The word ‘hungry’ is providing information about the subject)
• The hungry cats are crying.
• I saw a flying Eagle.

More Examples of Descriptive Adjective

Quantitative Adjectives:

A quantitative adjective provides information about the quantity of the nouns/pronouns. This type belongs to the question category of ‘how much’ and ‘how many’.

Examples:

• I have 20 bucks in my wallet. (How much)
• They have three children. (How many)
• You should have completed the whole task. (How much)

More Examples of Quantitative Adjectives

Proper Adjectives:

Proper adjectives are the adjective form of proper nouns. When proper nouns modify or describe other nouns/pronouns, they become proper adjectives. ‘Proper’ means ‘specific’ rather than ‘formal’ or ‘polite.’

A proper adjective allows us to summarize a concept in just one word. Instead of writing/saying ‘a food cooked in Chinese recipe’ you can write/say ‘Chinese food’.

Proper adjectives are usually capitalized as proper nouns are.

Example:

• American cars are very strong.
• Chinese people are hard workers.
• I love KFC burgers.
• Marxist philosophers despise capitalism.

More Examples of Proper Adjectives

Demonstrative Adjectives:

A demonstrative adjective directly refers to something or someone. Demonstrative adjectives include the words: this, that, these, those.

A demonstrative pronoun works alone and does not precede a noun, but a demonstrative adjective always comes before the word it modifies.

Examples:

• That building is so gorgeously decorated. (‘That’ refers to a singular noun far from the speaker)
• This car is mine. (‘This’ refers to a singular noun close to the speaker)
• These cats are cute. (‘These’ refers to a plural noun close to the speaker)
• Those flowers are heavenly. (‘Those’ refers to a plural noun far from the speaker)

More Examples of Demonstrative Adjectives

Possessive Adjectives:

A possessive adjective indicates possession or ownership. It suggests the belongingness of something to someone/something.

Some of the most used possessive adjectives are my, his, her, our, their, your. 

All these adjectives always come before a noun. Unlike possessive pronouns, these words demand a noun after them.

Examples:

• My car is parked outside.
• His cat is very cute.
• Our job is almost done.
• Her books are interesting.

More Examples of Possessive Adjective

Interrogative Adjectives:

An interrogative adjective asks a question. An interrogative adjective must be followed by a noun or a pronoun. The interrogative adjectives are: which, what, whose. These words will not be considered as adjectives if a noun does not follow right after them. ‘Whose’ also belongs to the possessive adjective type.

Examples:

• Which phone do you use?
• What game do you want to play?
• Whose car is this?

More Examples of Interrogative Adjective

Indefinite Adjectives:

An indefinite adjective describes or modifies a noun unspecifically. They provide indefinite/unspecific information about the noun. The common indefinite adjectives are few, many, much, most, all, any, each, every, either, nobody, several, some, etc.  

Examples:

• I gave some candy to her.
• I want a few moments alone.
• Several writers wrote about the recent incidents.
• Each student will have to submit homework tomorrow.

Articles

Articles also modify the nouns. So, articles are also adjectives. Articles determine the specification of nouns. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are used to refer to an unspecific noun, and ‘the’ is used to refer to a specific noun.  

Examples:

• A cat is always afraid of water. (Here, the noun ‘cat’ refers to any cat, not specific.)
• The cat is afraid of me. (This cat is a specific cat.)
• An electronic product should always be handled with care.

Compound Adjectives:

When compound nouns/combined words modify other nouns, they become a compound adjective. This type of adjective usually combines more than one word into a single lexical unit and modifies a noun. They are often separated by a hyphen or joined together by a quotation mark.  

Example:

• I have a broken-down sofa.
• I saw a six-foot-long snake.
• He gave me an “I’m gonna kill you now” look.

The Degree of Adjectives:

There are three degrees of adjectives: Positive, comparative, superlative.

These degrees are applicable only for the descriptive adjectives.

Examples:

Positive degree: He is a good boy.

Comparative degree: He is better than any other boy.

Superlative: He is the best boy.

Adjectives, one of the most powerful and important aspects of English for the grammar nazis and English enthusiasts to learn, write and speak the global language, are also one of the easiest subjects of spoken and written English. Adjectives are more like icing on a cake, which means they make your passage or a communication better, in a sense that it makes it more vivid and conveys the feeling and the emotion of a writer aptly to the reader.

Descriptive Adjectives are a category of adjectives that are mostly used to describe a noun vividly in novels, essays, passages, and write-ups. Descriptive Adjectives are very different from other types of adjectives and we are going to discuss that in brief in the subsequent sections of this article on descriptive words. In this particular article on descriptive words, we are going to discuss the following:

• What are Descriptive Adjectives?
• Descriptive Adjectives List
• Assignment on Descriptive Adjectives
• Descriptive Adjectives Examples
• What is the Importance of Descriptive Adjectives?
• Name a few examples of Descriptive Adjectives?
• How to teach descriptive adjectives to students in school?
• How are descriptive adjectives helpful?
• Where are descriptive adjectives used?

What are Descriptive Adjectives?

Descriptive Adjectives are words that are used in the English language, for the written and oral forms of communication, to modify a noun or a pronoun by describing it or expressing it vividly. For example, “it is a very long journey to Delhi from Mumbai”, the word length is a descriptive adjective. Also, “the tiger is a ferocious animal”, the word ferocious is a descriptive adjective.

If you observe, the usage of descriptive adjectives in the sentences enhances and provides an accurate representation of nouns under description. Without the word long in the first example, the full explanation of the journey is not done and the reader will not have enough information to conclude the noun that is being described in the sentence. Also, they help in modifying the noun. In the second example of the tiger, the word ferocious explains and gives an accurate idea to the reader about the type of animal under discussion. It also conveys the thought process of the writer, very aptly and vividly to the reader.

Descriptive Adjectives List

Below we have given a comprehensive list of 100 descriptive adjectives that can be used for different purposes by students, teachers, etc.

1. Exciting
2. Ferocious
3. Furious
4. Wild
5. Wide
6. Witty
7. Angry
8. Sad
9. Anxious
10. Fast
11. Slow
12. Amused
13. Creepy
14. Adorable
15. Cute
16. Small
17. Big
18. Large
19. Broken-hearted
20. Light Hearted
21. Alpine
22. Black
23. Blue
24. Awful
25. Long-lasting
26. Full-time
27. Indian
28. European
29. Bright
30. Light
31. Dark
32. Full
33. Brave
34. Brittles
35. Scared
36. Timid
37. Gullible
38. Brown
39. Drab
40. Elated
41. Elegant
42. Careful
43. Careless
44. Cautious
45. Negligent
46. Easy
47. Adorable
48. Ashamed
49. Proud
50. Energetic
51. Red-blooded
52. Dizzying
53. Eager
54. Early
55. Late
56. Cooperative
57. Rude
58. Crowded
59. Cowardly
60. Difficult
61. Worrisome
62. Charming
63. Clean
64. Clever
65. Thick-skinned
66. Well-known
67. Well read
68. Life-giving
69. Apt
70. Wonderful
71. Super
72. Optimistic
73. Outstanding
74. Awful
75. Eager
76. Delightful
77. Lovely
78. Juicy
79. Nasty
80. Miniature
81. Scrumptious
82. Rotten
83. Petite
84. Surefooted
85. Savour
86. Abactinal
87. Exotic
88. Fit
89. Addicted
90. Alert
91. Alive
92. Baseless
93. Chubby
94. Confused
95. Cruel
96. Impressive
97. Powerful
98. Brainy
99. Abaxial
100. Belligerent

Assignment on Descriptive Adjectives

As a small activity or an assignment, we advise students to make sentences on their own using the list of 100 descriptive adjectives given in the above section. This will help them understand when to use Descriptive Adjectives and, more importantly, when not to use Descriptive Adjectives and learn the appropriate situation to use the same.

If you are unable to speak or write in English, you can download our English Grammar Notes & study material for free that helps you to improve your English communication skills.

Descriptive Adjectives Examples

Below we have given a few examples of sentence formation using Descriptive Adjectives for students and teachers to learn and write the same.

• The cashier at the counter was particularly rude to all the women customers waiting in the line
• The bike that my friend got me was as fast as a bullet
• The horse that we saw the other day was black, shiny, and beautiful
• The tigers in the zoo were looking dull and lethargic
• Rohit, who according to me is the most energetic employee in the company, has won the employee of the year title
• I have developed a thick skin over the years and I am almost immune to criticism and negative thoughts
• Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, is a very well-known and well-read person
• I fell sick during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and couldn’t recover for almost 20 long days
• She was an evil-minded person and no one likes her in our classroom
• Having a good sense of humour, he gets along with everyone in the school and is sort of a popular guy

What is the Importance of Descriptive Adjectives?

The following pointers will help one understand the importance of proper usage of Descriptive Adjectives in passage formation and casual communication:

• Essay writing: Good essay writing, in itself, is a talent that many people develop eventually over the years. Usage of proper adjectives, in addition to other English grammar such as nouns, verbs, and tenses, is what makes a good essay
• Email communication: Good mail communication is a very important criterion for one to survive in a corporate environment. Usage of appropriate descriptive adjectives is going to aid one in drafting a well-rounded email
• Scriptwriting: Script writing, in a nutshell, is basically about conveying the emotions of the readers and converting their thoughts into words. And for this to happen vividly, a good vocabulary, including but not limited to appropriate usage of Descriptive Adjectives is important
• General communication: In this era of globalization and the 22nd-century digital world, good hold and command over the English language pave a long way. Whether it’s to impress your boss during appraisal, HR during the interview, or on your date, good English can help you make a great impression. Trust us, good usage of Descriptive Adjectives is going to help one achieve this.

Read More:

• Opposite Adjectives
• Character Traits
• Personality Traits

FAQs on Descriptive Adjectives

1. Name a few examples of Descriptive Adjectives?

Angry, fast, ferocious, delicious, and vivid are a few words that can be used as Descriptive Adjectives in a sentence formation

2. How to teach descriptive adjectives to students in school?

Descriptive adjectives can be thought of for students using various teaching methodologies such as homework, class works, assignments, regular class tests, classroom activities, games, etc.

3. How are descriptive adjectives helpful?

Descriptive adjectives will help a writer convey his or her feelings and thoughts and impressions aptly to the reader through a good usage of Descriptive Adjectives

4. Where are descriptive adjectives used?

Descriptive adjectives are used in email drafting, essay writing, answer writing, script writing, novel writing, and general form of communication.

You can use adjectives to say a lot of different things. Thanks to adjectives, you can tell someone that you had an amazing birthday or that you ate a delicious meal. You can use adjectives to talk about your exciting vacation, your favorite movie, or even your little dog. Adjectives come in many different shapes and sizes, but many of them have something in common: they are used to describe people, places, and things. There are many types of adjectives, but descriptive adjectives are the ones you need when you want to describe something.

What is a descriptive adjective?

A descriptive adjective is an adjective that modifies a noun or pronoun by describing it or expressing its quality.

Take a look at the following sentences:

• He stood next to the tall woman.
• The monkeys were very loud. 

In these sentences, the words tall and loud are descriptive adjectives. They both describe the nouns they modify and tell us information we can use to describe the things they are referring to. We know that the woman would need a high number to refer to her height, and we know that the monkeys make noise that can be heard from far away.

Now, you might be wondering, “Don’t all adjectives describe the nouns and pronouns they modify?” While it is true that the vast majority of adjectives are descriptive adjectives, some adjectives don’t actually describe the nouns or pronouns that they modify. We refer to these adjectives as limiting adjectives.

The following sentence has an example of a limiting adjective:

• Hand me that pen.

In this sentence, the word that is an adjective that modifies the noun pen. The adjective that indicates the pen is relatively far away from the speaker. However, the word that doesn’t describe the pen’s qualities or characteristics. We don’t know what the pen looks like, how heavy it is, how large it is, etc. The adjective that is not a descriptive adjective, because it doesn’t give us any information we can use to describe the traits or qualities of the noun it modifies.

Don’t limit your grammar knowledge—learn more about limiting adjectives here!

List of descriptive adjectives

A great many of the adjectives you will find are descriptive adjectives. As long as an adjective describes or qualifies the noun or pronoun it modifies, it is considered to be a descriptive adjective. The following list gives just a few examples of descriptive adjectives:

• angry, blue, careful, dry, eager, fast, great, hot, incredible, jumpy, klutzy, little, mighty, nice, outlandish, prim, quiet, rude, special, ticklish, undercover, vicious, wide, young, zesty

Where do you include a descriptive adjective in a sentence?

Descriptive adjectives can be used either before the nouns or pronouns they modify or can be used as the subject complement of a sentence following a linking verb.

• We played with the cute kittens.
• The skyscraper was humongous.

Descriptive adjective examples in a sentence

The following sentences have examples of descriptive adjectives. You’ll notice that all of these adjectives tell you something about a the qualities or characteristics of a noun or pronoun.

Example #1 

• I don’t like cold weather. (The adjective cold modifies the noun weather. Cold is a descriptive adjective that qualifies the weather by saying it has a low temperature.)

Example #2 

• Her clothes are really expensive. (The adjective expensive modifies the noun clothes. Expensive is a descriptive adjective that tells us the clothes cost a lot of money.)

Example #3

• We used red, green, and orange paint. (The adjectives red, green, and orange modify the noun paint. All three of these adjectives are descriptive adjectives that say what color the paint was.)

Many of these adjectives take place right next to the nouns they modify, which also makes them attributive adjectives. Learn more about them here.

Descriptive adjective rules & best practices

Grammatically, the most important thing to know about descriptive adjectives is that they come after limiting adjectives in adjective order and after non-descriptive words like articles and numbers. For example, we would say Danny bought some tasty oranges and not Danny bought tasty some oranges. The word some is the limiting adjective, so it precedes the descriptive adjective tasty. As another example, we would say Nicole owns a big dog and not Nicole owns big a dog. The article a precedes the descriptive adjective big.

Most descriptive adjectives can form comparative and superlative adjectives when you want to compare things to each other. For example, you can say that a mouse is small, a flea is smaller, and an amoeba is the smallest of the three. You could also say that a gold watch is expensive, a mansion is more expensive, and a space shuttle is the most expensive item out of all three.

A more complicated grammatical rule comes into effect when you use multiple descriptive adjectives to modify the same noun or pronoun. When we use multiple adjectives, we generally follow a particular adjective order. For example, we are more likely to say Hans owns a small, cheap, German car than Hans owns a German, small, cheap car or Hans owns a cheap, German, small car.

Adjective order is too complex a topic to explain here, so if you’d like to learn more about the ins and outs of the proper order of adjectives, check out our detailed guide to adjective order.

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If I asked you to describe your best friend or the job you are doing currently, the words you’d use to describe them would be descriptive adjectives. Knowingly or unknowingly, we describe people, things, or places. This post helps us master what a descriptive adjective is, and how to use it in a sentence correctly.

What are adjectives?

Adjectives are words that give information about a noun/pronoun. Most adjectives in English are descriptive adjectives.

What is a descriptive adjective?

Descriptive adjective definition: it is a word that gives information about a noun; it describes or talks about a quality or a feature of the noun it modifies. It either comes just before a noun in a noun phrase or after a linking verb.

Let’s take some examples and understand how exactly descriptive adjectives, also known as qualitative adjectives, work.

1. He is a smart teacher.

In the sentence, ‘smart’ is a descriptive adjective as it’s describing the noun ‘person’. The indefinite article ‘a’ coming before the adjective ‘smart’ is also working as an adjective, but it is a determiner that gives information about a noun; it is not a descriptive adjective.

• Riya is beautiful.

Noun = Riya
Descriptive adjective = beautiful (describing the physical quality of the person)

• They live in a huge house.

Noun = house
Descriptive adjective = huge (describing the size of the house)

• Some people say that the earth is flat, not round.

Noun = earth
Descriptive adjective = flat, round (describing the shape of the noun ‘earth’)

• I have participated in many singing competitions.

(Here, the word ‘singing’ is modifying the noun ‘competitions’.)

• We have some office work to do.

(Here, the word ‘office’, which often works as a noun, is describing the noun ‘work’.)

More examples:

• They got an amazing gift last year.
• Your sister is cute.
• Max bought a small brown chair last night.
• He is a renowned American writer.
• Look at the old man playing with those small kids.
• We have dediced to stay at a cheap Indian hotel nearby our place.
• A skilled muscular guy can beat that scary fighter.
• It is a school bag.

In the above examples, the adjectives are in bold and the nouns they are describing are underlined.

Note that descriptive adjectives describe a noun in different ways; they can talk about the physical quality, shape, size, color, or many other things of a noun. so, it’s important to know the categories of descriptive adjectives and the order in which we use them.

Order of a descriptive adjective

A descriptive adjective can modify a noun in different ways. It’s important to understand all its heads and the right order in which we use them.

Order	Descriptive adjectives categories	Adjectives	Examples (sentences)
1	Quality or opinion	good, bad, smart, dumb, intelligent, brave, coward, nice, expensive, petty, cheap, tiny, lovely, cute, helpful, arrogant, hardworking, sober, shrewd, logical, easy, difficult	1. It is a good price. 2. You don’t look sober. 3. Give me a logical reason for this. 4. We need a strong man in our group.
2	Size (physical description)	small, big, huge, tiny, gigantic, short, mammoth, long	1. That’s a small house. 2. It is a long journey. 3. This guy is huge in Dubai.
3	Age	new, old, young, modern, old-school, aged	1. We need young people in our team. 2. He is an old man. 3. They have used modern technology in their production.
4	Shape	round, circular, oval, flat, square, triangular	1. Some people don’t believe Earth is round. 2. It is an oval ground. 3. The pitch is not flat yet.
5	Color	black, white, blue, pink	1. It is a white coat. 2. He has a blue car.
6	Origin or Nationality	Indian, Chinese, American, Chinese, Italian	1. We are proud of the Indian army. 2. Let’s order some Chinese food. 3. Chinese products are banned in India.
7	Material	silver, cotton, gold, leather, silk, plastic, iron	1. I love cotton candies. 2. She bought me a gold chain. 3. Silk sarees are in vogue these days.
8	Purpose (noun-adjective)	office, school, government, singing, teaching	1. In India, most people are running after a government job. 2. It is a school bag. 3. It is a teaching job.

Important points to note

1. If two or more adjectives are taken from the same category to modify a noun, use commas to seperate them. And use the conjunction ‘and’ before the last adjective.

• She is a smart and intelligent girl.
• His house is blue, red, and yellow.

2. If two or more adjectives are taken from different categories to modify a noun, don’t use commas.

• That’s a nice pink Indian saree.
• We have an outstanding modern gold jewellery.
• Jon is teaching some talented young brown students.
• She is my cute small American office friend.

Order of adjectives in a noun phrase

Order of adjectives	Adjectives list	Examples
1. Determiners	Determiners include the following: Articles = a, an, the Possessive adjective = my, our, his, her, your, its, their Demonstrative adjective = this, that, these, those Distributive adjective = each, every, all. either, neither… Quantifiers = some, many, a few, several…	1. Do you have a watch? 2. I loved the party. 3. That building is very old. 4. I loved every performance today. 5. I show you my office in the evening. 6. Some people are waiting for you outside.
2. Numbers	one, two, three, first, second, third…	1. We have two dogs. 2. She is my first girlfriend.
3. Descriptive adjectives	good, bad, smart, dumb, small, big, old, young, round, flat, black, white, Indian, Chinese, cotton, gold, office, school	1. Did you see the four American girls? 2. It is an expensive red and white table. 3. This is our first international project. 4. It was our second big mistake of the match.

Types of descriptive adjectives

Descriptive, based on their positions in a sentence, are divided into categories:

1. Attributive adjective
2. Predicate adjective

Attributive adjectives

Adjectives that are placed before a noun are called attributive adjectives.

Examples:

• She is a talented person.
• I am looking for a cheap place to live in.
• It was an amazing movie.
• We have many cheap Chinese mobiles.

Predicate adjectives

These are adjectives or adjective phrases that come after a linking verb. A predicate adjective is also called subject complement.

Examples:

• This house is vacant.
• Unlike yours, my job is challenging.
• She is adorable.
• The table is round.

Hyphenated descriptive adjectives

A hyphenated adjective is formed using two or more words, generally two. Let’s look at all the possible combinations of hyphenated adjectives in English.

1. Number + noun

• 3-hour jouney
• Thirty-member committee
• Ten-minute break
• Three-month anniversary
• Ten-storey building
• Six-month suspension
• Third-party insurance

Examples:

• Let’s take a 10-minute break.
• We are celebrating our three-month anniversary.
• They gave him a six-month supension for failing the drug test.

Note: Make sure the noun you use in the hyphenated adjective is singular. Making it plural is a common mistake.

• Let’s take a 10-minutes break. ❌
• We are celebrating our three-months anniversary. ❌

2. Adjective + past participle

• Narrow-minded people
• Old-fashioned hotel
• High-spirited
• Absent-minded people
• Kind-hearted
• High-spirited performace

Examples:

• She is a narrow-minded girl.
• Everone loves being around high-spirited people.
• What a kind-hearted man he is.

3. Adverb + past participle

• Well-organised party
• Well-behaved person
• Highly-respected man
• Widely-recognised singer
• Commonly-consumed drug
• Densely-populated area
• Highly-recommended product
• Poorly-planned event

Examples:

• It was a well-organized party.
• He lives in a densely-populated area.
• His brother is a widely-recognised investor.

4. Adjective + present participle

• Good-looking man
• Long-lasting performace
• Easy-going person

Examples:

• What a good-looking guy he is.
• He is not an easy-going person.

5. Adverb + present participle

• Never-ending process
• Slow-moving car
• Foward-thinking man

Ex – Learning a language is a never-ending process.

6. Noun + past participle

• Man-made houses
• hand-made sleepers
• Coal-powered trains

Examples:

• These are not hand-made cookies.
• Coal-powered trains were stopped years back.

7. Noun + present participlele

• Thought-provoking idea
• English-speaking course
• Mouth-watering food
• Eye-catching painting
• Record-breaking event
• Mind-blowing performance

Examples:

• It was a mind-blowing performance.
• She makes mouth-watering food.

8. Noun + adjective

• Brand-new car
• World-famous singer
• Glutten-free meal

Examples:

• They got me a brand-new car.
• You should try glutten-free meal.

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In English Grammar, many different aspects assist us in constructing grammatically sound sentences. Understanding the English language can be challenging; as a result, we make use of a variety of methods to simplify the process and make it easier to grasp.

The adjective is one of the most important components of parts of speech since it has such a significant impact on the information that is discussed in both verbal and written communication. Descriptive adjectives are a component of grammar that we have learned in schools. However, at some point, we all need to brush up on our learnings or sometimes have a fresh start, so let’s discuss it in detail.

What is a Descriptive Adjective?

Descriptive adjectives are the types of adjectives that are used to indicate the size, color, or look of a person or character, an item or thing, an animal, or indeed any specified location that is stated in the sentence.

The purpose of descriptive adjectives is to provide more information about the noun they modify by accurately describing the properties of that noun or by changing its meaning.

In simple words, descriptive adjectives are those types of adjectives that offer an attribute towards the noun that is present in a sentence by providing more information about it.

Examples of Descriptive Adjectives

• There are yellow, blue, and purple tops in my closet.
• Some very old, and precious items are exhibited in this museum.
• I asked my mother for a sturdy, small laptop in red.
• I bought a new expensive smartphone.
• John is a genuine, hard-working person.

The Function of Adjectives

In English, adjectives serve multiple functions in a sentence, let’s understand the different functions of adjectives-

Adjectives Function as Nouns

When describing groups of individuals, some adjectives may also function as nouns. For instance, we may refer to ‘ill individuals’ by simply saying “the sick” when we are talking about them. The noun that the adjective modifies is eliminated, and in its stead comes the adjective, which takes the place of the noun.

Adjectives can form Comparisons

Some adjectives in the English language, such as “tall” and “quick,” make it possible to make comparisons between two or more objects. These comparisons are addressed at some length in our short reader on comparatives and superlatives. When making this kind of comparison, it is common practice to affix the suffixes ‘-er’ or ‘-est’ to the end of each adjective in turn:

Adjectives can Intensify Nouns

The option to give a noun a more prominent sense of being is another possible use for adjectives. In this approach, some adjectives, like “absolute” (as in “it was an absolute success”), can easily bolster the power of the noun they modify.

Adjectives can Mitigate Nouns

A limited number of adjectives may also be employed in the manner of mitigation to weaken nouns. For example, if we wanted to downplay how “boring” a person is, maybe out of a desire to be more polite, we might add the qualifying adjective “very” to form the phrase “he is quite uninteresting.” This would mean the same thing.

How to find Descriptive Adjectives in a sentence?

Now, we have learned about the adjective and what is used for, so next is identifying the adjective in a sentence. Let’s break it down-

“Jessica wants to have a beautiful garden”.

Step 1
You must spot the Subject, Verb, and Object in the above sentence.

Sentence: Jessica + wants + to have a beautiful garden.

Step 2
Now you must consider the Object and then see what attribute it has in the sentence etc. about a noun. Then we will get the answer.

Here is the question, “Which type of garden?” – beautiful. (This will be your descriptive adjective)

Types of Descriptive Adjectives

Comparative Descriptive Adjectives

When comparing two nouns, this kind of descriptive adjective is used to make the comparison. They have comparable variants. Take, for instance:

• Calm and calmer
• Big and bigger
• Strong and stronger
• Dim and dimmer
• Tall and taller
• Pretty and prettier
• Thin and thinner
• Quicker and quicker
• Soft and softer
• Happy and happier
• Silly and sillier

Certain comparative descriptive adjectives include two syllables, and those syllables are often the phrases “more” or “less.” These words normally comprise the comparative term. Take, for instance:

• More dangerous (or less dangerous )
• Less bright (or more bright)
• Less energy (or more energy)
• More confident (or less confident)

Here’s how you can use comparative descriptive adjectives in a sentence:

• The new motorcycle is smaller than the old one
• The latest smartphone is more expensive than other models
• My new shirts are softer than my other shirts.
• My new watch is cheaper than the previous one.
• Some of the students can run faster than the other students.

Simple Descriptive Adjectives

Adjectives that are simple or common are the same thing as basic adjectives. They are made up of a single common word, as opposed to a proper noun. These, much like the rest of the descriptive adjectives, may be combined with other adjectives to form new combinations.

• Adorable
• Adventurous
• Agreeable
• Alive
• Aloof
• Amused
• Angry
• Annoying
• Anxious
• Arrogant
• Ashamed
• Attractive
• Auspicious
• Awful
• Bad
• Beautiful
• Black
• Blue
• Blushing
• Bored
• Brave
• Bright
• Brown
• Busy
• Calm
• Careful
• Cautious
• Charming
• Cheerful
• Clean
• Clear
• Clumsy
• Colorful
• Comfortable
• Concerning
• Condemned
• Confusing
• Cooperative
• Courageous
• Creepy
• Crowded
• Cruel
• Curios
• Cute
• Dangerous
• Dark
• Defiant
• Delightful
• Difficult
• Disgusting
• Distinct
• Disturbed
• Dizzying
• Drab
• Dull
• Eager
• Easy
• Elated
• Elegant
• Embarrassed
• Enchanted
• Encouraging
• Energetic
• Enthusiastic
• Envious
• Evil
• Exciting
• Expensive

Some examples of sentences

• I usually go for blue-colored motorcycles.
• Tom is scared of heights.
• He owns a big farmhouse.
• Jim has a round wooden coffee table.

Compound Descriptive Adjectives

Compound adjectives are those that are made up of more than one word and are used to describe a single noun or pronoun. In most cases, they will have hyphens added.

• Baby-faced
• Broken-hearted
• Bull-headed
• Freckle-faced
• Full-time
• Heavy-handed
• High-heeled
• High-spirited
• Life-giving
• Long-lasting
• Long-winded
• Middle-aged
• Mouth-watering
• Never-ending
• Next-door
• Old-fashioned
• Part-time
• Red-blooded
• Self-centered
• Short-haired
• Short-tempered
• Sure-footed
• Thick-skinned
• Thought-provoking
• Tight-fisted
• Well-known
• Well-read
• World-famous

Example Sentences:

• Murli is a left-handed Bowler.
• Kamal is a short-tempered person.
• In this case, it is a life-giving opportunity.
• Raj always talks about himself a lot. He is a self-centered man.

List of Descriptive Adjectives of All Tenses

Let’s go through a list of descriptive adjectives that you can use in your writing:

• Adorable
• Adventurous
• Agreeable
• Alive
• Aloof
• Amused
• Angry
• Annoying
• Anxious
• Arrogant
• Ashamed
• Attractive
• Auspicious
• Awful
• Bad
• Beautiful
• Beige
• Black
• Blue
• Blushing
• Bored
• Brave
• Bright
• Brown
• Bumpy
• Busy
• Calm
• Careful
• Cautious
• Charming
• Cheerful
• Clean
• Clear
• Comical
• Congenial
• Cordial
• Crazy
• Crooked
• Decayed
• Delicious
• Determined
• Dilapidated
• Distraught
• Dim
• Dizzy
• Drab
• Dreadful
• Droll
• Dull
• Elated
• Elderly
• Emaciated
• Embarrassed
• Enormous
• Enthusiastic
• Envious
• Exultant
• Fancy
• Fantastic
• Filthy
• Flat
• Fresh
• Friendly
• Fuzzy
• Ghastly
• Gigantic
• Glamorous
• Gleaming
• Greasy
• Green
• Glorious
• Gorgeous
• Grubby
• Grumpy
• Handsome
• Helpless
• High
• Hollow
• Homely
• Horrific
• Hot
• Icy
• Ideal
• Immense
• Irate
• Irritable
• Itchy
• Jealous
• Jittery
• Jocular
• Juicy
• Jumbo
• Jumpy
• Kind
• Knotty
• Knowledgeable
• Large
• Lazy
• Lethal
• Little
• Lively
• Lonely
• Low
• Ludicrous
• Magnificent
• Mammoth
• Massive
• Miniature
• Miniscule
• Minute
• Misty
• Modern
• Moody
• Muddy
• Mysterious
• Narrow
• Nasty
• Naughty
• Nervous
• Nonsensical
• Nutritious
• Obedient
• Oblivious
• Obnoxious
• Octagonal
• Odd
• Opulent
• Orange
• Outrageous
• Petite
• Plain
• Pleasant
• Poised
• Pompous
• Precious
• Proud
• Pungent
• Purple
• Quick
• Quiet
• Quizzical
• Rainy
• Rectangular
• Red
• Relieved
• Repulsive
• Ripe
• Robust
• Rotten
• Rough
• Round
• Salty
• Sarcastic
• Selfish
• Shaky
• Sharp
• Short
• Silky
• Silly
• Skinny
• Slimy
• Slippery
• Small
• Smarmy
• Smiling
• Smooth
• Smug
• Sparkling
• Stale
• Steep
• Sticky
• Strange
• Stunning
• Tan
• Tart
• Teak
• Tender
• Tense
• Terrible
• Thick
• Thoughtful
• Thoughtless
• Triangular
• Thrilled
• Tight
• Ugly
• Unbelievable
• Upset
• Unimaginable
• Unsightly
• Unusual
• Uptight
• Vast

 Descriptive Adjectives Practise Exercise

Fill the right descriptive adjectives in the given sentences-

1. Sherry has long ___  hair.

2. The  ___  girl arrived out of nowhere.

3. My diet consists mostly of  ___  foods.

4. The  ___  boy made fun of the young children in the classroom.

5. The ___  approached the young girl and requested money.

6. That ____ girl is my friend’s sister. 

7. The ___  boy broke his ankle.

Answers

1. black 

2. tall 

3. plant-based

4. mischievous 

5. old lady 

6. beautiful 

7. handsome 

We hope that you have found this post to be informative, and now that you do, you have the ideal reference guide to consult anytime you are searching for vivid adjectives to employ in your writing so that it comes to life.

Frequently Asked Questions on Descriptive Adjectives in English

Que 1. What are Descriptive Adjectives?

Ans. The characteristics of a noun or pronoun may be described using descriptive adjectives. Some examples of descriptive adjectives are “flat,” “round,” “brighter,” and “runniest.” Another example is “crunchiest.”

Que 2. What is the definition of Descriptive Adjectives?

Ans. Providing information on how something or someone appears, sounds, or otherwise behaves; using words to explain how something or someone is.

Que 3. Give some examples of Descriptive Adjectives.

• It was the gray cat.
• I bought red potatoes.
• There were few cars.
• Most people like ice cream.
• I used a wooden spoon.
• I like black coffee.

Que 4. Why to use Descriptive Adjectives?

Ans. Adjectives are what make a piece of writing or speech interesting to read or listen to, as well as thought-provoking.

Q ue 5. How to find Descriptive Adjectives in a Sentence?

Ans. In standard English use, adjectives come before the nouns they describe; for instance, “tall man” comes before “man” and “easy task” comes before “assignment.” Adjectives can come after the nouns that they describe.
 

—able —al —ful —ible —ic —ive  —less —ous —y

comfortable, lovable, washable, believable, suitable, breakable, adaptable, teachable, amiable, amicable unusual, natural, eventual, casual, gradual, final, mutual, historical, congressional, trial, medical joyful, hopeful, graceful, thankful, helpful, tuneful, wishful, fanciful, peaceful, soulful terrible, sensible, visible, possible, incredible, forcible, credible, contemptible, edible, divisible anemic, emphatic, sarcastic, strategic, stoic, autocratic, heroic, terrific, magnetic sensitive, creative, expensive, decorative, secretive, decisive, extensive, elusive, submissive, sportive, legislative, inactive, attractive tireless, fearless, useless, careless, hopeless, defenseless, lawless, penniless, painless, ceaseless enormous, poisonous, famous, curious, dangerous, horrendous, gorgeous, notorious, ambiguous, contemptuous, judicious funny, tasty, cheery, windy, sunny, salty, shiny, hasty, witty, nosy, hilly, crazy, snooty, greedy