Basic Adjectives

ALULA staff, Updated on August 18, 2023

  • Adjectives usually come before the noun. E.g. "This is a nice dog."
  • Adjectives can come after a linking verb. E.g. "She is happy."
  • Basic adjectives describe color, size, shape and other qualities of a noun.
  • Examples of adjectives include 'black' (color), 'big' (size), and 'cheap' (price).

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, mainly nouns. Adjectives give more information about the noun. It describes the noun. An adjective can contain information about the noun's shape, size, age, color, feeling, or taste. They make our sentences more detailed and interesting.

Adjective  list

Position of Adjectives

You place the adjective before the noun.

Examples:

  • She is a beautiful girl.

    Subject ("She") + be verb / linking verb ("is") + article ("a") + adjective ("beautiful") + noun ("girl")

  • There is an interesting picture.

    Here, 'interesting' is the adjective. Note, the article is "an", not "a".

  • These are nice shoes.

    Here, 'nice' is the adjective.

Adjective  list

You can also put an adjective after a "be" verb, or a verb like "seem", "look", etc. "is", "are", "be", "look", and "seem" are called a linking verb.

Examples:

  • The boy is tall.

    Subject ("The boy") + be verb / linking verb ("is") + adjective ("tall")

  • She is happy.

    "is" is the linking verb and "happy" is the adjective.

  • They are tired.

    "are" is the linking verb and "tired" is the adjective.

Adjective  and subject grammar

Types of Basic Adjectives

There are many types of basic adjectives, such as words that indicate color, size, shape, taste, feel, or age. Here, let’s focus on color, size, and shape:

Examples:

  • He has a black cat.

    'black' is the adjective about color.

  • This is a big house.

    'big' is the adjective about the size.

  • She has a cheap table.

    'cheap' is the adjective about the price.

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