Adjectives

Tanya Trusler

November 6, 2018

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Adjectives are words that are used to describe nouns. They are also known as modifiers. These common words follow two basic patterns in English. Students often ask which pattern is better or more common to use, and the answer is that they’re equally common!

Purpose

Adjectives are used to describe nouns (people, places, or things).

green coat
beautiful sunset
cute puppies
interesting lesson

Adjectives are also used to describe how someone is feeling.

happy
sad
hot
cold

Patterns

There are two basic adjective patterns in English.

Pattern 1: Adjective + Noun

An adjective often comes right before a noun. It stays right before the noun even when there are other parts of speech that are part of the pattern, such as an article, an adverb, or a preposition. This pattern is common for adjectives that describe people, places, or things.

soft pillow (Adj + N)
a soft pillow (Art + Adj + N)
a really soft pillow (Art + Adv + Adj + N)
on a really soft pillow (Prep + Art + Adv + Adj + N)

Pattern 2: Be + Adjective

An adjective can also follow the Be verb. This pattern is common for adjectives that describe feelings as well as people, places, or things.

She is happy.
I am tired.
Your brother is nice.
This pillow is soft.

Notes

Note #1

To form an adjective, a suffix is often added to the end of a noun. Some common adjective suffixes in English include -able, -al, -ant, -ed, -ent, -ful, -ible, -ic, -ing, -ive, -less, -ous, and -y. For more examples, see English Word Endings: Suffixes That Show the Part of Speech.

logical
important
careful
dangerous

Note #2

Some adjectives don’t come from a noun. These adjectives don’t have suffixes.

big
small
good
bad

Summary

It’s a good idea to give students similar examples of the two patterns so they can see that there is no difference in meaning. Both patterns are common for describing nouns. It’s their choice which pattern they want to use!