Adjective Definition

Adjectives are one of the major parts of speech in English. They modify a noun or noun phrase. Often called describing words, they describe the quality, state or action that a noun refers to. They can be used to distinguish a particular noun- the red car distinguishes one car by colour from the others. Adjectives are an open class in English, which means that we can make new ones easily and add them to the language, which is not the case in all languages.

Adjectives are not generally used in standard English to modify other adjectives- we use adverbs to do that. However, we can use multiple adjectives to modify a noun. When we do this they tend to follow a sequence, though this order of adjectives is not an absolute rule and there will always be exceptions.

They can be used in various ways and positions in a sentence:

Adjective Rules

1. Adjectives can come before nouns: a new car
2. Adjectives can come after verbs such as be, become, seem, look, etc.: that car looks fast
3. They can be modified by adverbs: a very expensive car
4. They can be used as complements to a noun: the extras make the car expensive

Adjectives follow an order before a noun

This table explains the order of adjectives coming before a noun in the English language, although it is very unlikely that anyone would use eight adjectives before a single noun. Generally, few would use more than a couple or so. There are cases where the order isn't followed, but it works in almost all cases. The basic movement is from subjective (opinion) to objective (material/purpose).