After an English causative verb, like make, do not use the verb be.
causative verbnounadjective
I made it taller.
= I made it be taller.
English Articles
What is an adjective in English?
By: revel arroway, Isabel McKay Thu Sep 12 2024
EnglishAdjectives
An adjective is a word we use to add extra information about a noun, like:
color → blue, gray, purple
size or shape → big, small, round, square, short, long
taste → sweet, sour, bitter
emotional state → happy, sad, angry
personality → kind, mean, energetic
The good news: adjectives are really, really easy to use in English!
In this post we’ll go over the very basics about adjectives: what they are, how to use them in a sentence, and how to make new adjectives. Now, let’s take a nice, long, deep look into adjectives in English!
Table of Contents
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that gives us more information about a nounNo definition set for nounLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.. So instead of just saying, “I saw a tree yesterday,” I can say…
I saw a huge tree yesterday.
I saw a dead tree yesterday.
I saw a pointy tree yesterday.
I saw a young tree yesterday.
The words huge, pointy, dead, and young are all adjectives that give you more information about my tree. They help you to imagine it better.
Where to put an adjective in an English sentence?
In English, we generally put the adjective before the noun. That means the basic structure is:
adjective
noun
That big plane flew to Paris.
They are intelligent women.
The adjective can also come after the verb be:
noun
be
adjective
That plane is big.
Those women are intelligent.
Tip
You can also replace be with other linking verbsNo definition set for linking verbsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., like seem, look, appear, or get:
noun
linking verb
adjective
That plane seems big.
Those women look intelligent.
Exception!
There are a few special kinds of adjectives that can only come before the noun and some adjectives that cannot come before the noun. There are also a few cases where you will use the adjective directly after the noun. Read on, or follow the links, to learn more!
Do adjectives agree with nouns in English?
Adjectives in English do not agree with the noun they describe. Look up the word in a dictionary, and that is what it always looks like!
It does not matter if the noun is singular or plural, masculine or feminine: the form is always the same!
one brown cat
three brown cats
→ use brown with singular and plural
the little girl
the little boy
→ use little with males and females
Tip
There are a few adjectives that have a meaning that is a little masculine or a little feminine. For example,
beautiful describes something that looks good in a feminine way
handsome describes something that looks good in a masculine way
But you can still use these words with any noun:
a beautiful man is a man who looks good in a feminine way (for example with long eyelashes, large eyes, a thin chin, etc.)
a handsome woman is a woman who looks good in a masculine way (for example, muscular, tall, with a strong chin, etc.)
How to describe a noun with more than one adjective?
To describe a noun with more than one adjective, you can either put them before the noun or after a linking verb:
- adjectivenoun
This is a cheap, blue, plastic pen.
→ We do not usually use and before the noun. - adjectivelinking verbnoun
This pen is cheap, plastic , and blue.
→ We do usually use and after the linking verb!
When you put them after a linking verb, you can list your adjectives in any order:
✅ This pen is blue, cheap, and plastic.
✅ This pen is plastic, blue, and cheap.
But when we put adjectives before the noun, they come in a specific order.
❌ This is a plastic, blue, cheap pen.
English speakers put their adjectives in order based on the kind of information they provide. In general, that order is:
opinion — favorite, best, worst
size — big, small, fat, thin
quality (physical / personality) — beautiful, ugly
shape — round, flat, square
age — old, new
color — red, blue, brown
material (what the thing is made of) — plastic, metal
type — fountain, ball-point
use / purpose — writing, drawing
So, in our example, we’ve followed the right order:
✅ This is a cheap, blue, plastic pen.
→ quality, color, material
Tip
Even though there are many types of adjectives, a noun will not generally have more than 3.
Learning to use the right adjective order in English can take some practice, because the category that an adjective belongs to is not always obvious. Some adjectives can also belong to more than one group! Have a look at our English adjective order reference sheet to learn more.
How to form adjectives in English?
In English, you can often form an adjective by adding an ending to a word that is not an adjective. Sometimes you can even add an ending to a word that is already an adjective to create a new adjective. For example:
run (verb) → a running horse
cheese (noun) → a cheesy pizza
yellow (adjective) → a yellowish color
Often, you can take the same base word and turn it into an adjective in more than one way and each adjective you make will have a slightly different meaning.
Mary loves her dog. Mary is very loving and her dog is very loved because he is very lovable.
Knowing these special endings can help you recognize adjectives in a sentence, figure out what they might mean, and can help you be more creative while you are speaking English.
First we’ll talk about how to make adjectives out of verbs by using the participle form, then we’ll talk about some other endings, and then we’ll briefly introduce some ways we can use nouns to describe other nouns in English.
How to use participles as adjectives in English?
You can use any English participle as an adjective. You can describe nouns…
With a present participle: verb + -ing
The present participle tells you about an action the noun does or a situation the noun typically causes:
a growing boy
→ a boy who is currently getting bigger — the boy growsa breaking clock
→ a clock that is currently falling apart, by itself — the clock breaks
With a past participle: verb + -ed or an irregular past participle
The past participle tells you about something that happened to the noun:
a grown boy
→ a boy who is finished getting bigger — something happened to the boy: he grewa broken clock
→ a clock that someone or something broke — something happened to the clock: someone / something broke it
Tip
Lots of English learners struggle with learning the meanings of pairs of adjectives like interesting / interested that come from participles. For example:
interesting project → the project interests someone
interested student → something interests the student
While you’re looking at the explanations above, try looking up the pairs of words below. You’ll see how they all fit into this explanation as well!
boring / bored
tiring / tired
fascinating / fascinated
exhausting / exhausted
What are some other common adjective endings in English?
Some common endings for adjectives in English are: -ful, -able, -y, -ish, -ous, -ic, and -al.
Suffix | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|
-ful | a helpful person → a person who helps a lot a regretful person → a person who regrets many things a painful injury → an injury that has a lot of pain | usually these describe someone or something that is “full of” a quality |
-able | a believable explanation → you can believe the explanation a regrettable decision → you regret the decision | usually these describe a noun that someone can do or does an action to |
-y | a cheesy pizza → a pizza with a lot of cheese a chewy candy → a candy you need to chew a sleepy puppy → a puppy that needs sleep | describes a quality, need, or feature a noun has a lot of |
-ish | a yellowish color → a color that is a little bit yellow a childish joke → a joke that is a little bit like a child would make | usually describe things that have a little bit of a quality |
-ous | a famous celebrity → a celebrity with fame a hazardous chemical → a chemical that is a hazard | many of these are technical or formal adjectives |
-ic | a scientific experiment → an experiment relating to science a chaotic party → a party that has lots of chaos | most these are technical or formal adjectives |
-al | a political party → a party relating to politics a local cafe → a cafe close to here | This ending is mostly found in older adjectives. We do not use it much to create adjectives now. |
Tip
Some adjectives with these endings come from words in other categories (e.g. sleepy comes from sleep), but others don’t have a corresponding word in another category (e.g. we have the adjective local, but not the word loc).
Can an English noun be an adjective?
In English, we can often use nouns to describe other nouns, as though they are adjectives. However, these are still considered nouns.
Most often, we use them to identify the purpose of a noun:
water glass → a glass for water | vs. | wine glass → a glass for wine |
coffee table → a table for coffee | vs. | dinner table → a table for dinner |
Or, the noun may tell us what the thing is made of:
glass slipper
→ a slipper made of glassplastic cup
→ a cup made of plastic
To learn more, have a look at our post on using English nouns to describe other nouns.
English adjectives: Some advanced rules
Now that you know the basics of English adjectives, let’s dig a little deeper and learn some more advanced rules! We’ll talk about adjectives that only come before the noun, adjectives that can only come after the verb, and adjectives that can come directly after the noun. We’ll also introduce the idea of “phrasal adjectives” (a.k.a. compound adjectives).
English adjectives that can only come before a noun
Some English adjectives cannot come after a linking verb, and can only come before a noun.
Most of these are words that we call adjectives, but are actually another kind of word called determiners in English, for example:
Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
✅ This is my problem.
❌ This problem is my.
Most quantity adjectives (e.g. some, every, a few, each)
✅ There are some students.
❌ The students are some.
Tip
Determiners include possessive adjectives, some quantity words, articles (the, a/an), and demonstrative adjectives (that, this, these, those). They are a special group, because a noun can have only one determiner and the determiner must always come before the noun.
But there are also a few real adjectives that do not follow the verb to be, for example:
✅ That man is a former teacher.
❌ That teacher is former.
Some other adjectives in this group are: particular, exact, main, only, specific, chief, major, early, old, late, future, and present. However, these words are tricky, because they often have multiple meanings, and some of those meanings can be used after a linking verb.
Have a look at this more complete list of English adjectives that must precede a noun to learn more!
English adjectives that cannot come before a noun
A few adjectives cannot come before the noun.
✅ The boy is afraid.
❌ Paul is an afraid boy.
✅ The fish looks alive.
❌ This looks like an alive fish.
Most of these adjectives begin with the prefix -a, for example: asleep, alone, alive, ablaze, afloat, askew, afraid, aboard. But there are a few others, like ill and well (referring to health).
Most adjectives in this group have a “sister” adjective that you can use before the noun. For example:
afraid → a frightened boy
asleep → a sleeping boy
alive → a living boy
alone → a lonely boy
well → a healthy boy
ill → a sick boy
Tip
Fun fact! Adjectives that start with -a cannot come before the noun because they are historically prepositional phrases (compare: aboard ↔ on board), and prepositional phrases always follow the noun.
English adjectives that directly follow a noun
Adjectives sometimes directly follow the noun they describe in English. This happens for two reasons:
When you are describing an indefinite pronoun (everything, someone, nobody...), the adjective often comes after the pronoun. For example:
indefinite pronounadjectiveEveryone nearby heard the noise.
You didn’t miss anything important.
I want to marry somebody tall.
A participle phrase, containing objects or prepositional phrases describing the verb, will usually follow the noun. For example:
nounparticiple phraseThe children playing ice hockey are laughing.
The problems written on the board took an hour to complete.
Tip
In these first two uses, the adjective actually follows the noun because you are shortening a relative clauseNo definition set for relative clauseLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. with the structure: that/who + be + adjective
Everyone who was nearby…
…anything that was important.
…somebody who is tall.
The children who are playing ice hockey…
The problems that were written on the board…
However, participle phrases with only the participle and an adverb usually form a “compound adjective,” where the words are separated by hyphens.
compound adjectivenounOn our hike, we found a swiftly-flowing river.
He picked up his recently-purchased headphones from the store.
You can read about some other kinds of compound adjectives in our post on using nouns to describe other nouns in English!
The names of some kings and queens end in the + adjective:
Alexander the great
Ivan the terrible
Queen Elizabeth the second
→ English ordinal numbers like “second” are adjectives!
In some set phrases, the adjective always follows the noun.
These are mostly formal legal phrases or official terminology that use the French word order:
Attorney General ← compare French: "avocat général"
heir apparent ← compare French: "héritier présomptif"
queen consort ← compare French: "reine consort"
But sometimes English speakers create new set phrases with this order so that they sound official, for example code red or Workers United.
Summing up
In this post, you have seen a very basic introduction to the adjective in English. We’ve gone over:
An adjective is a word that adds information about or modifies a noun.
In English, adjectives come before a noun or after a linking verb.
English adjectives do not change for number or gender.
You can create adjectives in English by using participles (-ing / -ed) or by adding certain endings (-able, -y, -ish, -ic, -ous, -al, -ful).
We talked about some more advanced rules for English adjectives, including:
adjectives that only come before the noun
adjectives that never come before the noun
adjectives that come directly after the noun
There’s a lot more to learn about adjectives though! We’ve got posts on comparative adjectives (taller, more sleepy...), superlative adjectives (sleepiest, tallest...), demonstrative adjectives (that, this...), possessive adjectives (my, our...), and more! Read up on those to get the full story about how to use all these kinds of words effectively in English.
Before you look at some of our other posts on English adjectives, why not get some practice by looking at the beginner-level English adjective activities we’ve made for you?
