Adjectives (Definiton, Comparison and Superlative Adjective)

• Adjectives Definition

Adjectives describe or give information about nouns or pronouns.

For example:-

The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".)

The good news is that the form of an adjective does not change. It does not matter if the noun being modified is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object. Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size color etc (fact adjectives - can't be argued with). Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody - nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives - not everyone may agree).

If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be able to answer.

There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

1)­ Numeric: six, one hundred and one 

2) ­Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough 

3)­ Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc. 

4)­ Possessive: my, his, their, your 

5)­ Interrogative: which, whose, what 

6)­ Demonstrative: this, that, those, these 

• Comparison of Adjectives

Ammu is tall.

Job is taller than Ammu.

Mohan is the tallest of the three.

In the second sentence, the word ‘taller’ is the comparative form of the adjective. The comparative form of the adjective denotes a higher degree of the adjective ‘tall’ when two people or things are compared.

In the third sentence, the word ‘tallest’ is the superlative form of the adjective. The superlative form of the adjective denotes the highest degree of the adjective ‘tall’ when more than two people or things are compared.

Here are some simple rules to keep in mind when forming comparatives and superlatives.

RULE 1 

For most adjectives, ‘er’ is added for the comparative form and ‘est’ for the superlative form. Tall – Taller – Tallest, Strong – Stronger – Strongest, Short – Shorter – Shortest, Kind – Kinder - Kindest

RULE 2 

For adjectives ending with ‘e’, ‘r’ is added for the comparative form and ‘st’ for the superlative form. Wise – Wiser – Wisest, Large – Larger – Largest, Nice – Nicer – Nicest, Fine – Finer - Finest

RULE 3 

For adjectives ending with ‘y’, ‘y’ is removed and ‘ier’ is added for comparative form and ‘iest’ for the superlative form. Lazy – Lazier – Laziest, Crazy – Crazier – Craziest, Wealthy – Wealthier – Wealthiest, Heavy – Heavier - Heaviest

RULE 4 

Usually for longer adjectives, ‘more’ + adjective is used for comparative form and ‘most’ + adjective is used for superlative form. Handsome – More Handsome – Most Handsome, Beautiful – More Beautiful – Most Beautiful, Intelligent – More Intelligent – Most Intelligent, Difficult – More Difficult – Most Difficult

RULE 5 

Irregular Adjectives: There are some irregular adjectives for which the comparative and superlative form follow no particular rule. Good – Better – Best, Bad – Worse – Worst, Many – More – Most, Little – Less - Least

• The Superlative Adjectives

Rule

'the' is placed before the superlative:

Examples:

• He is the richest man in the world.
• That is the biggest crocodile I have ever seen.
• She is the tallest girl in her class.