Adjectives: Describing Words

About the Lesson

Adjectives are describing words that tell us more about people, places, and things.

How Adjectives Work

You could say I saw a dog. But that is not very descriptive! Now try this: I saw a fluffy, brown, playful dog. Much better!

The words fluffy, brown, and playful are called adjectives. Adjectives are describing words. They tell us more about a noun. They make our sentences colorful and fun to read!

What Adjectives Describe

Adjectives can tell us many things about a noun. They can describe:

• The size: tiny ant, enormous elephant.
• The color: red apple, blue sky.
• How something feels: soft blanket, rough sandpaper.
• How much or how many: some cookies, few friends.

Where Adjectives Go in a Sentence

Most of the time, an adjective comes before the noun it describes. In the fluffy cat, fluffy is the adjective and it comes before cat.

Adjectives can also come after the noun with a linking verb: The cat is fluffy. Both sentences are correct!

How to Identify an Adjective

A quick way to check if a word is an adjective is to ask these questions about the noun:

• What kind is it?
• What color is it?
• What does it look like?
• What size is it?

If the word answers one of these questions, it is likely an adjective!

Using Multiple Adjectives

You can use more than one adjective to describe a noun! For example: The old, tired dog slept all day. Here, old and tired are both describing dog. When you use two or more adjectives, you put a comma between them.

Adjectives vs. Adverbs

Be careful not to mix up adjectives and adverbs! In the phrase the fast bus, fast describes the bus, so it acts like an adjective. But fast is actually an adverb here because it describes how the bus moves.

A quick trick: ask, Is this word describing a noun, or is it describing a verb/action?

Comparing with Adjectives

Adjectives can also compare two or more things! If one thing is big and another is even bigger, we add -er to make the comparative form. If something is the biggest of all, we add -est to make the superlative form.

• big → bigger → biggest
• happy → happier → happiest
• fast → faster → fastest

This helps us say which thing has more or the most of a quality.

Practice Tips

When you write a sentence, try adding at least one adjective. For example, instead of I ate a cookie, try I ate a warm, chocolate chip cookie. Your writing will be much more vivid and engaging!

Adjectives are like the paintbrushes that add color to your sentences!