Limiting adjectives point to nouns in a sentence.

There are different types of limiting adjectives. These are:

• Articles

• Numerical Adjectives

• Demonstrative Adjectives

The words a, an, and the are limiting adjectives. They are also called articles.

Uses of articles:

• the

  - used with both singular and plural nouns
  - used with a particular person or thing

• a

  - used with singular nouns
  - used before words with a consonant sound

• an

  - used with singular nouns
  - used before words with a vowel sound

In the selection, The Largest Bird, the articles are in boldface.

the librarian's aide
a wonderful book
the world's largest living bird
an ostrich
an hour
a lion's back

Numerical adjectives are of two kinds:

• Cardinal adjectives
• Ordinal adjectives

In the selection, The Largest Bird, the numerical adjectives, such as nine, three hundred, first, and next, are italicized.

Cardinal adjectives tell how many.

Examples:

Nine
Three hundred
One
Seventy

Ordinal adjectives tell the position of a thing or person in a series.

Examples:

First
Next
Last
Fourth
Tenth
Twenty-first