Read through the sentence below. What part of speech is the underlined word in the sentence? What do the boxed words describe in each sentence?
| Young Leon is | strong | and determined. |
|---|---|---|
| ↑ adjective |
↑ adjective |
↑ adjective |
The words young, strong, and determined are used in the sentence above to describe the subject Leon.
Adjectives are words that modify a noun or pronoun. Adjectives answer the questions what kind, which one, how many, or how much. Adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns by telling which one is being pointed to, what is its kind or characteristic, and how many is its number.
| Pointing to (Which one) | Characteristics (What kind) | Number (How many) |
|---|---|---|
| this pencil | black dress | two sets |
| that paper | soft cotton | few people |
| those girls | huge truck | many students |
| these flowers | square peg | ten rows |
Adjectives can be formed by adding suffixes like -ful, -able, -less, or -ish to some words.
| Word | Suffix | Adjective |
|---|---|---|
| wonder | -ful | wonderful |
| comfort | -able | comfortable |
| sugar | -less | sugarless |
| yellow | -ish | yellowish |
Adjectives can also be formed from proper nouns. Like proper nouns, proper adjectives are capitalized.
| Proper Nouns | Proper Adjectives |
|---|---|
| Filipino | Filipino language |
| America | American flag |
| Germany | German brand |
Adjectives can also be made up of more than one word called compound adjectives. A compound adjective is an adjective that contains two or more words. In general you put a hyphen between two or more words (before a noun) when you want them to act as a single idea (adjective) that describes something. Hence, a compound adjective is sometimes called a hyphenated adjective.
She looked down once at her high-heeled shoes. The thick, unpleasant smell of sampaguita bushes and cooling sun-heated earth mingled with the clean, sharp scent of arrais roots.
