2. What is an adjective?
An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.
It answers the questions:
What kind?
How many?
Which?
big angry red one
good intelligent hard a few

3. Adjectives usually come before the noun:
He was wearing a red sweater.
They can also come after the verb TO BE or
other verbs, such as “look,” “seem,” “feel,”
“appear,” “taste,” “sound,” and “smell.”
She is tall. He looks angry.
It seems difficult. It tasted terrible.

4. What are the adjectives in this sentence?
The two cats were sitting on the old fence.
The, two, the, old
The articles (the, a, an) are adjectives.

5. Let’s change gears for a moment and go back to
nouns. Which of the following nouns are proper
nouns?
boy Samuel France fence
Samuel and France
Adjectives can also be proper.
Which of the following adjectives are proper?
an Italian black Elizabethan
Italian and Elizabethan

6. When you have more than one adjective before a
noun, you sometimes need to use a comma to
separate them…even when there are only two!
It was a dark, stormy night.
• Dark describes the night. Stormy also describes
the night.
• It would be possible to write, “It was a dark and
stormy night.”
• It would also be possible to write, “It was a
stormy, dark night.”
In this case, we put a comma between the adjectives.

7. It isn’t always correct to put a comma between the
adjectives.
George Washington was the first American president.
• American describes the president, and first
describes American.
• It doesn’t make sense to write, “George
Washington was the first and American president.”
• We also can’t write, “George Washington was the
American first president.”
No comma!

8. In which of these six sentences would we add a
comma between the adjectives?
She’s wearing her black denim skirt. No comma!
Jenny is an ambitious gifted student. Yes!
That was delicious Indian curry! No comma!
The athlete won three gold medals. No comma!
The heartbroken singer wrote a slow Yes!
sad song.
The two fat Siamese cats meowed at No comma!
her.

9. If there are a lot of adjectives, they need to go in a
certain order.
Quantity Quality or Size Shape Age Color Origin Material Qualifier Noun
opinion
one beautiful white denim jacket
an amicable old Brazilian man
a tall Oak tree
three antique English grammar books
I bought one beautiful white denim jacket.
George’s grandfather is an amicable old Brazilian man.
There was a tall Oak tree in the field.
The library has three antique English grammar books.
Notice…NO COMMAS.
Why not???

10. Adjective Comparative Superlative
great greater the greatest
thin thinner the thinnest
happy happier the happiest
tired more tired the most tired
interesting more interesting the most
interesting
good better the best
bad worse the worst
far farther the farthest

11. Mark Samantha
Charles
Denise
Mark is taller than Samantha.
Mark is the tallest person in the picture.
Charles is the youngest child.
Charles is younger than Denise.
Denise is older than Charles.
Charles is the smallest member of the family.