Types of Adjective

Adjective Examples

In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

1. They live in a big, beautiful
2. Since it’s a hot day, Lisa is wearing a sleeveless
3. The mountaintops are covered in sparkling
4. On her birthday, Brenda received an antique vase filled with fragrant

Types of Adjectives

Remember that adjectives can modify as well as describe other words, and you’ll find it much easier to identify different types of adjectives when you see them.

Articles

There are only three articles, and all of them are adjectives: a, an, and the. Because they are used to discuss non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles. For example:

• I’d like a
• Let’s go on an

Neither one of these sentences names a specific banana or a certain adventure. Without more clarification, any banana or adventure will do.

The word the is called the definite article. It’s the only definite article, and it is used to indicate very specific people or things:

• Please give me a banana. I’d like the one with the green stem.
• Let’s go on an adventure. The Grand Canyon mule ride sounds perfect!

Possessive Adjectives

As the name indicates, possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession. They are:

• My
• Your
• His
• Her
• Its
• Our
• Their

Possessive adjectives also function as possessive pronouns.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific people, animals, or things. These, those, this and that are demonstrative adjectives.

• These books belong on that
• This movie is my favorite.
• Please put those cookies on the blue plate. 

Numbers Adjectives

• When they’re used in sentences, numbers are almost always adjectives. You can tell that a number is an adjective when it answers the question “How many?”
  • The stagecoach was pulled by a team of six
  • He ate 23 hotdogs during the 

Interrogative Adjectives

There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what, and whose. Like all other types of adjectives, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these words are used to ask questions.

• Which option sounds best to you?
• What time should we go?
• Whose socks are those?

 Indefinite Adjectives

Like the articles a and an, indefinite adjectives are used to discuss non-specific things. You might recognize them, since they’re formed from indefinite pronouns. The most common indefinite adjectives are any, many, no, several, and few.

• Do we have any peanut butter?
• Grandfather has been retired for many
• There are no bananas in the fruit bowl.

Attributive Adjectives

Attributive adjectives talk about specific traits, qualities, or features – in other words, they are used to discuss attributes. There are different kinds of attributive adjectives:

• Observation adjectives such as real, perfect, best, interesting, beautiful or cheapest can indicate value or talk about subjective measures.
• Age adjectives denote specific ages in numbers, as well as general ages. Examples are old, young, new, five-year-old
• Material adjectives denote what something is made of. Some examples include cotton, gold, wool