Language/English/Grammar/How-do-you-use-Adjectives
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How do you use Adjectives in English?
You can use adjectives in the ways suggested below.
Use two or more adjectives to describe a noun in greater detail
E.g.
• small grey cat,
• desperate, brazen thief
Show comparison and contrast using parallel phrases such as ‘not only … but also’, ‘as … as’
E.g.
• Beatrice is not only intelligent, but also hardworking.
• Tom is as strong as his father.
Use adjectives to express opinions
E.g.
• What a boring play! The director was unimaginative.
Adjectives describe many different things, such as size, shape, colour, quality, origin or nationality, material, and the speaker’s or writer’s opinion.
It is common to find two or more adjectives before a noun. However, they cannot be strung together randomly; rather, they follow a fairly strict order, from top to bottom:
| Observation/Opinion : | lovely, boring, beautiful, fascinating |
| Size : | petite, gigantic, high, long |
| Shape : | round, square, oval, circular |
| Age : | old, new, young |
| Colour : | red, blue, green, yellow |
| Nationality/Origin : | Chinese, American, British, Christian |
| Material : | gold, silver, silk, linen |
E.g.
• small old wooden box
• beautiful colourful Turkish rug