Adjectives Notes, Quizzes & Revision

What is an adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes or gives more information about a noun (person, place, thing or idea). It tells us about size, colour, shape, number, emotion, quality and more.

Examples (Kenyan context):

• A tall giraffe at Nairobi National Park.
• The mangoes are ripe and sweet.
• She paid KSh 500 for a new book.

Where adjectives appear

• Before a noun (most common): a small school, an old baobab tree.
• After a linking verb: The water is cold. The children seem happy.
• With determiners: my favourite pen, two big buses.

Types of adjectives (with Kenyan examples)

• Descriptive (quality): warm, busy, noisy — e.g., a busy market in Kisumu.
• Quantity: some, many, few — e.g., many students in class.
• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those — e.g., these bananas are ripe.
• Possessive: my, your, his, her, our — e.g., our school uniform.
• Interrogative: which, what, whose — e.g., Which route goes to Mombasa?
• Numeral: one, two, three, first, second — e.g., three cows in the kraal.
• Distributive: each, every, either, neither — e.g., each farmer received seeds.

Degrees of comparison

Adjectives show how things compare:

• Positive: tall. (no comparison)
• Comparative: taller — compare two things. e.g., "The acacia is taller than the bush."
• Superlative: tallest — one among many. e.g., "The elephant is the tallest animal here."

Forming comparatives/superlatives:

• One-syllable: add -er / -est → tall, taller, tallest.
• Two-syllable ending in -y: change y → i + er/est → happy, happier, happiest.
• Longer adjectives (usually 3+ syllables): use "more" / "most" → beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.
• Irregular forms: good → better → best; bad → worse → worst; far → farther/further → farthest/furthest.

Order of adjectives (when there are several)

Multiple adjectives usually follow a natural order. A common order is:

Determiner → Opinion → Size → Age → Shape → Colour → Origin → Material → Purpose → Noun

Example: "my old (age) small (size) round (shape) blue (colour) Kenyan (origin) cloth (material) bag."

Keep adjectives in a sensible order so the sentence is natural.

Punctuation: coordinate vs cumulative adjectives

Coordinate adjectives are equal and separated by commas or 'and':

"It was a hot, dusty afternoon." (You can say "hot and dusty.")

Cumulative adjectives build on each other and are not separated by commas:

"A small clay cooking pot" — you cannot say "small, clay cooking pot."

How adjectives are formed (simple ways)

• Add suffixes: -ful (hope → hopeful), -less (care → careless), -y (rain → rainy).
• Use "more/most" for many long adjectives: important → more important, most important.
• Use participles: interest → interesting; bore → boring.

Practice exercises ✏️

1. Underline the adjective(s) in each sentence:
   • a) The noisy market sold fresh mangoes.
   • b) He has three old coins from the bank.
   • c) Nairobi is a busy city.
2. Change the adjective:
   • a) This road is (long). — Make it comparative and use it in a sentence.
   • b) These goats are (thin). — Make a superlative sentence with three goats.
3. Choose the correct adjective order:
   • She bought a (blue / old) (Kenyan / small) painting. — Put the adjectives in the correct order.
4. Rewrite with a suitable adjective:
   • a) The _______ (weather) day made the football match difficult.
   • b) He climbed a _______ (height) tree to see the herd.

Answers and teacher notes ✅

1. a) noisy, fresh b) three, old c) busy

2. a) longer — "This road is longer than the other road." b) thinnest — "Of the three goats, the small brown one is the thinnest."

3. Correct order example: "She bought a small blue Kenyan painting." (Determiner/Opinion/Size/Colour/Origin/Material/Noun)

4. a) wet / rainy / hot (e.g., "The rainy day made the football match difficult.") b) tall / high (e.g., "He climbed a tall tree to see the herd.")

Teaching tips: Use local items (school bag, KSh notes, local fruits, wildlife) to make examples relatable. Encourage learners to make sentences about their town or village using adjectives.