How to Identify the Types of Adjectives

Adjectives are words that modify nouns. An adjective can modify any noun, no matter where you use it in a sentence. Adjectives can be descriptive, limiting, predicate and verbals. You can also use them to indicate degrees of intensity, levels and comparison. Articles such as "a," "an" and "the" are also considered adjectives.

Instructions

1. Use descriptive adjectives when you need to add detail or description to a noun. An example of using a descriptive adjective is the following, "She is very tall for a girl." "Very" is the descriptive adjective.

2. Add a limiting adjective when describing a certain amount. For example, "We have several tetras and three danios in are fish tank." "Several" and "three" are the limiting adjectives.

3. Know how to use a predicate adjective. Predicate adjectives are adjectives that follow a linking verb and modify the subject of a sentence. This is an example of a predicate adjective, "Watching a game is fun." "Fun" is the predicate adjective describing what "watching," the subject, is.

4. Understand how to use verbals as adjectives. There are two types of verbals that can act as adjectives. A participle is always an adjective and usually ends in "en," "ed" or "ing." The other type of verbal that can act as an adjective is an infinitive. An infinitive is "to" plus a verb. An example of a participle adjective is "The boy is driven to do well in sports." "Driven" is the adjective. An example of an infinitive adjective is "To sleep all night is what most people like." "Night" is the adjective.