Adjectives Introduction

Think you know your stuff? CLICK HERE to quiz yourself.

Shmoop is patient. Shmoop is kind.

Oops. Sorry. We meant love is patient and kind—guess we need to brush up on our Corinthians.

Do over. Ahem.

Shmoop is the best of times, Shmoop is the worst of times.

Oh. That's wrong for two reasons. (1) The quote from A Tale of Two Cities refers to "it" instead of "Shmoop" (and totally comma splices it); and (2) Shmoop is the best of times… period.

But these missteps in the wild world of quoting lead us to our grammar topic du jour: adjectives. Yup: like best, worst, patient, and kind.

Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns by identifying, describing, quantifying, or limiting them.

Adjectives answer the following questions:

  • Which one?
  • How many?
  • What kind?

Adjectives come in three different forms: positive, comparative, and superlative; and two primary types: descriptive and limiting.

Continue on your way through this adjective extravaganza to satisfy your curious, inquisitive, and beautiful mind with more fascinating, revelatory, and useful information. (See what we did there?)

Quiz Yourself on Adjectives

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What type of adjective is featured in the following sentence?


Goldilocks told the officers that the first bowl of porridge was too hot, the second bowl was too cold, and the third bowl was just right.


(A) Cardinal
(B) Ordinal
(C) Indefinite
(D) Interrogative

Fill in the blanks:


_______ going to have to stop comparing yourself to _______ sister if you ever want to feel confident about your singing. _______ two different people: ________ tone deaf and she's not.


(A) you're, you're, you're, you're
(B) you're, your, you're, you're
(C) your, your, you're, your
(D) you're, you're, your, your

Which of these options needs to be corrected?

  1. It's about time you stopped putting yourself down and learned to love your tongue.
  2. It's length is really quite extraordinary.
  3. You know, it's not every day you see a tongue like that.
  4. It can reach inside it's accompanying nose.
(A) 1 and 3
(B) 2 and 3
(C) 2 and 4
(D) 3 and 4

Which of these sentences is grammatically incorrect?

(A) I wish we'd spent less money on the catering for our wedding reception.
(B) Maybe if we had, they would have provided more filet mignon and less calamari platters.
(C) In that case, fewer guests would have come down with food poisoning.
(D) They could have spent more time on the dance floor and less in the bathroom.

Which of the following sentences needs to be corrected?

(A) Xavier spent his Spring Break learning how to tap dance at Miss Mamie's, a dance studio downtown.
(B) His parents, both retired professional ballroom dancers, guaranteed him it was a good way to meet girls.
(C) They assured him that he'd be grateful for an experience one day, but Xavier isn't so sure.
(D) So far, all the "girls" that he has met are so old they remember the Eisenhower administration.

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