Adjectives – Types, Order, Comparisons

📘 Rule Summary

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. It adds meaning by answering what kind, how many, or which one. Adjectives help us describe people, places, things, feelings, and ideas — and must follow specific word order rules and comparison structures for clarity and accuracy.

📝 Examples

She wore a beautiful dress.

They adopted two dogs.

This is the tallest building.

📖 Explanation

🧠 Day 14: Mastering Adjectives – The Art of Description

✍️ Adjectives give color to language. They let us paint pictures with words, describe our feelings, compare things, and express judgment.

This lesson covers:

6 core types of adjectives
the correct order (OSASCOMP rule)
how to compare things using adjectives
common errors to avoid
real-world examples for global learners

🌱 Level 1 – Beginner (A1–A2): What is an Adjective?

🔤 Definition:

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells us what kind, how many, or which one.

🎯 Basic Examples:

Sentence	Adjective(s)	Describes
She has a red car.	red	car
They have three children.	three	children
He is a smart boy.	smart	boy

🧩 Types of Adjectives (Beginner Focus)

Type	Purpose	Example
Descriptive	Describe quality or feature	A friendly dog
Quantitative	How much or how many?	Many people, some water
Demonstrative	Point out nouns	This, that, these, those
Possessive	Show ownership	My pen, her house
Interrogative	Ask questions	Which book? What movie?
Proper	Formed from proper nouns	Indian food, French wine

🌿 Level 2 – Intermediate (B1–B2): Adjective Order & Sentence Flow

🧠 The Golden Rule: Don’t randomly pile up adjectives.

Use the OSASCOMP order:

Opinion → Size → Age → Shape → Color → Origin → Material → Purpose

Order	Example
Opinion	lovely, boring
Size	big, tiny
Age	old, new
Shape	round, square
Color	red, blue, white
Origin	Indian, French
Material	wooden, cotton
Purpose	writing (desk), racing (car)

🧩 Example:

✅ She bought a lovely small old round red Indian wooden cooking bowl.

❌ Incorrect: wooden Indian red round old small lovely cooking bowl

🪜 How Many Adjectives in a Sentence?

You can use up to 3–4 adjectives before a noun, but clarity is key.

✅ A beautiful old Italian painting
✅ An ugly big plastic toy
❌ A big Italian red round heavy hard old marble — too much!

🌳 Level 3 – Advanced (C1–C2): Comparisons & Adjective Pairs

🧮 1. Degrees of Comparison

Type	Rule	Example
Positive	Base adjective	John is tall.
Comparative	+er / more + adjective	John is taller than Sam.
Superlative	+est / most + adjective	John is the tallest boy.

✅ Spelling Tips:

Big → bigger, biggest
Happy → happier, happiest
Beautiful → more beautiful, most beautiful

⚖️ 2. Irregular Comparatives

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
far	farther/further	farthest/furthest

🎯 3. Non-gradable vs. Gradable Adjectives

Gradable	Non-gradable
cold → colder → very cold	perfect, dead, impossible

✅ It’s very cold today.
❌ It’s very dead → incorrect!

🧠 4. Compound Adjectives

Adjectives formed by joining words with hyphens:

A five-star hotel
A 10-minute break
A well-known author

Always hyphenate compound adjectives before a noun:

✅ A full-time job
❌ A job that is full time ← (no hyphen after noun)

🔥 Common Global Errors

❌ She is more prettier than her sister.
✅ She is prettier than her sister.
❌ I have an old French small wooden table.
✅ I have a small old wooden French table.
❌ The climate is very best here.
✅ The climate is the best here. (“very best” is informal or poetic)
❌ He is much taller from me.
✅ He is much taller than me.

🌍 Real-World Usage Contexts

Context	Use
Product Reviews	“This is a powerful and affordable laptop.”
Job Interviews	“I’m a proactive, detail-oriented, and collaborative worker.”
Travel Blogs	“We stayed in a charming little coastal town.”
Emails	“I had a productive meeting with our international team.”