Adjectives describe nouns. They give extra information about a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun can be big, old, quiet, blue, or dangerous. Without the adjective, the noun still exists, but the picture is less clear. Compare car with small car or old car. The noun tells you what something is. The adjective tells you what it is like. Adjectives also answer questions about quality, size, color, age, shape, origin, and opinion. For a broader look at noun modifiers, see Adjectives.

Common adjective positions in sentences

Usage	Explanation	Example
Before a noun	Use an adjective before a noun to describe that noun directly.	She wore a red dress to the party.
After linking verbs	Use an adjective after verbs like be, seem, feel, and look to describe the subject.	The soup tastes hot.
General description in speech	Use an adjective to give extra information when you want to describe a person, thing, or place clearly.	This park looks quiet in the morning.

In English, adjectives usually come before the noun they describe: a red shirt, two happy children, an expensive hotel. When an adjective follows a linking verb such as be, seem, feel, look, sound, smell, or taste, it describes the subject instead of a noun before it: The shirt is red. The children seem happy. The soup smells great. Some adjectives can appear in both places, but the meaning stays the same. Placement changes the sentence shape, not the meaning. For more detail on where adjectives go, see Adjective Placement.

Common adjective order before nouns

Example	Pattern
We sat in a lovely cafe.	Put opinion adjectives first when you use more than one adjective before a noun.
They bought a small old house.	Put size adjectives before age adjectives in a natural adjective sequence.
He found a nice big blue box.	Put fact adjectives before the noun in the usual order, after opinion and size words.

When several adjectives come before one noun, English usually follows a common order. Opinion comes first, then size, age, shape, color, origin, and material: a beautiful small old round black Italian wooden table. Learners do not need long lists to use the pattern correctly. The natural order is the one speakers expect. An adjective like beautiful sounds best before small because opinion usually comes first. If two adjectives of the same kind appear together, they are usually joined by and or rewritten to sound smoother: a big and bright room. For more examples of forming natural adjective phrases, see Adjective Formation.

Comparative forms for two items

Example	Pattern
My bike is faster than yours.	Use a comparative adjective plus than to compare two things.
This movie is more interesting than the last one.	Add more before many longer adjectives to show a higher degree.
Today is less noisy than yesterday.	Use less to show a smaller amount of a quality.

Comparative adjectives show that one noun has more or less of a quality than another. Use the comparative form + than: taller than, more expensive than, less crowded than. The first thing is compared with the second thing. Maria is taller than Ana. This road is more dangerous than that one. Today is less busy than yesterday. The adjective changes because the sentence is making a comparison, not just describing. Comparatives are the form used when one item stands apart from another on the same scale. For the full pattern, see Comparative Adjectives.

Superlative forms in groups

Example	Pattern
She is the tallest student in the class.	Use the superlative form to compare one thing with a whole group.
That was the best part of the show.	Add the before a superlative adjective in normal sentences.
This is the most beautiful garden in town.	Use in or of to show the group you are comparing with.

Superlative adjectives show the highest or lowest degree in a group. Use the superlative form with the: the tallest building, the most expensive phone, the least crowded street. The comparison is not between two things, but among three or more. This is the tallest building in the city. She bought the most expensive phone in the shop. That was the least exciting part of the film. The superlative points to the one item that stands at the top or bottom of the group. For more on this pattern, see Superlative Adjectives.

Choosing er est or more most

Example	Pattern
Today is warmer than yesterday.	Use er and est with short adjectives in common comparisons.
This puzzle is more difficult than that one.	Use more and most with longer adjectives in common comparisons.
We need a smaller bag for the trip.	Do not use more or most with every adjective when a shorter form is natural.

Many short adjectives use -er and -est: small, smaller, smallest; fast, faster, fastest. Many longer adjectives use more and most: more careful, most careful; more interesting, most interesting. The choice depends on the shape of the adjective, not on the noun. Short, common adjectives usually take the ending form. Longer adjectives usually keep their base form and add a word in front. Some two-syllable adjectives can use either pattern in everyday English, but the more common form is the one speakers hear most often. The same adjective must stay in one style within a comparison: more honest and most honest, not honester or honestest. This pattern works with Comparative Adjectives and Superlative Adjectives.

Spelling patterns in comparative forms

Example	Pattern
The red shirt is bigger than the blue one.	Double the final consonant when a short adjective ends in one vowel and one consonant.
This road is busier than the side street.	Change y to i before er and est in many adjectives.
Her smile is nicer today.	Drop the final e before adding er or est to some adjectives.

Some adjectives change their spelling when they take comparative and superlative forms. A one-syllable adjective ending in a single vowel plus a single consonant usually doubles the final consonant: big, bigger, biggest; hot, hotter, hottest. If an adjective ends in e, add only -r and -st: nice, nicer, nicest; large, larger, largest. If an adjective ends in a consonant + y, change y to i: happy, happier, happiest; easy, easier, easiest. These spelling changes happen because English keeps the word easy to read and pronounce. The comparison meaning stays the same; only the written form changes.

Irregular and special comparison adjectives

Word	Definition	Example
good	This adjective means of high quality.	This cake is good.
better	This word means a higher level than good.	Your second answer is better.
best	This word means the highest level in a group.	This is the best restaurant in town.
bad	This adjective means of poor quality.	The weather was bad yesterday.
worse	This word means a lower level than bad.	Today feels worse than yesterday.
worst	This word means the lowest level in a group.	That was the worst result of all.
unique	This adjective means one of a kind and is usually not compared.	Each snowflake is unique.
perfect	This adjective means completely without faults and is usually not compared.	The answer is perfect.
absolute	This adjective often means complete and is usually not compared.	We need absolute silence in the library.
entire	This adjective means whole or complete and is usually not compared.	They stayed the entire day.

Scramble

Some common adjectives do not follow the usual comparison patterns. Good becomes better and best. Bad becomes worse and worst. Far can become farther or further in comparison. These forms must be learned as complete words. Some adjectives are normally not compared because their meaning is already absolute or complete: unique, perfect, entire, dead. People say very unique in speech, but standard English does not use more unique or most unique. Adjectives with fixed meaning do not fit a scale, so comparison sounds unnatural. Irregular forms are common in everyday English and appear often in both Comparative Adjectives and Superlative Adjectives.

Ed and ing adjective meanings

Usage	Explanation	Example
Feeling adjective	Use an ed adjective to describe how a person feels.	I felt bored during the long meeting.
Cause adjective	Use an ing adjective to describe something that causes a feeling.	The meeting was boring.
People and situations	Use ed for the person and ing for the thing or situation that creates the feeling.	She was excited by the exciting news.

Some adjectives end in -ed or -ing, but they do different jobs. -ed adjectives describe how a person feels: I am bored. She felt tired after work. We were surprised by the noise. -ing adjectives describe the thing, person, or situation that causes the feeling: a boring lesson, a tiring trip, a surprising result. The same base word can give two different meanings. The movie was exciting means the movie caused excitement. The audience was excited means the audience felt that emotion. These forms often appear before nouns and after linking verbs, so Adjective Placement helps with their use.