Lesson 5 - Adjectives

Introduction

An adjective is a word that describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives come before the noun they modify, unless they are linked to the noun by a linking verb.

A linking verb is a verb that describes a state of being or sensory experience. Some common linking verbs are to be, to look, to seem, to feel, and to smell. When the adjective is linked to the noun by a linking verb, the adjective is placed after the verb.

English Phrases

A very common sentence template in English is:
Subject + be + adjective.

The subject can be any person, place, or thing. Using this sentence template, you'll be able to describe objects in English.

To ask if an object has a certain characteristic or attribute, you can use the the following sentence template:
Be + subject + adjective?

To say that something does not have a characteristic, you can use the following sentence template:
Subject + be not + adjective.

Here are some more very common sentence templates that use the verb be, adjectives and adverbs.

• subject + is very + adjective.
• subjects + are very + adjective.
• subject + is really + adjective.
• subjects + are really + adjective.
• subject + is quite + adjective.
• subjects + are quite + adjective.
• subject + is so + adjective.
• subjects + are so + adjective.
• is + subject + really so + adjective?
• are + subjects + really so + adjective?
• subject + is pretty + adjective.
• subjects + are pretty + adjective.

Similar templates can be used with the other linking verbs.

• subject + seems really + adjective.
• subject + looks very + adjective.
• subject + feels so + adjective.

Examples