Adjectives

What are adjectives? You must have read about adjectives in your previous classes. Do you remember their uses?

Let's read the story below and underline the adjectives.

  Universal Rabindranath

Tagore is known as Bishwa Kabi (World Poet) because his literature has universal appeal and is read by many people of the world. His translation of Gitanjali (Song Offerings) won him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. Rabindranath dearly loved the land, rivers, people and not«rof beauty of his motherland. He roamed around of Bangladesh and wrote about her glory and beauty in songs, poetry, novels and short stories. Besides Tagore was also a social reformer. He was the founder of Bishwa Bharoti. Despite all, Tagore loved to relax in the peaceful environment of East Bengal, now Bangladesh. He spent his golden days in the quietness of Kuthi Bari in Kushtia, where he translated his famous Gitanjali. Tagore also established an experimental agricultural project at his estate at Patisar in Naogaon. Bengali culture cannot be fulfilled without the colourful presence of Tagore's literature. We will be more enlightened if we apply Tagore's philosophy in our life.

In pairs discuss the following questions.

What parts of speech the ita/icized words are in the text above?
What is an adjective?
What difierent types of adjectives are there in English?
What roles do adjectives play in a sentence?

Identify appropriate adjecñves from the dialogue below: 

A: Hello! What are you reading?

B: Good eveningl I am reading a book by Rabindranath Tagore. 

A: What's the name of the book?

B: I am reading Gitanjali which won him the Nobel Prize in literature. 

A: Oh! That's the best poetry book I have ever read.

B: He is known as a World Poet because of the universal appeal of his works and his wonderful style of wriñng.

A: Tagore is also the writer of our national anthem Amar Sonar Bangla.

B: Yes, he is.

A: We need to read more of his writings. Thank you for the interesting discussion.

B: I think we need to read more books of Tagore. Thank you too.

Now, let's try to describe adjectives.

Adjectives are words that are used to describe nouns and pronouns and to quantify and identify them. For example:

He was wearing a blue shirt.

Here ‘blue’ is an adjective as it is describing the noun ‘shirt’ by answering the question ‘What kind of shirt?’

There are seven rooms in the house.

Here ‘seven’ is also an adjective as it is mentioning the quantity/the number of the noun ‘rooms’, answering the question ‘how many rooms?’.

There are difierent types of adjectives based on their relationship with a noun and what they describe about the noun. There are five categories of adjectives:

Adjectives of Quality - These adjectives are used to describe the nature of a noun. They give an idea about the nature of the noun by answering the question ‘what kind’, e.g. honest, kind, large, bulky, beauñful, ugly, etc.

Dhaka is a large city with many places of historical interest.

Shaila is a beautiful woman.

Adjecfives of Quantity - These adjectives help to show the approximate amount of the noun or pronoun. These adjectives do not provide exact numbers; rather they tell us the amount of the noun, e.g. all, half, many, few, lixle, no, enough, great, etc. They have finished most of the rice. Many people came to visit the fair.

Adjectives of Number - These adjectives are used to show the number of nouns and their position in a phrase. There are three different types within adjectives of number; they are: one, two, twenty, thirty-three, etc. (also known as cardinals) first, second, third, seventh, etc. (also known as ordinals)

Demonstrative Adjectives - These adjectives are used to indicate a parñcular noun or pronoun - this, that, these and those.

That bag belongs to Neela.

Try using this paintbrush in your art class.

These flowers are lovely.

Interrogative Adjectives - These adjectives are used to ask quesñons about nouns or pronouns. They are - what, which and whose.

What test did I miss?

Which book of this author do you like?

Whose pen is this?