The adjective is one of the most essential parts of speech that is used extensively in speech and in writing. There are many kinds of adjectives, but in this article, the largest group under this word type will be discussed—the descriptive adjectives.
Definition of Descriptive Adjectives
The descriptive adjectives can be simply defined as the type of adjectives that are used to express the size, color, or shape of a person, a thing, an animal, or a place. They are used to provide more information to a noun by describing or modifying it.
Explanation of Descriptive Adjectives
From the definition above, it can be said that a descriptive adjective adds meaning to the noun that it modifies. This kind of adjective describes a noun in detail by giving an attribute to that particular word. You should kow that descriptive adjectives usually express things that are observable through the five senses (touch, taste, sight, smell, and sound).
If you find it hard to spot the descriptive adjectives in the sentence, you can ask the question:
“Which one?” or more appropriately, “What does it look like?” in reference to a noun.
Examples of Descriptive Adjectives
Fast
Muscular
Pink
The underlined words in the sample sentences below are some examples of descriptive adjectives.
Examples of Descriptive Adjectives in Literature
The underlined words in the sentences below are all examples of descriptive adjectives used in literary pieces.
– W.B Yeats, In the Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age
Functions of Descriptive Adjectives
As the name suggests, the descriptive adjective is a kind of adjectives which is used to describe a noun. It does not only add meaning or provide additional information to a noun, but adds color to the entire text in general. Since there are a lot of nouns in the English language, there is also a very long list of descriptive adjectives available that can modify them.
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