Descriptive Adjectives

 We use words every single day - when we read, when we write, and when we speak - and we often use them without even really thinking about it.  However, there are actually many different types of words and they all have an important part to play in our everyday life.  Descriptive adjectives have a particularly important role to play as they aid our imagination and enrich our reading.

 

 

What are Descriptive Adjectives?

Descriptive adjectives are the words that are used to describe a noun or a pronoun.  They are the most frequently used adjective and are used to describe the features or qualities of the noun or pronoun.  Nouns (and pronouns) are words that are used to identify a person, place, or thing and descriptive adjectives can be used to describe things such as the size, sound, taste, smell, texture, or colour of the noun.  They add detail to the sentence and provide information about the person or place that they are describing.  Sentences without descriptive adjectives in them can be quite dull and boring and lack imagination as they don’t provide a clear image of what is being described.

 

When to use Descriptive Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives usually come before the person, place, or thing that they are describing, although there are exceptions, and they should be used to provide more information about the item by describing it’s features.  Descriptive adjectives should be used to make the sentence interesting and add appeal to it, and to provide a clear mental image of what is being described.  The more specific the descriptive adjective is then the clearer the picture will be for the reader or listener.

 

Examples

A beautiful and playful kitten.

 

She is an annoying person.

 

He ate a crisp red apple.

 

He is a fantastic teacher.

 

Suzie looked out of the window and saw a stunning rainbow crossing the sky.

 

The safari was wonderful and very interesting and Jim’s favourite part was seeing the fierce lions and the majestic elephants.

(In this sentence wonderful and interesting describe the safari, while fierce describes the lions, and majestic describes the elephants.)

 

She bought a shiny new car.

 

My mother is a nervous driver.

 

The boisterous puppy loved to play with his purple squeaky ball.

 

Laura threw a surprise party for her sister’s twenty-first birthday.

 

He is an extremely pessimistic person.

 

The boss has an overbearing and unlikable personality.

 

Australia is a vast and wonderful country with a diverse landscape.

(In this sentence vast and wonderful describe Australia, while diverse describes the landscape.)

 

The majestic swan swam gracefully across the pond with it’s mate.

 

The chilling sound of a hyena’s laugh sent shivers down her spine as it shattered the still night air.

 

There is something strange in the tree above your head.

(In this sentence strange is describing the pronoun something.)

 

There are many thousands of other descriptive words that you could use and some of them are -

Beautiful

Stunning

Immense

Majestic

Ugly

Formidable

Foreboding

Huge

Petite

Minuscule

Minute

Sweet

Fragrant

Acrid

Muscular

Rough

Smooth

Muffled

Hideous

Hilarious

Magnificent

Soft

Fluffy

Comfortable

Uncomfortable

Bitter

Bumpy

Ancient

Aggressive

Tremendous

Superior

Exceptional

Outstanding

Charming

Ambitious

Boisterous

Sophisticated