Descriptive Adjectives
Out of all the types of adjectives that exist, Descriptive Adjectives form the largest group and are the ones we use most often in everyday conversation.
As the name suggests, these adjectives function to describe the quality, character, or physical condition of a noun. They answer the question What kind?
Categories of Descriptive Adjectives
Because there are thousands of them, we can categorize descriptive adjectives based on the aspect they describe:
1. Quality / Opinion
Describes someone’s opinion or judgment about a thing/person. It can be subjective (different for everyone).
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| beautiful | pleasing to the senses | A beautiful woman |
| ugly | unpleasant to look at | An ugly building |
| smart | intelligent | A smart dog |
| boring | not interesting | A boring movie |
| delicious | highly pleasant to the taste | A delicious cake |
2. Size
Describes how big, long, or tall an object is.
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| big | large in size | A big house |
| small | little in size | A small cat |
| tall | of great height | A tall tree |
| short | measuring a small distance | A short pencil |
| long | measuring a great distance | A long road |
3. Age
Describes how old or new an object/person is.
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| old | having lived for a long time | An old man |
| young | having lived for a short time | A young boy |
| new | recently made | A new car |
| modern | relating to present times | A modern city |
| ancient | belonging to the very distant past | An ancient temple |
4. Shape
Describes the physical form of an object.
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| round | shaped like a circle | A round table |
| square | having four equal sides | A square box |
| flat | smooth and even | A flat screen |
| oval | having a rounded and slightly elongated outline | An oval face |
5. Color
All types of colors fall into this category.
| Adjective | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| red | of a color at the end of the spectrum | A red apple |
| blue | of a color intermediate between green and violet | A blue sky |
| dark | with little or no light | A dark room |
| bright | giving out or reflecting much light | A bright light |
Order of Adjectives
Have you ever wanted to use more than one adjective for a single noun? For example, you want to describe a table that is big, square, and brown.
In English, we cannot stack adjectives randomly! There is a natural order that must be followed.
The order formula is often remembered as OSASCOMP:
- Opinion (beautiful, ugly)
- Size (big, small)
- Age (old, new)
- Shape (round, square)
- Color (red, black)
- Origin (Indonesian, Japanese)
- Material (wooden, plastic)
- Purpose (sleeping, walking)
So, for a table that is “big (Size), square (Shape), and brown (Color)”, the English order must be: A big square brown table.
(You cannot say A brown square big table).
Tip: Even though there are 8 levels in the rule, in practice we rarely use more than 3 adjectives together at the same time so the sentence doesn’t sound overwhelming.