4 Rules You Need To Know About Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe a noun or pronoun. They might tell you the shape, size, color, weight, material, or various other qualities of the noun. But before you go tossing adjectives all over your writing, it’s important to know these four rules.

1. Quality Beats Quantity Every Time

I originally listed this as the third rule, but I moved it right up to the top of the list because I think it’s SO important.

Many authors go with the “more is more” approach when it comes to adjectives, thinking that they should include TONS of describing words to help the reader paint a better picture in their heads. That might make sense in theory, but piling up whole bunches of adjectives can make your writing clunky and difficult to follow. Take this sentence, for example:

The bright, lovely, talented soprano opera singer serenaded the large, diverse, enraptured, excited audience in the ornate theater decorated with shiny, beautiful, extravagant, golden figures.

That would certainly paint a picture—if you got through the sentence without giving up after the 10th adjective, that is.

This effect is particularly bad when the adjectives that are piling up are actually nouns that are simply functioning as adjectives. In cases like this, the reader has a hard time knowing when they’ve hit a noun and when it’s just another adjective:

The opera management committee decision result was unacceptable to the lead soprano, Carlotta.

Getting to the noun “result” requires the reader to stumble through four other words that could be nouns but—in this case—are functioning as adjectives.

You can re-word the sentence like this to avoid this problem:

The opera management committee made a decision, and the result was unacceptable to the lead soprano, Carlotta.

When in doubt, pick one or two really good, descriptive adjectives rather than a whole bunch of just OK ones.

2. There Are Three Degrees of Adjectives

You can use an adjective on its own to describe a noun (the pretty flower), make it a comparative adjective to show how it compares to other nouns (the prettier flower), or use a superlative adjective to communicate that this noun has the MOST amount of a certain quality (the prettiest flower).

These are the three degrees of adjectives, according the Chicago Manual of Style: the positive or absolute (pretty); the comparative (prettier); and the superlative (prettiest).

Using the positive (base) kind of adjective just tells you about the noun without comparing it to anything else.

Christine Daaé had a lovely singing voice.

Using the comparative shows how the quality of one noun compares to that quality in another noun. This is used for comparatives between two things.

Christine Daaé had a lovelier singing voice than Carlotta.

Using the superlative communicates an extreme amount of a certain quality and is usually used for comparisons of three or more things.

Christine Daaé had the loveliest singing voice in the opera.

Often, you change a base adjective to the comparative by adding “-er” to the word. Sometimes (especially with adjectives that have two or more syllables), you would just put “more” in front of the base adjective rather than adding the suffix.

nice, nicer

beautiful, beautifuler

beautiful, more beautiful

To change a base adjective to the superlative form, you can usually add “-est” to the word. For some adjectives, you would add “most” before the word rather than adding the suffix.

great, greatest

comfortable, comfortablest

comfortable, most comfortable

The Chicago Manual of Style lists these rules for turning base adjectives into comparatives and superlatives:

1. If the adjective has one syllable and ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant, the last letter is doubled before you add the suffix (e.g., red—redder—reddest)
2. If the adjective ends in a silent “e,” drop the -e before you add the suffix (nice—nicer—nicest)
3. Some one-syllable adjectives cannot take the suffixes -er and -est (e.g., “real”)
4. Many adjectives are irregular, and there are no consistent rules about their comparative and superlative forms (e.g., good—better—best)
5. You cannot use both the suffixes and “more/most” or “less/least.” That’s an error called a double comparative or double superlative (e.g., “more nicer”)

Some Adjectives CANNOT Be Compared

Some adjectives cannot be compared because they describe an absolute or definitive state of being. These adjectives are called noncomparable. They can’t take a comparative or superlative suffix and can’t be paired with words like “more/less” and “most/least.”

Some noncomparable adjectives include the following:

• perfect
• impossible
• pregnant
• unique
• married
• true
• false

These describe absolute states of being. Something can’t be “more true” than something else: it either is or isn’t true. Someone can’t be “more married” than someone else: they either are married or they aren’t.

Although it’s important to know this rule for formal situations, note that people actually break it all the time. You might hear that one person is “more pregnant” than someone else, meaning they’re further along in their pregnancy.

One of the most famous examples of this rule being ignored is the Constitution of the United States: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…”

3. Adjectives Follow Possessive Nouns

If you want to add an adjective to a noun phrase that includes a possessive noun, the adjective goes AFTER the possessive noun.

Here’s an example:

The opera house’s glittering chandelier

NOT

The glittering opera house’s chandelier

This rule helps avoid misunderstanding. Putting the adjective in front of the possessive noun creates confusion about which noun it’s meant to be modifying—is the opera house glittering, or is the chandelier glittering?

The phantom’s request

The phantom’s audacious request

The audacious phantom’s request (unless we wanted to say that the phantom himself is audacious, in which case this would be correct)

Generally, you want your adjectives as close as possible to the noun they’re meant to be describing so that readers clearly understand what you mean.

4. There IS a Correct Order of Adjectives

If you have more than one adjective describing a noun, you can’t just toss them randomly in front of that noun. There is actually a specified order of adjectives!

If English is your native language, you probably know this order intuitively: “the golden old music box” sounds strange, but “the old golden music box” sounds perfectly normal. That’s because age (“old”) comes 5th in the order of adjectives and color (“golden”) comes 7th.

I have a whole post about adjective order, so check that out for more details about which adjectives to put first!

Learn more about the order of adjectives here!

Sources:

• The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• Ebbitt, D. R., and W. R. Ebbitt. Index to English. 8th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.