Adjectives for Kids

What Are Adjectives? (for Kids)

Adjectives are describing words. In these examples, the highlighted words are all adjectives:

• a tall man
• a smelly street
• a tasty apple

Adjectives help us to create vivid images about people, places, or things. The words "man," "street," and "apple" are nouns. So, adjectives are words that describe nouns.

It's Your Go!

Select the adjective in each sentence:

Easy Examples of Adjectives

Here are some more examples of adjectives in sentences:

• Barney is a happy dog.
• She was an angry lady.
• It will be a cold night.

These adjectives describe the nouns "dog," "lady," and "night."

Using Stronger Adjectives

All the adjectives we've seen so far have provided simple descriptions. However, there are thousands of different adjectives, and many of them are quite sophisticated and give the writer exactly the right description. Here are some examples of stronger alternatives for the adjectives we've used so far:

Simple Adjective	Stronger Adjectives
tall	towering, lanky
smelly	rancid, reeking, putrid, foul
tasty	delectable, scrumptious, delicious
happy	delighted, elated, joyful, merry
angry	bitter, annoyed, offended, enraged
cold	frigid, frosty, brisk, wintry

To find the perfect adjective, writers often use a thesaurus to look for a strong alternative to a simple adjective that isn't quite right. Let's try one:

• You have a clean car.
("Clean" is a simple adjective. A good writer would say it is a weak adjective.)

Here are some stronger alternatives from a thesaurus:

• immaculate, spotless, unblemished, shiny, sparkling

Let's rewrite our sentence with a stronger adjective:

• You have a spotless car.

More about Adjectives

So far, all the adjectives we've seen have been positioned before nouns to describe them. However, as you learn to spot adjectives, you will soon notice that adjectives do not always go before nouns. Look at these examples:

• That girl is elegant.
(This time, the adjective "elegant" describes the noun "girl" even though it appears afterwards.)

• Alan was foolish.
(This time, the adjective "foolish" describes the noun "Alan" even though it appears afterwards.)

• The view from the mountain top will be stunning on Saturday.
(This time, the adjective "stunning" describes the noun "view" even though it appears afterwards.)

Adjectives used like this are called predicate adjectives.

Other Ways to Describe Things

Choosing strong adjectives is an essential part of writing well. However, there are other ways to describe things. Let's look at some examples:

• The children were hungry.
("Hungry" is a weak adjective.)
• The children were ravenous.
("Ravenous" is a stronger adjective.)
• The children descended on the sandwiches like locusts.
("Descended on the sandwiches like locusts" is an example of a simile. It is a comparison used to provide a description.)

• He had bad teeth.
("Bad" is a weak adjective.)
• He had rotten teeth.
("Rotten" is a stronger adjective.)
• He had teeth like smashed eagles' beaks.
("Like smashed eagles' beaks" is a simile.)

So, as well as looking for strong adjectives, you should also think about using comparisons like similes to provide vivid descriptions for your readers.

Video Lesson

Here is a video lesson giving more information about adjectives: video lesson

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