Grammar through WritingAdjectives

What do these words have in common?Dim Moldy Wrinkled Smooth

Shiny Sharp Cracked Fuzzy

Spotted Frozen Hazy Slick

Muted Sour Sweet spicy

What do these words have in common?Beautiful Ugly Sad Anxious

Pretty Nice Mean Democratic

Fair Bad Good boring

What is an Adjective?

ADJECTIVES are words that describe --give more information about – nouns and pronouns.

Adjectives:*tell which: this frog, that giant,

those dwarfs. *tell what kind: the green frog, the

lonely giant, the frozen lake.

• Also tell how many: many frogs, several giants, one lake, seven dwarfs.

• Can also work together: this green frog, that lonely giant, those seven dwarfs.

Concrete vs. abstract adjectivesAll the words in activity one are

concrete adjectives. These adjectives give information that we can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell.

All the words in activity 2 are abstract adjectives. They do not give information about what we can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. They give an idea about something. The bad troll.

Too many adjectives…Adjectives can help make writing

clearer and more specific. But adjectives should be used sparingly. Too many adjectives will spoil the sentence!

“We went into the big, old dark, cold, scary, empty, rotten house.”

Just right…“ We stepped into the house. We

saw wrinkled wallpaper, shattered windows, and a gaping hole where the staircase used to be.”

Remember: As a general rule, use adjectives that show, not ones that tell.