What Is an Adjective?
English & Language Arts · Vocabulary and Word Study · Grades 1–4
Meaning at a glance
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells what kind, how many or which one.
Also searched as: adjectives, describing word, describing words.
Understand it simply
An adjective gives more information about a noun. It can tell what kind (sweet, tall), how many (three, many) or which one (this, that).
Adjectives usually go before the noun (a red mango) or after a being verb such as is (The mango is red).
See it work
Find the adjectives and nouns:
The sweetadjective redadjective mangonoun fell from the talladjective treenoun .
Avoid this confusion
Adjective or adverb? An adjective describes a noun (a quick runner). An adverb describes a verb (she runs quickly).
Try it yourself
Work these out first, then check your answers below.
Find the adjectives: “The old man carried a heavy bag.”
Add an adjective to this sentence: “I saw a ___ bird.”
In “She sang beautifully”, is beautifully an adjective or an adverb?
Check your understanding
Show the answer to question 1
Answer: old, heavy
Old describes the man and heavy describes the bag.
Show the answer to question 2
Answer: Many answers work, for example: blue, small or noisy.
Any word that describes the bird (what kind) is an adjective.
Show the answer to question 3
Answer: An adverb.
It tells how she sang, so it describes the verb sang, not a noun.
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You now know what adjective means. Keep going with a full lesson, then explore the ideas that connect to it.
Learn
Learn this in a full lesson.
- Describing words (Grade 1)
- Describing words (Grade 1)
- Writing short descriptions (Grade 1)
- Adjectives and adverbs (Grade 3)
Practise
Practise with Learning Lab questions for the lesson Describing words (Grade 1), with an explanation after each answer.
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Sources and review
This explanation was written from Courseversity lesson content (see the lessons above). An outside reference check is still on the editorial to-do list.
Written by: Courseversity editorial team (AI-assisted draft).
Review status: checked against the sources above. Educator review is pending, so please tell us if anything looks wrong.
Last updated: 27 October 2026.