Adjectives and Degrees of Comparison
ICSE Class 6 · English · Chapter 5
What this chapter covers
- Kinds of adjectives
- Order of adjectives
- Degrees of comparison
- Interchanging degrees of comparison
- Articles and determiners
Key points
- An adjective describes a noun or a pronoun; it tells what kind, how much, how many or which one.
- The main kinds are adjectives of quality (including proper adjectives), quantity, number, and demonstrative, interrogative and possessive adjectives.
- Adjectives of quantity go with nouns you cannot count; adjectives of number go with nouns you can count.
- Several adjectives before one noun usually follow the order number, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.
- The three degrees of comparison are positive, comparative (two things) and superlative (three or more).
- Short adjectives add -er and -est; long adjectives take more and most; never use both together.
- Good, bad, many, much, little, far and old have irregular forms.
- Elder and eldest are for members of one family; elder is never followed by than.
- The superlative "the tallest" becomes "taller than any other" and "no other ... as tall as".
- A and an depend on the first sound of the next word; the points to a particular thing.
- Few and little mean "almost none"; a few and a little mean "some".
Questions answered
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun.
Name the kind of the adjective in italics: "Each child got a sweet."
Each is an adjective of number (a distributive adjective).
Is little in "We have little time" an adjective of quantity or of number? Give a reason.
It is an adjective of quantity, because time cannot be counted one by one.
Put the adjectives in the correct order: "a (silk, red, beautiful) saree".
a beautiful red silk saree.
Give the comparative and superlative forms of bad, thin and careful.
bad, worse, worst; thin, thinner, thinnest; careful, more careful, most careful.
Correct the sentence: "My brother is elder than me."
My brother is older than me. (Or: He is my elder brother.)
Rewrite in the comparative and positive degrees: "Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world."
Mount Everest is higher than any other mountain in the world. No other mountain in the world is as high as Mount Everest.
Fill in a or an: ___ hour, ___ uniform, ___ egg, ___ university.
an hour, a uniform, an egg, a university.