Common Adjectives in English (List, Examples, Grammar)

What are common adjectives in American English? Adjectives account for some 20% of English word use. The English language has certain adjectives categorized into “common” and “proper,” and you may come across something like “common adjectives.”

What is a common adjective?

In English, some parts of speech can be classified as “common” and some as “proper.” This is true in the case of nouns. To understand the term “common adjective,” it is important to know what an adjective is. An adjective is any word that is used to describe a noun.

Consequently, common adjectives are words that may describe a person or thing. Intriguingly enough, the word “common” is a common adjective!

Common adjectives vs. proper adjectives

In the plainest terms, a common adjective is any adjective (describing word) that does not have a capital letter as its first letter.

Grammatically, adjectives that are not meant to get capitalized are referred to as common adjectives. Unless an adjective begins a sentence, it is not used with its beginning letter capitalized.

Consequently, all adjectives, or most of them, are common adjectives. The examples below show how common adjectives may be capitalized depending on sentence positions.

• Mary wore a beautiful gown of lace to the grand ball yesterday.

Here, the gown is described with the adjective “beautiful” and the ball as “grand.” The common adjective is in use in both positions here.

• Strong men are good in sports and other games.

Here, “strong” is not in the class of common adjectives as it is capitalized as it begins a sentence. Nonetheless, “good” is a common adjective due to its placement in the middle of the sentence.

When is an adjective a proper adjective?

Most of these adjectives in English speech and writing fall within the classification of common adjectives. As a result, the adjectives in use daily are common adjectives, such as those of color, quality, etc. The use of common adjectives is “very common.” Nevertheless, there is a concept in grammar as the proper adjective, distinguished from the standard counterpart.

So far, it is clear that the only time to capitalize an adjective is when it begins a sentence. Another rule of capitalization for adjectives is also present. This is when adjectives are “proper adjectives,” like proper nouns.

If an adjective is derived from a proper noun, the adjective will cease to be a common adjective. This derivation could be from someone’s name, like Shakespeare. Note the examples of adjectives no longer considered in the “common adjective” category:

• The play was a Shakespearean enactment of Julius Caesar.
• The British man walked with a slow step and a cane.

Here, both Shakespeare and British come from the names of men and countries, respectively. Consequently, they are proper adjectives and not common adjectives.

Examples of common adjectives

In grammatical terminology, common adjectives are words with qualified nouns and pronouns. The categories that fall within the broad class of common adjectives include (commonly) the following:

• Adjectives of Quality – Beautiful, good, old, clever, peaceful, friendly, etc.
• Adjectives of Quantity – Two, whole, a lot, forty, 3 dozen, etc.
• Adjectives of Color – Red, blue, shaded, etc.
• Demonstrative Adjectives – This, that, these, those, etc.
• Possessive Adjectives – My, their, your, its, etc.
• Interrogative Adjectives – Which, whose, what, etc.
• Proper Adjectives – American, Indian, Christmas, Jurassic, etc.

Examples of common adjectives in sentences

Here are some examples of sentences with a common adjective:

• This dress has become filthy after the walk in the park.
• She ordered four dozen oranges to make orange juice at home.
• I don’t think my mother will attend the party tonight.
• Which shirt did he buy: the black or the blue?
• The film depicted the Egyptian era quite well.

List of Common Adjectives

Conclusion

Common adjectives occur almost everywhere in the English language. They are essential in describing words and make any text more engaging, especially in describing an event or characters in a story. Their use is widespread, and it is crucial to know several of these words to communicate effectively.