Adjectives

Fun Facts About Adjectives

• The word "adjective" comes from Latin meaning "additional name," which perfectly describes its function of adding extra detail or information to a noun or pronoun.
• The adjective "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a nonsensical word made popular in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins where it is used as an exclamation of extreme delight or wonder.
• William Shakespeare invented many descriptive adjectives by combining existing words when no perfect word existed, enriching English dramatically. Examples include: bloodstained, cold-blooded, foul-mouthed, full-grown, lackluster, soft-hearted, time-honored, well-behaved, and worn-out.
• In English, adjectives stay the same no matter if the noun is singular or plural. This is unlike many other languages where changes are needed to agree with the number, or gender, of the noun they modify.
• English has a "Royal Order of Adjectives" that native speakers intuitively follow when stacking adjectives before a noun. The order is Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose, as in the phrase "beautiful big old round red Italian wooden dining table." You wouldn't say "red Italian big old beautiful table" as that sounds incorrect. The Royal Order places more objective qualities (material, purpose) closer to the noun, while more subjective ones (opinion, size) go further away.