विशेषण (Adjective)

हिंदी में पढ़ें

ADJECTIVE — The Word That Paints the Noun

🎯 Why This Chapter Can Win or Lose Your Exam

Adjective errors are among the most frequently tested grammar points in SSC CGL, IBPS PO, and State PCS prelims papers. The cruel part? The sentence *sounds* correct. "He is more superior to me" feels fine to the ear — and that is exactly the trap. Adjectives are the examiner's favourite hiding place because Indian bilingual speakers carry Hindi patterns ("वह मुझसे ज़्यादा होशियार है" → wrongly translated as "more cleverer") straight into English. Master this chapter and you convert the examiner's favourite trap into your fastest marks.

📌 Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

1. Identify all 8 types of adjectives and their correct position in a sentence.
2. Apply the rules of comparison (positive, comparative, superlative) without falling for double-comparison traps.
3. Use adjectives as nouns ("the rich", "the blind") and nouns as adjectives correctly.
4. Spot the 12 Golden Rules violations in error-spotting questions within 15 seconds.
5. Distinguish confusing adjective pairs: *fewer/less, elder/older, latter/later, some/any, each/every*.

1. What Is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes, qualifies, or limits a noun or pronoun. It answers: *What kind? How many? Which one? How much?*

• She bought a red saree. *(what kind?)*
• He has five pens. *(how many?)*
• This book is mine. *(which one?)*
• There is little water left. *(how much?)*

Position matters. Adjectives appear in two positions:

• Attributive — before the noun: *a tall building*
• Predicative — after a linking verb: *The building is tall.*

⚠️ Some adjectives are predicative only: *afraid, asleep, awake, alive, alone, ill, glad*. You cannot say "an asleep child" — you must say "a sleeping child" or "the child is asleep."

🧠 Active Recall

1. What two questions can an adjective answer about number?
2. Why is "an alive fish" wrong? What should replace it?

2. The 8 Types of Adjectives

Key distinction the examiner tests: An interrogative/demonstrative word is an adjective only when followed by a noun; otherwise it is a pronoun.

• Which book do you want? → adjective
• Which do you want? → pronoun
• That boy won. → adjective | That is true. → pronoun

🧠 Active Recall

1. "Each student was given a certificate." — what type of adjective is *each*?
2. In "Whose is this?", is *whose* an adjective or pronoun?

3. Degrees of Comparison — The Heart of the Chapter

Positive (no comparison): *Ram is tall.*
Comparative (two things): *Ram is taller than Shyam.*
Superlative (one among all): *Ram is the tallest boy in the class.*

Regular formation

• Short adjectives: add -er / -est → tall, taller, tallest
• Adjectives ending in -y: -ier / -iest → happy, happier, happiest
• Long adjectives: more / most → beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful

Irregular forms (memorise — asked directly!)

🔑 The Latin Comparatives — No "than", No "more"!

These adjectives are already comparative and take "to", not "than":

> superior, inferior, senior, junior, prior, posterior, anterior

The verb prefer follows the same pattern — it takes "to", not "than":

• ✅ He is senior to me. ❌ He is senior than me.
• ✅ I prefer tea to coffee. ❌ I prefer tea more than coffee.
• ❌ He is more superior to me. (double comparison — never!)

Mnemonic 🧠: "SIS-PPP take TO" — Superior, Inferior, Senior, Prior, Posterior, Prefer (+ junior, anterior) — all take TO, never *than*, never *more*.

Absolute adjectives — no degrees at all

Some adjectives express a complete state and cannot be compared: *unique, perfect, universal, supreme, extreme, complete, empty, full, round, dead, chief*.

• ❌ This is the most unique painting. → ✅ This is a unique painting.
• ❌ His plan is more perfect. → ✅ His plan is perfect (or *nearly perfect*).

🧠 Active Recall

1. Correct this: "She is more senior than me."
2. Why can't we say "most perfect"?

4. Elder vs Older, Latter vs Later, Fewer vs Less — The Killer Pairs

Elder / Eldest — only for family members, never followed by *than*:

• ✅ He is my elder brother. ✅ He is older than me.
• ❌ He is elder than me.

Latter / Later — *latter* = the second of two things (opposite of *former*); *later* = time:

• ✅ Of the two plans, I prefer the latter. ✅ I will come later.

Fewer / Less — *fewer* for countable, *less* for uncountable:

• ✅ Fewer students, less water. ❌ Less students.

Farther / Further — *farther* = physical distance; *further* = additional:

• ✅ Delhi is farther than Noida. ✅ For further details, call me.

🧠 Active Recall

1. "My elder sister is older than yours" — correct or not? Why?
2. Fill in: "There is ___ milk and ___ bottles." (less/fewer)

5. Adjectives Used as Nouns & Nouns Used as Adjectives

Adjective + "the" = a whole class of people (plural verb!):

• The rich should help the poor. ❌ The rich *is*…
• The blind deserve our sympathy.

Nouns as adjectives stay singular (no plural, no possessive):

• ✅ a ten-rupee note, a five-year plan, a three-hour journey
• ❌ a ten-rupees note, a five-years plan

Order of adjectives (when several come together) — remember OSASCOMP:
Opinion – Size – Age – Shape – Colour – Origin – Material – Purpose

• ✅ a beautiful small old round red Indian wooden table
• ❌ a wooden red Indian old table

⚠️ EXAMINER'S TRAP BOX

Trap 1 — Double comparison: "more better", "most fastest", "more superior". The moment you see *more/most* + *-er/-est*, mark it wrong. Examiners bury it mid-sentence: *"She is more taller than her sister."*

Trap 2 — "Than" after Latin comparatives: *senior than, prefer…than, superior than* — always wrong. These take to.

Trap 3 — Sound-right adjective/adverb swap: "He did the work good" sounds fine in casual speech but is wrong — after the verb *did* you need the adverb well. But after linking verbs (*is, seems, looks, feels, smells, tastes*), the adjective is correct: "The soup tastes good" ✅ (not *well*).

🏆 The 12 Golden Rules of Adjectives

1. Latin comparatives (*superior, senior, prefer…*) take to, never *than*, never *more*.
2. Absolute adjectives (*unique, perfect, universal*) have no degrees.
3. Elder/eldest only for family; never with *than*.
4. Fewer + countable; less + uncountable.
5. "The + adjective" (the poor, the rich) = plural class → plural verb.
6. Noun-as-adjective stays singular: a ten-rupee note.
7. After linking verbs (*seem, look, feel, taste, smell, sound*), use an adjective, not an adverb.
8. Comparative degree compares two; superlative needs the + compares three or more.
9. "One of the + superlative + plural noun": *One of the best players*.
10. Each/every + singular noun; all + plural.
11. Little = almost none (negative); a little = some (positive); the little = whatever exists. Same for *few/a few/the few*.
12. Adjective order follows OSASCOMP — opinion before size before age before colour.

🔁 Linguistic Bridge — Hindi से English

📊 Summary Table

🔁 Review after 2 days

Come back after 48 hours and do this without re-reading: write from memory (a) the 7 Latin comparatives that take *to*, (b) 5 absolute adjectives, (c) the OSASCOMP order, (d) the little/a little/the little distinction. Then attempt Practice Sets 1–2. Anything you blanked on — that is your revision list.