Adjectives

What is an adjective?
Adjectives (bijvoeglijknaamwoord) are words that tell something about a noun (zelfstandignaamwoord).
They can tell something about the size, material, colour, age, shape, taste, odor, number, etc. of the noun.

How to find an adjective?
To find an adjective (bijvoeglijknaamwoord) you have to dissect (ontleden) a sentence.

When dissecting a sentence you can come across a lot of different kind of word classes (woord soorten). But for this lesson we are sticking with these:

Table 1:
Word classes with examples.

Word class

Translation

Example

Pronoun

Voornaamwoord

I, You, He, She, It, They

Noun

Zelfstandignaamwoord

Katy, Car, Road, Dog

Verb

Werkwoord

Walk, Run, Think, Be

Adverb

Bijwoord

Really, Very, Fast, Happily

Adjective

Bijvoeglijknaamwoord

Red, Fast, High

Opmerking. Aangepast overgenomen uit An Introduction to English Grammer (p. 36) door G. Nelson en S. Greenbaum G, 2016, Oxon: Routledge. Copyright 2016, Gerald Nelson and Sidney Greenbaum.

When dissecting a sentence you are looking for the noun (zelfstandignaamwoord). A noun can be the person, place or thing in the sentence. If there is a word in front of the noun, which tells something about the noun, it is most likely an adjective (bijvoeglijknaamwoord).
(Swan, 2016)