Adjectives: Attributive and Predicative Uses

What is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes or qualifies a noun or pronoun. It provides more information about an object’s size, shape, age, colour, origin, or material.

Attributive Use of Adjectives

Definition: When an adjective is used directly before a noun to qualify it, it is called an attributive adjective.

Structure: Noun + Adjective

• Ram is an honest man.
• India has a big army.
• This is a black book.

Predicative Use of Adjectives

Definition: When an adjective is used to qualify the noun or pronoun that is used as the subject in the predicate part of the sentence, it is called a predicative adjective.

Structure: Noun/Pronoun + Verb + Adjective

• Ram is honest.
• India is big.
• The book is black.

Comparison of Attributive and Predicative Use

Attributive Use	Predicative Use
Ram is an honest man.	Ram is honest.
India has a big army.	India is big.
This is a black book.	The book is black.

Adjective Classification

• Adjective
  • Attributive
  • Predicative
  • Quality
  • Quantity
  • Number
    • Definite
      • Cardinal
      • Ordinal
    • Indefinite
  • Proper
  • Possessive
  • Distributive
    • Definite
    • Indefinite
  • Demonstrative
  • Interrogative
  • Emphasizing
  • Exclamatory