Adjectives — Parts of Speech
What Is It?
An adjective modifies a noun by adding quality or quantity.
Canonical pattern: Adj → Noun (attributive) or Noun → Link V → Adj (predicative).
Why Use Adjectives?
- Precision – picks the right nuance (“incremental backup”).
- Persuasion – underscores benefits (“fast deployment”).
- Comparison – ranks features (“more secure,” “smallest footprint”).
When to Choose Adjectives
- Marketing copy for new features.
- Tooltip hints explaining states (“offline nodes”).
- Error descriptions in logs.
Forming Adjective Sentences
| Degree | Formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Adj + N | a scalable microservice |
| Comparative | Adj-er/more + N | a faster query |
| Superlative | the Adj-est/most + N | the most reliable cluster |
Tips for Writing with Adjectives
- Place short adjectives before longer ones (“simple JSON parser”).
- Convert fuzzy words to metrics (“quick” → “<200 ms”).
- Use hyphens for compound modifiers (“read-only volume”).
- Avoid double comparatives (“more better”).
- Limit stacked adjectives to three.
Exceptions & Nuances
Color adjectives usually follow the noun in CSS docs (“button-primary blue”).