Identify an adjective

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — In "The tired dog slept on the soft rug," your child points to tired and soft, says which noun each one describes, and remembers that the counts too.
• — Your child asks "what kind?" or "how many?" about a noun to find the word that describes it.
• — When the describing word comes after the noun, as in "The soup is hot," your child still finds hot and says it describes the soup.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Find the noun first

   An adjective is a word that describes a noun, and a noun names a person, place, thing, or idea. So start by finding the noun. Then look for the word that tells more about it.

2. 02

   Ask three questions about the noun

   What kind? Which one? How many? In "two green frogs," two tells how many and green tells what kind. Both are adjectives, and both describe frogs.

3. 03

   Look after the noun too

   Adjectives usually sit right in front of the noun, but not always. In "The milk is cold," cold comes after is and still describes the milk. Ask your child what the word is attached to, not where it sits.

4. 04

   Play the swap game

   Say "the big truck" and let your child swap in new describing words: the muddy truck, the noisy truck, the old truck. Each swap changes the picture of the truck, and that is how you know the word was an adjective.

You will need: A few everyday objects to describe

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Say: "The hungry puppy chewed a red sock." Ask your child for the describing words and the noun each one describes.

   Listen for  Hungry describes puppy, and red describes sock. The and a are adjectives in this book too, so a child who also names them is right. Listen for the noun as well as the adjective, since naming the noun is the proof.

2. Try 2

   Say: "Four ducks swam in the cold pond." Ask which word tells how many and which word tells what kind.

   Listen for  Four tells how many ducks. Cold tells what kind of pond. Both are adjectives.

3. Try 3

   Say: "The cookies are warm." Ask your child which word tells what the cookies are like.

   Listen for  Warm, and it describes cookies. It comes after the noun this time, so your child has to ask what the word describes instead of looking only in front of the noun.

4. Try 4

   Say: "Our friendly neighbor waved." Ask whether friendly is an adjective.

   Listen for  Yes. It ends in ly, but it describes the neighbor, which is a noun, so it is an adjective. If your child says no because of the ly, ask what friendly is telling about.

Watch for

• — Words like friendly, lovely and lonely end in ly but are adjectives, because they describe a noun. Ask what the word describes before deciding.
• — The little words a, an and the count as adjectives in this book, where they are called articles. Children often skip them because they seem too small to matter.

If it is not there yet

• — Go back to nouns first. Point to things around the kitchen and name them, then add one describing word to each: the cold milk, the sharp knife, the full jar.
• — Use only color words and number words for a few days, since they are the clearest adjectives, before moving to words like brave or tired.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 16

  Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

  Needs it because only an adjective can be put into these forms, so it has to be recognized first.