Adjectives for elementary


A Helpful Guide And List

While introducing your child to various language concepts, you might ask yourself why adjectives for kids are so important.

Words like “beautiful,” “fast,” “happy,” and “messy” are common adjectives your child might already know. But what makes them essential for language development? To answer this question, we must understand what role adjectives play.

Adjectives are words that add flavor to our sentences. They help make sentences more meaningful, they help us express the different qualities of an object or person, and, without them, our speech would be bland and boring.

In fact, adjectives are so important that children start using them from early in their language development (think “that’s good” and “that’s bad” and “I am sad…or happy”) and continue to expand on their understanding of them for years to come.

If you want to help your child make a richer use of adjectives in their talking and later their writing but don’t know where to begin, you’ve come to the right place. Our HOMER learning experts know a thing or two about teaching kids adjectives.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through all you need to know about adjectives and some of the most effective strategies for helping your child understand them.

What Are Adjectives?

What are some words you would use to describe yourself? Are you tall, short, funny, smart, or fast? These words are all adjectives.

However, adjectives don’t just describe people. They also help us describe animals, objects, and thoughts. In addition, we can express what something feels like to taste, touch, or smell because of adjectives.

By learning these types of words, children can create vivid images of what they are describing and give distinctions and comparisons. This is beneficial for building vocabulary and helping children clearly express their thoughts and feelings.

When Should Kids Learn About Adjectives?

Children’s use of adjectives changes over different stages of their language development. Here’s a closer look at what you can expect during early childhood.

2 – 3 Years

By the time a child reaches the toddler stage, their language skills have developed at an incredible rate. Children at this stage understand simple adjectives, like:

  • Small
  • Big
  • Messy
  • Soft
  • Sticky
  • Tiny

4 – 6 Years

When a child enters preschool and then kindergarten, they will continue developing their vocabulary as they interact with other kids and their teachers and are exposed to more books.

A significant part of their vocabulary will include adjectives. At this stage, children are likely to understand more descriptive adjectives, like:

  • Scratchy
  • Gentle
  • Polite
  • Shocking
  • Terrified
  • Clever
  • Damp
  • Impossible
  • Interesting

It’s important to note that there is no wrong or right time for children to start learning about adjectives.

Since these words form a part of our everyday vocabulary, as your child starts speaking, they will naturally pick up on them and start using them in their own speech.

When it comes to adjectives for kids, they may not always understand what each word means. That’s why it’s important to help your child not only know these words but also understand their meanings so they can use them appropriately.

How To Practice Adjectives For Kids

Helping your child improve their understanding of adjectives doesn’t have to be boring! Here are a few fun activities you can try at home.

1) Play Adjectives Charades

This is a fun activity that gets the whole family involved. Simply write adjectives on separate pieces of paper and take turns choosing a piece of paper and acting out the word on it.

If you have very young children, remember to use simple adjectives — weak, strong, nice, mean, angry, etc. And for children who haven’t yet learned how to read, you can read the words for them as needed.

Acting out adjectives is one of the best ways to help your child understand and remember the meaning of the words.

2) Describe A Person, Place, Or Thing

Since adjectives help us describe a person, place, or thing, why not create an activity centered around this concept?

To get started, make a list of six categories of nouns you can describe with an adjective. For example, your categories can include a person, tree, cat or dog, couch, ice cream, and music.

Once you have your categories, it’s time to roll your dice. The concept is simple — the number you roll will match a category, and you will need to come up with adjectives to describe that person, place, or thing.

For instance, if you roll a four and your fourth category is “couch,” you will need to come up with words to describe a couch (comfy, big, soft, etc.).

With younger children, you might come up with a single adjective, but as children’s vocabulary grows, you can make the game aim higher — up to six adjectives for each noun.

To make it more interesting for older kids, you can give them 30 seconds to come up with the adjectives. Each word earns them one point, and the adult would need to get twice as many points as the child to win the game.

3) Have Fun With Adjectives In Your Speech

Sometimes you don’t need to create complicated games to practice adjectives for kids. Since adjectives are a part of our everyday vocabulary, you can easily create moments throughout the day when you intentionally use descriptive words in conversation.

For example, instead of saying, “Have some strawberries,” you might say, “Have some juicy, bright-red strawberries.”

Or, instead of saying, “Cuddle in your blanket,” it’s more effective to say, “Cuddle in your soft, cozy, fluffy blanket.”

This simple activity can help your child significantly improve their vocabulary as well.



4) Play The Adjective Switch Game

Another fun way to help your child practice adjectives is by playing the adjective switch game.

For this activity, name an animal — a bear, for example — and then use an adjective to describe it. Your child would then act out the adjectives.

For example, you could say:

  • Hungry bear
  • Unhappy bear
  • Angry bear
  • Silly bear
  • Sleepy bear

To make the game even more fun, you might go really fast from one adjective to the other as your child tries to keep up.

You can then turn the tables and let your child have a chance while you act out the adjectives they use to describe the bear.

List Of Adjectives For Kids

Now that you have a few fun activities to help your child continue practicing adjectives, you probably want to get started creating these right away.

But which adjectives can you include? Here’s a list of relevant describing words you can add to games. (Remember: Some of these may be challenging for younger children. Choose adjectives based on your child.)

Colors

  • Bright
  • Beaming
  • Bold
  • Dark
  • Radiant
  • Colorful
  • Glistening
  • Glowing
  • Radiant
  • Vibrant

Numbers

  • One
  • All
  • Many
  • Every
  • First
  • Second
  • Third
  • Double
  • Few
  • Each

Shapes

  • Curvy
  • Straight
  • Circular
  • Triangular
  • Flat
  • Hollow
  • Deep
  • Square
  • Narrow
  • Sizes
  • Big
  • Average
  • Buff
  • Tall
  • Short
  • Petite
  • Skinny
  • Slim
  • Fit
  • Broad

Emotions

  • Angry
  • Furious
  • Upset
  • Disappointed
  • Content
  • Joyful
  • Frustrated
  • Exhausted
  • Cranky
  • Jolly

Weather

  • Sunny
  • Cloudy
  • Wet
  • Dry
  • Foggy
  • Humid
  • Windy
  • Clear
  • Breezy
  • Rainy

Textures

  • Smooth
  • Rough
  • Soft
  • Furry
  • Bumpy
  • Coarse
  • Dry
  • Fleecy
  • Hairy
  • Mushy

Since there are so many adjectives in the English language, it’s essential to take your time introducing your child to them.

It’s also important to note that simply expanding your child’s vocabulary bank shouldn’t be the focal point. While it can be great to hear your child reciting the many words they’ve learned, a problem may arise when they know the words themselves but don’t understand their meanings.

Instead, as you introduce adjectives to your child, focus on helping them understand the words. An improvement in your child’s vocabulary will be a natural byproduct of that.

It’s Time To Describe!

Adjectives are words that help us describe people, places, or things. Without them, it would be difficult to distinguish between a red and green apple or a stormy and sunny day. This is why we’re passionate about adjectives for kids!

As much as we may use these describing words in our everyday language, it’s not always so simple to help our children understand them. But with the right plan, it’s definitely possible, and the above activities can help you introduce adjectives for kids in a fun and engaging way.

Whether you choose to act things out, be extra descriptive in your everyday language, create a fun word game, or all the above, remember to focus on helping your child understand the meaning behind the words.

Language development is a significant part of early childhood education. Check out the HOMER Learn & Grow app for more information on how to help your child thrive!

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Excellent Adjectives for Kids- A Comprehensive List

Young children start learning about people and their surroundings from an early age, which is why teaching them adjectives is the perfect way to give them a solid foundation from which they can experience the world and build their vocabulary. In addition, by learning how to use descriptive adjectives to describe these experiences, kids start to feel more in control of their own world. The value of adjectives for kids comes from their ability to characterise a noun, giving more detailed and imaginative information about the object of discussion.  

By adding the ability to visualise something more clearly, a reader can learn to convey feelings with more emotion and to describe exactly what you want using precise language. Do you want your child to expand their vocabulary by learning age-appropriate adjectives for kids for just 20 minutes every day? Then you should get the KidSmart app. KidSmart is more than just being one of those writing apps for kids, but a tried and tested educational tool geared towards critical thinking and self-learning through games and interactive activities. 

Here’s a list of common adjectives for kids that you can start teaching based on their reading and interaction levels:

Contents

  • 1 Adjectives for Kids by Grade (US) or Year (UK)
    • 1.1 Grade 1
    • 1.2 Grade 2 – 3
  • 2 Download practice worksheet packs
    • 2.1 Grade 4 – 6
  • 3 Classifying Adjectives: Grammar for Kids
  • 4 How KidSmart Can Help Writing for Kids
  • 5 Download Practice Packs
  • 6 More Reading

Adjectives for Kids by Grade (US) or Year (UK)

Grade

1

The following list of describing words are commonly used.

Colours: blue, green, purple, orange, black, white, pink, red, yellow

Size: big, small, short, tall, fat, thin

Sounds: loud, quiet

Shapes: round, square, oval, triangular

Numbers: one, two, few, many

Touch/Texture: rough, smooth, soft, hard

Weather: sunny, rainy, windy, dark, light, cloudy

Grade

2 – 3

Alphabetising the common adjectives for kids can help them learn the describing words and their respective meanings more quickly and organise their learning process. This will also allow them to find adjectives that start with a specific letter more conveniently and explore other options more easily.

Letters A-C: angry, bumpy, busy, brave,  crispy, cruel, cheerful, chilly

Letters D-H: dangerous, deep, dirty, dry, empty, equal, easy freezing, funny, fat, fluffy, furry, fuzzy, huge

Letters I-N: itchy, icy, juicy, kind, lazy, long, lumpy, left, large, mean, messy, naughty, new, nice

Letters O-R: oily, old, plump, pretty, proud, quick, ready, ripe, right

Letters S-Z: short, simple, slimy, sloppy, slow, spiky, spoiled, sticky, stiff, still, stinky, strong, swollen, thin, tiny, tricky, ugly, weak, wise, wrong, wet

Download practice worksheet packs

Download Adjectives for Grade 3 Kids Pack 1

Grade

4 – 6

Letters A-C: able, adventurous, absurd,  apologetic, aware, alert, amusing, ancient, annoyed, anxious, bitter, brilliant, bashful, beautiful, bulky, capable, cautious, creative, creepy, cruel, curly, challenging, charming, clever, compassionate, cosy, cranky
You can learn many more adjectives for kids that start with a or start with b.

Letters D – H: damp, daring, delicate, delicious, disrespectful, dreadful, dull, ecstatic, endless, enormous, entertaining, exhausted, fantastic, foolish, frightened, furious, fussy, gentle, gigantic, gorgeous, graceful
Take a deep dive into many more adjectives that begin with e.

Letters I – N: innocent, icky, intelligent, infinite, jaded, joyful, jolly, jumpy, kind-hearted, kindly, knowledgeable, likely, lousy, loyal, lucky, marvellous, naive, nervous, nimble
Familiarise yourself with many excellent adjectives for kids that start with j, with m and with n.

Letters O – S: optimistic, oval, petite, pleasant, polite, precise, prickly, salty, shocking, slick, slippery, sour, sparkling, straight, stubborn, stunning
Jump to the list of excellent adjectives for kids that start with r and that start with s.

Letters T – Z: temporary, terrified, timid, tricky, truthful, whimsical, young, yummy

Classifying Adjectives: Grammar for Kids

There are different kinds of descriptive adjectives in the English language, all of which will at some point or the other be a solid stepping stone towards improving grammar for kids as they get older and advance through the school system. After organising the words in alphabetical order, these descriptive adjectives have been further sorted into categories for greater understanding and can be quite useful when preparing for promotional exams, such as the CEM and 11+.  

Proper Adjectives 

These adjectives are derived from proper nouns and are used to describe something in terms of culture, nationality, or religious affiliation. 

Some examples of proper adjectives include: African, Asian, British, French, Japanese, Latino, American, Australian, Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish

Food Adjectives

There are many words that can be used to conjure tasteful images when discussing food choices. With the proper adjective definition for kids, they can understand the difference between a “ tasty, cheesy, homemade, spaghetti with meatballs” and a “regular mass-produced fast food pasta,” Some examples include: 

Sweets: sugary, chocolatey, syrupy, minty, 

Fruits: ripe, sour, juicy, tart, acidic

Dairy: Cheesy, buttery, creamy

Beef: Chewy, peppery, spicy, marinated, lean, dry

Cereal: crunchy, soggy, flakey, nutty

Adjectives for Describing a Person

There are many terms that can be used to describe people in terms of their physical appearance and personality traits. It is important for your child to have these words in their written and spoken vocabulary because as they grow older, they will at some point, face a situation that requires them to describe someone. Some examples include: 

Characteristics and Traits: clever, creative, kind, generous, considerate, flexible, mysterious

Personality traits: calm, humble, arrogant, proud, charismatic, mean

Physical Appearance: straight hair, cropped hair, blonde, brunette, lanky, dwarfish, plump, skinny 

Learn many more adjectives to describe a person.

Happy Adjectives

These words are great for describing jubilant situations, helping children create strong descriptions for a party or celebration scenes like their last birthday or playdate. 

Examples include: beaming, joyous, blissful, joyful, delightful, pleased, cheerful, jovial, jolly, glad, thrilled, elated, gleeful, sunny

Peaceful Adjectives

These words are used to describe a state of serenity. Some examples include: serene, calm, harmonious, peaceful, nonviolent, quiet, undisturbed, still, soothing, tranquil, relaxing, restful

Sporty Adjectives

Many school curricula include a variety of sporting events as part of their physical education activities, so your children have most likely come across these types of adjectives. 

Examples include: accurate, active, agile, athletic, frenetic, skilful, speedy, swift, slick, 

Adjectives to Describe a Place

These descriptive words can serve as a springboard for the new territory that your child visits or reads about. By learning the right adjectives to describe a location, they become even more interested in learning more about the world outside of their immediate surroundings. 

Some examples include: gigantic, grassy, exotic near, far, tidy, spacious, spooky, smelly, lively

How KidSmart Can Help Writing for Kids

Because descriptive adjectives are so common in everyday conversations and learning materials, learning more about them is vital to creating and speaking grammatically correct sentences. KidSmart can help achieve this through its array of gamification strategies and activities that are designed for 

  • Progressive Grammar – The app follows progressive development methodology and introduces new concepts based on the level of understanding specific to your child.
  • Spelling – Since KidSmart is geared towards the UK curriculum, it presents words that are relevant for the child’s year and tests them multiple times to assess their confidence level. It then adjusts the difficulty level automatically based on the responses.
  • Vocabulary Building – As your kids progress, new words are introduced with meaning and usage examples. They also have access to the Oxford Dictionary at any time. 

Download Practice Packs

Download Adjectives for Grade 3 Kids Pack 1

More Reading

Adjectives with S
What’s an adjective?
BBC: What are adjectives for year 2-3?

Synonyms and antonyms «elementary» - analysis and associations to the word elementary.

Morphological analysis and declension of words
  • masculine
  • feminine
  • neuter

  • Translation
  • Associations
  • Anagrams
  • Antonyms
  • Synonyms
  • Hypernyms
  • Morphological analysis
  • Declensions
  • Conjugations

Translation of the word elementary

We offer you a translation of the word elementary into English, German and French.
Implemented using the Yandex.Dictionary service

  • English
  • German
  • French

  • elementary - the simplest, elemental, rudimentary
    • elemental carbon
    • rudimentary knowledge
    • elementary rule - elementary rule
  • simple - simple, primitive
    • elementary logic - simple logic
    • primitive value
  • basic - basic, fundamental
    • basic survival
    • elementary particle - fundamental particle
  • ultimate - ultimate
    • elementary particles - ultimate particles
  • elementar - initial
  • elementarisch
  • grundlegend - basic
    • elementary security - grundlegende Sicherheit
  • einfach - simple
  • primitiv - simple
  • urtumlich
  • élémentaire - the simplest, initial
    • elementary particle - corpuscule élémentaire
    • elementary knowledge - connaissance rudimentaire
  • simple - simple

What or who can be elementary (nouns)?

Degree of comparison:

-

Case:

nominative

Adjective declension elementary

Case Question Single Multip.
Male Medium Female
Nominative (who, what?) elementary elementary elementary elementary
Genitive (who, what?) elementary elementary elementary
Dative (to whom, what?) elementary elementary elementary
Accusative (who, what?) elementary elementary elementary
Creative (by whom, what?) elementary elementary elementary
Prepositional (about whom, about what?) elementary elementary elementary

Degrees of comparison of adjectives

Today we will introduce you to a young family - Ivan and Mary. They received an inheritance from their grandparents, a total of one million dollars. And now they are puzzling over where to buy an apartment - in Miami, on the ocean, or in New York, in Manhattan.

The agony of choice is inevitably accompanied by the need to use degrees of comparison of adjectives, in English, in Russian or any other language.

What are adjectives? These are the words that are used to describe the qualities, properties and states of someone or something:

The apartment is expensive

Expensive is an adjective. If we need to correlate the cost of this apartment with the cost of another apartment, or in general all apartments in a given region, we will need to use degrees of comparison.

In general, there are three degrees of comparison in English: positive, comparative, and superlative. The comparative degree allows you to compare objects with each other, while the superlative degree is used to distinguish one object from all the others in the group (the most expensive house in the city, the worst climate in the country).

A positive degree is, as it were, a zero mark. Within this degree, we do not compare objects or, if we do, they are equal in properties.

Examples of positive adjectives:

This luxurious apartment is in Miami Beach (no comparison in this example)

This apartment is as big as that one (in this example, there is a comparison, but the properties are equal)

Comparative rules for monosyllabic adjectives

Such as hot, cold, smart, sad etc.

Ivan and Mary flip through brochures and discuss the pros and cons of living in New York and Miami:

I:
- The winter is cold in New York
— Winter in New York is cold

M:
- The winter in New York is colder than in the south
— Winter in New York is colder than in the south

I:
- The warmest winter is in Miami
The warmest winter in Miami

Let's find adjectives in their dialogue. Found? That's right, cold and warm . Note that they are short, they only have one syllable.

Look at the Russian translation. You see, it was “cold”, it became “colder”. What changed? The ending has changed. In English, the ending also changes, to cold adds er to get colder - colder. In superlative degree, the word “most” was added in Russian, and the word “cold” remained unchanged. In English, the ending is added again, this time est , and it turns out "coldest" - coldest .

Formation of degrees of comparison of adjectives in English:

Superlatives in English except graduation est is also different in that the adjective is preceded by the definite article the :

- The warm est winter is in Miami
– The warmest winter is in Miami

  • If the positive adjective ends in -e , only r and st are added in the comparative and superlative degrees. For example, for the word "large" the comparative and superlative degrees are larger and largest, for nice - nicer and nicest.

    I:
    - People are nice in New York
    — People in New York are nice
    M:
    — But in Miami they are nicer
    M:
    - The nicest people live in Miami
    - The nicest people live in Miami

  • When the last letters of the adjective are one vowel and one consonant, as, for example, in the word hot, the last consonant is doubled: hot - hotter - hottest

    M:
    - The summer in Miami is hotter
    - Summer in Miami is hotter

    - The hottest summer is in Miami
    – The hottest summer is in Miami

But English is English for that - the comparative and superlative degree of some monosyllabic adjectives is formed “incorrectly”. Here are the exception words:

* Elder is placed only before a noun and is used only in describing the age of people, especially in family relationships. If someone in the family is "elder", then he was born before everyone else:

He is my elder brother (He is my older brother)

Older is more universal, it can be used both to describe the age of people and to describe objects and phenomena.

My brother is older than me New York is older than Miami

Rules for two-syllable adjectives

such as easy, happy, lazy, clever, quiet etc.

  • If the positive adjective ends in -y and y is preceded by a consonant, then y changes to i . For example, for the word easy, the comparative and superlative degrees, respectively, are easier (easier) and easiest (the easiest), and in the word happy - happier and happiest .

    I:
    - If you live in Manhattan, you're happy
    — If you live in Manhattan, you are happy

    M:
    - If you live by the ocean, you're happier
    — If you live near the ocean, you are happier

    M:
    - The happy people live by the ocean
    - The happiest people live near the ocean

  • If the final y is preceded by a vowel, then y remains:

    M:
    — The sky is gr e y in New York
    — The sky in New York is gray

    M:
    - It's gr ey er than in Miami
    — It's more gray than in Miami

    I:
    - Thy sky in New York is grey, but not the gr ey est
    - The sky in New York is gray, but not the most gray

Some other disyllabic adjectives, especially those ending in an unstressed syllable, also form comparatives with -er and -est :

Clever - cleverer - cleverest
Quiet-quieter-quietest

I:
- Oh! This room is narrower than the other room
- ABOUT! This room is narrower than the other

M:
- Yeah, but it's the quietest one
— Yes, but she is the quietest

You may have noticed that when contrasting, " than 9" is often used. 0289" (than). This word is needed if the sentence mentions a second person or thing with which / to which the first person or thing is compared. If instead of naming a person, a pronoun is used, then it will be object: me, you, him, her, us, them:

M:
- The Simpsons have an apartment with an ocean view. They are richer than us .
The Simpsons have an apartment with an ocean view. They are richer than we are .

In more formal situations, instead of "than + object pronoun", you can use this:
Than + personal pronoun + verb:

I:
— The Simpsons were always richer than we were
— The Simpsons have always been richer than us

Comparative rules for long adjectives

Most two-syllable adjectives and absolutely all longer adjectives form a comparative with the word more , and superior with most :

Romantic - more romantic - the most romantic
Romantic - over romantic - most romantic

Mary, being a romantic person, dreams of living near the ocean.

M:
- Living by the ocean is romantic ...
— Living by the ocean is romantic ...

M:
- It's more romantic than living in New York
— It is more romantic than living in New York

M:
- The most romantic thing is to wake up and see the ocean.
The most romantic thing is waking up and seeing the ocean

I:
- But the apartment with an ocean view is more expensive !
— But ocean view apartment is more expensive than !

I:
- It's the most expensive !
— She is the most expensive !

More and most are analogues of the Russian words “more” and “most”, they are placed before adjectives. When it comes to comparing down, then is used instead of more/most :

Ivan is less romantic than Mary

M:
— This apartment is less than comfortable and is the least beautiful

There are two ways to say it in Russian: greener/more green, more expensive/more expensive.


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