Adjective and Noun: Know the Key Differences & Examples

Adjective vs Noun: Nouns and adjectives are considered to be essential parts of speech. As you have studied, the basic definition of nouns stands for people, places or things. whereas, adjectives are more of describing words which are placed in front of nouns. As can be made out, both these are very different and have their usage. Read this blog to understand about adjectives and nouns in detail. 

Must Read: All You Need to Know About Nouns

What are Adjectives and Nouns?

Adjectives are words that are used to describe the qualities of a noun. They are also involved in describing the quantity of nouns. Some common examples of adjectives include enormous, silly, many, eleven, fun, fast etc. Adjectives are of many types, including quality, quantity, number, demonstrative adjectives, and interrogative adjectives. 

While nouns are words which are used to identify any class of people, things or places. 

If you are not aware, a noun is a naming word. They are the names of the things that are placed around us. If you didn’t know, nouns also act as objects and subjects in a sentence.

What is the Difference Between Adjectives and Nouns?

Now that you are familiar with adjectives and nouns, here is a quick difference between the two: 

Noun	Adjective
It represents a place, thing, person or idea.	Adjectives are used to modify or describe a pronoun or a noun.
They are used as subjects, possessive nouns or objects in a sentence.	They are used before or after a noun it changes.
They are used to name or identify something.	They are used to provide details about something.
Examples: House, dog, happiness, love, London, Chicago etc.	Examples: Big, blue, soft, young, beautiful, intelligent etc.
It can be a singular or plural noun.	Adjectives are used to indicate a degree of something.
Nouns can be common or proper nouns.	They are used to indicate origin or nationality.
They are used to form compound nouns.	They are used to form comparative and superlative degrees.
Nouns are used with articles (a, an, the etc)	Adjectives provide information about a noun’s quality.

Exceptions (if Any) – Adjectives and Nouns

Adjectives

Basic Adjective	Comparative Adjective	Superlative Adjective
Bad	Worse	The worst
Many	More	The Most
Little	Less	The least

There are no exceptions in nouns. 

Check Related Posts

99+ Examples of Collective Nouns	What are Article Adjectives?
99+ Examples of Material Nouns	What is Numerical Adjective and its Types
8 Types of Nouns You Must Know	What are Participial Adjectives?

FAQs

Are nouns and adjectives used in all languages?

Nouns and adjectives are found in many languages, however, each language has its own unique word and how it should be used. 

What distinguishes an adjective in a sentence?

In a sentence, adjectives are describing words which are commonly used before a noun. To identify adjectives in a question sentence, you can look for words like ‘What kind’, ‘How many’ and there are several others. 

Can a single word serve as both an adjective and a noun?

It depends on how both an adjective and a noun is used in a sentence. However, they can be used as both. For Example, the word ‘bank’ can act as both an adjective and a noun. 

This was all about adjectives vs. nouns. Hope you understand the concept and know how to proceed. You can also follow Leverage Edu for more exciting and informative blogs.