Adjectives have enormous power for kids. Whether it’s a two-year-old learning what “small” means, a four-year-old sorting the world into things that are “interesting” or not, or a five-year-old discovering what it means to be “clever,” using adjectives opens a kid’s world wide.
They gain more independence when they can tell you, “I want to wear the green shirt, not the blue one.” And their narrative skills improve when they can describe the dragon in their story as scary, green, and slimy!
Learning adjectives is also a key part of mastering language, an essential content skill at the heart of the Begin Approach to helping kids thrive at home and in school. Curious how you as a parent can help?
We’ve created lists of common adjectives for kids, plus lists for colors, emotions, textures, and more to help teach kids a variety of describing words. Here, we also cover what adjectives are, why they’re important for language development, and how to teach adjectives to kids.
The Short Cut
- Adjectives are words that describe people, places, or things—they make sentences more meaningful and express different qualities of an object or person
- Learning adjectives helps kids develop language and literacy, content skills essential to their success in school and life
- Most kids begin using adjectives when they’re toddlers and continue to learn them throughout their lives
- Adjectives can be a lot of fun—they’re a great way to play with language, and adjective-specific word games help kids get comfortable with them
Table of Contents
- What Are Adjectives
- When Should Kids Learn About Adjectives?
- Lists of Adjectives for Kids
- 10 Fun Adjective Games to Play with Kids
- Learning (Amazing!) Adjectives with Begin
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Adjectives?
Adjectives add important flavor to our sentences. They help make sentences more meaningful and express the different qualities of a person, place, or thing. Without them, our speech would be less specific, bland, and boring.
Children need to build a strong foundation of descriptive language, including adjectives, to communicate effectively. Adjectives are details, and details are essential for kids to understand what they read and hear as well as to adequately express what they want to say.
Adjectives build kids’ narrative skills, teach them how to differentiate one thing from another, and increase their vocabulary, all of which predict achievement as they get older.
What does this mean? Kids do better in school, and even do better later in life, like at their jobs and in their communities, when they lock in language early.
How Kids Use Adjectives
A child’s growing use of adjectives goes hand in hand with their growing sense of self. Once kids understand they have opinions, and once they have language to articulate them, their use of adjectives ramps up. They begin to choose words to describe themselves, as in, “I’m fast,” or “I’m funny,” or “I’m smart.”
They also use adjectives to describe other people, animals, objects, activities, likes, dislikes, and thoughts. In addition, they use them to express sensory details—what something feels like, tastes like, sounds like, or smells like, as in, “This ice cream is yummy,” or “That siren is loud,” or “Those socks are stinky!”
As they learn more adjectives, kids begin to create vivid images of what they are describing and give distinctions and comparisons. This is beneficial for building vocabulary and helping them clearly express their thoughts and feelings.
When Should Kids Learn About Adjectives?
At two to three years old, kids are beginning to learn vocabulary at a rapid pace. They can understand more words than they can speak, including adjectives. So, while they may not be able to say “I want the red apple,” they can choose between the red and green one if asked.
They can often string words together at this point in their development, and as a result, they begin to combine adjectives with nouns. They can also follow simple directions and answer questions. Adjectives bring clarity to both of those types of interactions.
The adjectives kids use change over the stages of their language development, becoming more complex and nuanced as their brains grow. Here’s a closer look at what you can expect during early childhood.
2- to 3-Year-Old Adjectives
When kids reach the toddler stage, their language skills start blooming. Children at this stage understand simple adjectives, like:
- small
- big
- messy
- soft
- sticky
- tiny
4- to 6-Year-Old Adjectives
When kids enter preschool and kindergarten, they will continue developing their vocabulary as they interact with peers and 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 words, like:
- scratchy
- gentle
- polite
- shocking
- terrified
- clever
- damp
- impossible
- interesting
Lists of Adjectives for Kids
Of course, there are no hard and fast rules about what adjectives your child will pick up and when they’ll start using them. And there’s no wrong or right time for you to work on expanding their adjective repertoire.
Some common and distinct categories of adjectives your child may be picking up on include:
Color Adjectives
- bright
- beaming
- bold
- dark
- radiant
- colorful
- glistening
- glowing
- radiant
- vibrant
Number Adjectives
- one
- all
- many
- every
- first
- second
- third
- double
- few
- each
Shape Adjectives
- curvy
- straight
- circular
- round
- triangular
- flat
- hollow
- deep
- square
- narrow
Size Adjectives
- big
- average
- buff
- tall
- short
- petite
- skinny
- slim
- fit
- broad
Emotion Adjectives
- happy
- sad
- exciting
- grumpy
- worried
- scary
- angry
- furious
- upset
- disappointed
- content
- joyful
- frustrated
- exhausted
- cranky
- jolly
Weather Adjectives
- sunny
- cloudy
- wet
- dry
- foggy
- humid
- windy
- clear
- breezy
- rainy
Texture Adjectives
- smooth
- rough
- soft
- furry
- fuzzy
- bumpy
- coarse
- dry
- fluffy
- sticky
- slippery
- hairy
- mushy
10 Fun Adjective Games to Play with Kids
Since adjectives form a part of our everyday vocabulary, as your child starts speaking, they’ll naturally pick up on them and start using them in their own speech. But there are also many fun things you as a parent can do to help them learn more.
The more you practice language skills with your child when they’re young, the better prepared they are for school and the more likely they are to embrace learning. Chatting with your child is one way to lay that foundation. Reading books together is another. It makes a difference.
But simply expanding your child’s vocabulary bank shouldn’t be your goal. While it can be exciting to hear your child using the words they’ve learned, you’ll help them more if you focus on nurturing a love of language and modeling that learning new words is fun and not a chore.
Take your time introducing your kids to new adjectives. A fun way to start is to come up with an adjective that everyone in the family tries to use as many times as they can throughout the day.
Games and activities are a great way to tap into kids’ natural love of play and help them learn. Here are a few you can try at home.
1) Play Adjective Charades
This is a fun activity that gets the whole family involved. 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. And for children who haven’t yet learned how to read, you’ll need to read the words for them.
Acting out adjectives is one of the best ways to help your child understand and remember the meaning of the words—and get silly while making fun memories!
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 things you can describe with an adjective. For example, your list could include a person, a tree, a beach, a couch, cookies, and music. Assign each thing a number from one to six.
Once you have your categories, have everyone take turns rolling a six-sided die. The number of each roll will match a category, and the player who rolled will need to come up with an adjective to describe that person, place, or thing.
For instance, if a kid rolls a four and your fourth category is “couch,” they’ll need to come up with a word to describe a couch (comfy, big, soft, etc.).
As their vocabulary grows, you can make the game aim higher—up to six adjectives for each roll.
To make the game more interesting for older kids, give them 30 seconds to come up with the adjectives. Each word earns them one point, and whoever gets the most points wins the game.
3) Have Fun with Adjectives in Your Speech
Since they’re part of our everyday vocabulary, you can practice adjectives for kids without stopping your day to play a specific game. Just find moments to 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, “Let’s cuddle under this blanket,” you can say, “Let’s cuddle under this soft, cozy, fluffy blanket.”
This simple activity can help your child significantly improve their vocabulary.
4) Play the Adjective Switch Game
Another fun way to help kids 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. Then ask your child to 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, try going really fast from one adjective to the other as your child tries to keep up — or flip the script and have them call out things for you to act out!
5) Try Mystery Adjectives
Make a game out of guessing objects using sensory adjectives to guess what they are. Without letting your child see what you’re doing, place four or five objects into a bag. Then ask them to put their hand in the bag, pick one object, and, based only on touch, describe it.
You might have a toy truck in the bag, for example, and your child might say, “It’s mostly hard. It’s got squishy round parts. It’s cold. It’s small.” After they explore it, see if they can name the object.
6) Take a Sensory Tour
Another fun and simple way to introduce your child to adjectives is to take them on a sensory house tour. While learning adjectives in general is important, learning the ones that describe things that are a part of your child’s everyday life will have more meaning for them.
Think about focusing on one room in your house. For instance, the kitchen. Go through your drawers, cabinets, refrigerator, and so on. Describe the items you find and ask your child to touch them. “Here’s a smooth bowl. Here’s a carton of cold milk. See how they both feel?”
7) Go on a Scavenger Hunt—Adjective Style
Help your child learn how to categorize items by creating a descriptive scavenger hunt. Make a small list of items focused on adjectives, like “things that are soft,” “things that are blue,” and “things that smell sweet.”
If your child can read, hand them the list on a piece of paper. If they can’t read quite yet, give them their directions one at a time: “Go find something soft,” etc. Once they bring you back an item, you can give them their next direction.
One of the fun things about this game is that multiple items will fit your description. Suggest to your child that they bring you as many items that fit the description as they can. Then, see if they can come up with more adjectives to distinguish similar items from each other.
8) Play I Spy
A kind of reverse scavenger hunt, I Spy is a great game to help your child practice using adjectives in appropriate contexts.
Choose a setting for your game. It can be the playground, your backyard, a room in your house, your car on a trip, or any other location where there will be plenty of objects to choose from. Then ask your child to pick one and describe it to you.
For example, your child might pick a slide at the park and then say, “I spy with my little eye something hard, red, and twisty,” and then you try to figure out the object.
You can also play a variation where your child gives you one adjective — in this case, maybe “hard,”—and then you try to guess. They can add adjectives until you successfully guess the object.
9) Ask, “Who Am I?”
This is a great game to get your child thinking creatively and recalling details.
Ask your child to close their eyes and picture an animal. Give them a few minutes to really picture it. You can even lead them in a kind of meditation as they recall the details of their animal: “Think about the animal’s color. Think about their size and where they live.”
Then ask your child to open their eyes and describe the animal to you, using only adjectives. Encourage them to speak to you as if they were the animal! Let’s say they’re imagining a polar bear. They would say, “I’m white. I’m big. I live where it’s cold. Who am I?”
You can also play this as an adjective-focused version of 20 Questions, where you choose an animal and ask your child to ask questions using adjectives: “Are you white? Are you big? Do you live where it’s cold?”
10) Read Adjective-Rich Picture Books
Reading aloud is beneficial for your child’s language, cognitive, and emotional development—and it’s a lesson in adjectives!
Try reading a picture book together and asking your child to stop you every time you come to an adjective. For some silly fun, read the book to your child using the wrong adjectives. See if your child can use the illustrations as visual cues to correct you when you’re wrong.
Learning (Amazing!) Adjectives with Begin
Without adjectives, it would be difficult to describe the difference between a red and green apple or a stormy and sunny day. Learning adjectives helps kids master language, brightening their worlds and helping them succeed in school and everyday life.
At Begin, we make award-winning learning products that give every kid their best start to achieving their fullest potential—and we don’t skimp on the adjectives! Our HOMER app includes engaging stories full of enriching vocabulary that helps kids learn to read. Just 15 minutes a day has been proven to improve early reading scores by 74%!
So as you’re helping your kids discover the wonders of language, remember that we’re here to help, whether it’s with more parent resources like this one or learning products that make a real difference in your child’s learning journey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you order adjectives?
The task of ordering adjectives before a noun has rules. While they’re not hard and fast, they are important for readability. In fact, learning how to order adjectives usually comes from listening and trial and error as opposed to lesson plans.
So what is the typical order of adjectives?
- quantity
- opinion
- size
- age
- shape
- color
- origin
- material
- purpose
Here’s an example: “Four small brown dogs played at the park.” Or here’s another: “A slimy giant hot dog-shaped worm crawled onto my foot.” (Yuck!)
When do you need commas between adjectives?
Coordinate adjectives carry equal weight. They’re independent of each other and need to be separated by a comma. Cumulative adjectives, on the other hand, add up. The first builds on the second, and the second builds on the third, and so on.
An example of coordinate adjectives is “The long, windy road stretched for miles.” (A trick to deciding if adjectives are coordinates? You can put “and” between them.)
An example of cumulative adjectives is “Three dirty dogs shook on my white rug.” (A trick to deciding if adjectives are cumulative? If you reverse them, does the sentence still make sense? “Dirty three dogs shook on my white rug.” No!)
How do you turn adjectives into adverbs?
What is the difference between adjectives and adverbs? Adjectives describe nouns (“The speakers blasted loud music.”) and adverbs describe verbs (“The lion ate his meal loudly.”) So, asking the question “Does this word describe a noun or a verb” helps you distinguish them from one another.
You can often change an adjective into an adverb by simply adding an “ly” to the word: “quiet” (adjective) becomes “quietly” (adverb.) This is not always the case (the word “fast,” for example, can be both an adjective and an adverb).
