An adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that describes a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, although historically they were classed together with nouns. Nowadays, certain words that usually had been classified as adjectives, including the, this, my, etc., typically are classed separately, as determiners. Here are some examples: That's a funny idea. (attributive) That idea is funny. (predicative) The good, the bad, and the funny. (substantive) Etymology Adjective comes from Latin , a calque of (whence also English epithet). In the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns (a process called declension), they were considered a type of noun. The words that are today typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns (). The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English but are now obsolete. Types of use Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a prepositive basis or it can follow a corresponding noun on a postpositive basis. Structural, contextual, and style considerations can impinge on the pre-or post-position of an adjective in a given instance of its occurrence. In English, occurrences of adjectives generally can be classified into one of three categories: Prepositive adjectives, which are also known as "attributive adjectives", occur on an antecedent basis within a noun phrase. For example: "I put my happy kids into the car", wherein happy occurs on an antecedent basis within the my happy kids noun phrase, and therefore functions in a prepositive adjective. Postpositive adjectives can occur: (a) immediately subsequent to a noun within a noun phrase, e.g. "The only room available cost twice what we expected"; (b) as linked via a copula or other linking mechanism subsequent to a corresponding noun or pronoun; for example: "My kids are happy", wherein happy is a predicate adjective (see also: Predicative expression, Subject complement); or (c) as an appositive adjective within a noun phrase, e.g. "My kids, [who are] happy to go for a drive, are in the back seat." Nominalized adjectives, which function as nouns. One way this happens is by eliding a noun from an adjective-noun noun phrase, whose remnant thus is a nominalization. In the sentence, "I read two books to them; he preferred the