Adjectives in Chinese (形容词 Xíngróngcí) are somewhat different from those in English in that they can be used as verbs (for example 天黑了 "The sky has darkened") and thus linguists sometimes prefer to use the terms static or stative verb to describe them. In most dictionaries 形容词 (often abbreviated 形) is used to identify this part of speech.

Before nouns

When describing a noun with an adjective composed of multiple characters, 的 is used between the adjective and noun (for example 高兴的孩子 "happy child"). It is not used with single-character adjectives (新车 "new car"). Some examples:

• 黑天 - "dark sky"
• 坏人 - "bad person"
• 奇怪的人 - "strange person"
• 可爱的熊猫 - "cute panda"

After nouns

First pattern

When describing a subject with most adjectives in Chinese the verb "to be" is not required - in fact its use is gramatically incorrect (她漂亮 not 她是漂亮). These adjectives follow the simple pattern Noun + Adjective. In most cases an extra word (such as 很, 好, 真, 非常) can be inserted between the noun and adjective to specify the adjective's intensity. For some speakers this is gramatically necessary. For example, the following express increasing intensities of the statement "she is beautiful":

• 她漂亮
• 她很漂亮
• 她好漂亮
• 她真漂亮
• 她非常漂亮

Another pattern exists which expresses an intensity stronger than any of the above: Noun + Adjective + 极了.

• 她漂亮极了

Second pattern

Most adjectives fit the above pattern, but some do not. They are often things that describe mutually exclusive states of being, such as gender or color. These adjectives follow the pattern Noun + 是 + Adj + 的. For example:

• 他是男的 - "He is male"
• 那辆车是新的 - "That car is new"
• 那只猫是黑的 - "That cat is black"