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3rd Grade Identifying Adjectives Worksheets

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun: what kind, how many, or which one. By 3rd grade, students find adjectives anywhere in the sentence, including after verbs like is and seems ("The soup is hot"), and they start telling adjectives apart from adverbs, which describe actions instead.

Free printable PDF, aligned to Common Core L.1.1.f. One skill per page, answer key on page two.

Every sheet is one of a kind and prints with a version code, so you can reprint the exact same one later. New version every click.

A sample 3rd grade sheet. Yours will have different sentences. Click it to print your own.

The kind of sentences you'll get

Underline every adjective in each sentence.

  1. Mom has painted the old bench.

    Answer: old

  2. We sampled salty pretzels at a tiny bakery in Berlin.
  3. His brother shared the crunchy pretzels with him.

Every print draws a fresh mix of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different sheet.

What's on each sheet

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Keep the noun-pairing habit from earlier grades, then stretch it: give sentences where the adjective follows a linking verb ("The hallway was quiet") so students stop expecting every adjective to sit in front of its noun. When a student marks an -ly word, have them check what it describes. If it describes an action, it's an adverb, not an adjective.

Watch for: Adjectives usually come before the noun, but not always: in 'The soup is hot', hot still describes the soup. A, an, and the are their own small group (articles). We don't count them as describing words on these sheets.

Common questions about identifying adjectives

What's the difference between an adjective and an adverb?
Adjectives describe nouns: a careful driver. Adverbs describe verbs: she drives carefully. Have your student find the word being described. A thing means adjective; an action means adverb. This pair of sentences is worth writing on the board.
Can an adjective come after the noun?
Yes. In "The soup is hot," the adjective hot comes after the linking verb but still describes the soup. Third grade is the right time to practice this pattern, because it breaks the habit of only checking the word directly in front of the noun.

Related worksheets

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Aligned to Common Core L.1.1.f. Reviewed by the One More Sheet curriculum team. Content version 68, updated July 2026.