ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word that describes people, objects, events, substances and ideas.

ADJECTIVES

 

Do you want to add colour to your speech or writing? Try using appropriate, vivid adjectives to express your thoughts and feelings. Adjectives describe nouns by telling us more about them, e.g. their size, colour or shape.

 

Using adjectives to describe the things, people or ideas we are talking about helps our readers and listeners form a more vivid picture of them.

 

E.g.

 

•      Please bring that beautiful leather bag to me. (expresses a positive opinion)

 

•      She was a timid, nondescript girl when she was at school. (expresses a negative opinion)

 

Formation of Adjectives

 

Many adjectives do not have prefixes or suffixes.

 

E.g.

 

•      good, tall, fat, wide, simple, gaunt.

 

However, adjectives may be formed by adding prefixes (before a word) or suffixes (after a word).

 

E.g.

 

•      illegal, insensitive, rusty, childish, merciless, enjoyable.

 

Usually adjectives are formed by adding suffixes to nouns.

 

E.g.

 

•      baggy, hairy, hairless, burdensome, quarrelsome, beautiful.

 

Sometimes, adjectives may be formed by adding suffixes to verbs.

 

E.g.

 

•      attractive, washable, expectant, complimentary, boring, disappointed.

 

When a negative prefix such as un, il, dis, in, im or ir is added to an adjective, it creates an opposite or negative meaning.

 

E.g.

 

•      unnatural, illogical, dishonest, infamous, immoral, irreverent.

 

 

 Positions of Adjectives in Sentences

Adjectives may be found in three positions in a sentence:

 

Before a noun:

 

E.g.

 

•      exciting lesson, empty room.

 

As a complement, after a linking verb:

 

E.g.

 

•      The shop is open.

 

•      John is sick.

 

After a noun or an indefinite pronoun:

 

E.g.

 

•      I wrote to the person concerned.

 

•      Is there anyone important at the meeting?

 

 How do you use Adjectives?

You can use adjectives in the ways suggested below.

 

Use two or more adjectives to describe a noun in greater detail.

 

E.g.

 

•       small grey cat,

 

•       desperate, brazen thief

 

Show comparison and contrast using parallel phrases such as ‘not only … but also’, ‘as … as’.

 

E.g.

 

•      Beatrice is not only intelligent, but also hardworking.

•      Tom is as strong as his father.

 

Use adjectives to express opinions:

 

E.g.

 

•      What a boring play! The director was unimaginative.

 

Adjectives describe many different things, such as size, shape, colour, quality, origin or nationality, material, and the speaker’s or writer’s opinion.

It is common to find two or more adjectives before a noun. However, they cannot be strung together randomly; rather, they follow a fairly strict order, from top to bottom:

 

Observation/Opinion	:	lovely, boring,
		beautiful, fascinating
Size	:	petite, gigantic, high, long
Shape	:	round, square, oval, circular
Age	:	old, new, young
Colour	:	red, blue, green, yellow
Nationality/Origin	:	Chinese, American,
		British, Christian
Material	:	gold, silver, silk, linen

 

E.g.

 

•      small old wooden box

 

•      beautiful colourful Turkish rug

Some pointers when using Adjectives

Your opinion usually precedes any other adjective.

 

E.g.

 

Those horrible yellow chairs; a foolish young boy.

 

It is common to use two adjectives, but it is unusual to use three or more adjectives.

 

Use commas to separate adjectives from the same category, e.g. opinion.

 

•      A handsome, charming man.

 

You do not have to use commas if the adjectives are from different categories, e.g. opinion and nationality.

 

•      A wealthy Japanese businessman.

 

Comparison of Adjectives

 

Adjectives are useful when you want to compare things. Adjectives have three degrees: positive, comparative, superlative.

 

The positive merely describes a noun, e.g. a tall child.

 

The comparative compares one person, animal or object with another.

 

E.g.

 

•      She is taller than her mother.

 

The superlative compares a person, animal or object with more than one other.

 

E.g.

 

•      She is the tallest in her class.

How do you use adjectives to show comparison?

 

Words containing one or two syllables take the suffix -er in the comparative form and -est in the superlative.

 

Many adjectives containing two syllables and all adjectives containing three or more syllables have the word more or most before the adjective to convey the comparative and superlative respectively.

 

E.g.

 

•      more intelligent, most comfortable.

 

Here are some examples:

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
fast	faster	fastest
small	smaller	smallest
careful	more careful	most careful
generous	more generous	most generous

 

Here are some examples where the comparative and superlative do not have the -er or -est suffix:

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bad	worse	worst
good	better	best
many	more	most
much	more	most

Now test yourself!

 

How well do you know your adjectives?

 

 

Test 1

 

Correct the following sentences by changing the order of the adjectives. Explain why the order is incorrect.

 

1.   I want to buy that ruby oval ring.

 

2.   Chartres is a French beautiful city near Paris.

 

3.   I’m going to feed the small pitiful cat.

 

4.   They have a new blue charming letter box.

 

5.   John wore a silk blue tie to the wedding.

Test 2

 

Fill in the table with the correct comparative and superlative adjectives.

 

Positive Comparative  Superlative

 

active

 

old

 

simple

 

far

 

little

 

 

ANSWERS

 

Test 1

 

The sentences are incorrect as they do not follow

 

the accepted order of adjectives. Here are the sentences, with the correct versions:

 

1.   Incorrect: I want to buy that ruby oval ring. (material, shape)

 

Correct: I want to buy that oval ruby (shape, material) ring.

 

2.   Incorrect: Chartres is a French beautiful city near Paris. (nationality, opinion)

 

Correct: Chartres is a beautiful French (opinion, nationality) city near Paris.

 

3.   Incorrect: I’m going to feed the small pitiful cat. (size, opinion)

 

Correct: I’m going to feed the pitiful small (opinion, size) cat.

4.   Incorrect: They have a new blue charming letter box. (age, colour, opinion)

 

Correct: They have a charming new blue (opinion, age, colour) letter box.

 

5.   Incorrect: John wore a silk blue tie to the wedding. (material, colour)

 

Correct: John wore a blue silk (colour, material) tie to the wedding.

 

 

Test 2

 

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
active	more active	most active
old	older	oldest
simple	simpler	simplest
far	farther, further	farthest, furthest
little	less	least