Forming adjectives

Typical adjective endings

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:

1. -able/-ible understandable, capable, readable, incredible

2. -al mathematical, functional, influential, chemical
3. -ful beautiful, bashful, helpful, harmful
4. -ic artistic, manic, rustic, terrific
5. -ive submissive, intuitive, inventive, attractive
6. -less sleeveless, hopeless, groundless, restless
7. -ous gorgeous, dangerous, adventurous, fabulous

Comparing adjectives
Forming comparative adjectives
As well as serving as modifying words like beautiful and big, adjectives are also used
for indicating the position on a scale of comparison. The lowest point on the scale is
known as the absolute form, the middle point is known as the comparative form, and
the highest point is known as the superlative form. Here are some examples:

Compound adjectives
What are compound adjectives?
A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives are joined together to
modify the same noun. These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or
ambiguity. For example:

1. Diana submitted a 6-page document.

2. She adopted a two-year-old cat.

Order of adjectives
How to order adjectives in English
In many languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order.
Generally, the adjective order in English is:

1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
 4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
8. Purpose or qualifier

Examples of adjectives
Typical adjective endings
1. They live in a beautiful house.
2. Lisa is wearing a sleeveless shirt today. This soup is not edible.
3. She wore a beautiful dress.
4. He writes meaningless letters.
5. This shop is much nicer.
6. She wore a beautiful dress.
7. Ben is an adorable baby.
8. Linda’s hair is gorgeous.
9. This glass is breakable.
10. I met a homeless person in NY.

Adjective exercises
much vs many
Decide whether you have to use much or many:

1. We saw _____ animals at the zoo.

2. How _____ oranges did you put in the box?
3. There isn’t _____ sugar in my coffee.
4. I don’t have ______ friends.
5. The old man hasn’t got _____ hair on his head.
6. I’ve packed _____ bottles of water.
7. I didn’t get _____ sleep last night.
8. How _____ fruit do you eat in an average day?
9.

Answers:

1. many
2. many
3. much
4. many
5. much
6. many
7. much
8. much
 9. Como norma general, seguimos el siguiente orden cuando utilizamos varios
adjetivos:

Ejemplos
Orden Tipo de adjetivo
delicious, wonderful, pretty…
1 opinión/valor
short, big, small, tall…
2 tamaño/longitud
new, old, young, hot, cold…
3 edad/temperatura
forma y round, thin, square…
4
superficie
red, black, blue, green…
5 color
Spanish, American, French…
6 origen
silver, cotton, paper, iron…
7 material
electric, political…
8 uso
bath (towel)
9 nombre
Escribe los adjetivos en el orden correcto.

Spanish/beautiful/a/woman/young

Q1 of 10
glass/a/round/small/table

Q2 of 10
French/city/a/old/wonderful
Q3 of 10
a/blue/cotton/bath/towel/large
Q4 of 10
fat/brown/cats/two
Q5 of 10
red/new/a/car/fast
Q6 of 10
day/a/cold/winter/long
Q7 of 10
small/three/books/black
Q8 of 10
big/red/a/apple/delicious
Q9 of 10
man/an/Canadian/old/intelligent
Q10 of 10
wooden/a/chair/old/big

Resultados

a small round glass table

a wonderful old French city
a large blue cotton bath towel
two fat brown cats
a fast new red car
a long cold winter day
three small black books
a delicious big red apple
an intelligent old Canadian man
a big old wooden chair