ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs.
Examples of adjectives are: big, small, blue, old, rich and nice. They give us more
information about people, animals or things represented by nouns and pronouns:
That’s a big house.
Look at the grey horse.
Some dogs have long tails.
She is tall.

Meanings of adjectives
Adjectives give us more information. They modify or describe features and qualities of
people, animals and things.
Here are some of the common meanings.

examples meaning

I am  fond of ice cream.

Cairo is different from Alexandria.
Relations between people and things. These adjectives
His car is  similar to mine. usually require a word or phrase (complement) to
Other examples: complete their meaning.

keen (on), near (to), aware (of)

He’s  generous.
She’s a kind woman.
The waiter was very polite. Descriptions of people and things in terms of their
Other examples: actions.

talkative, cruel, cooperative,

helpful, useful

That’s an old house.
The Olympic stadium is big.
Features that will last a long time or will not change
Other examples:
(permanent).
tall, old, good, rough, true, ugly,
red, heavy
examples meaning

Anyone hungry? Lunch is nearly

ready.
It’s so  cold in Nick’s house.
States and conditions that can change.
Other examples:
absent, ill, dry, full, lonely, wet,
hot, thirsty, angry

I saw a great French film last

night.
I don’t like modern paintings.
I live in a  detached house. Classifying people and things into types.
Other examples:
organic (vegetables), impressionist
(painter), wild (salmon)

Oppositeness
Most common adjectives are members of a pair of opposites (antonyms):

beautiful – dead – rough –

happy – sad
ugly alive smooth

heavy –
big – small dry – wet tall – short
light

cold – hot good – bad

Gradable and ungradable

Many pairs of opposites are gradable, i.e. they have different degrees of the same
feature:
Small:
This suitcase is extremely small.
This suitcase is very small.
This suitcase is quite small.
Hot:
It was reasonably hot in Italy this summer.
It was quite hot in Italy this summer.
It was pretty hot in Italy this summer.
It was very hot in Italy this summer.
It was extremely hot in Italy this summer.
One type of adjective is not gradable. These are the adjectives that we use to classify
people and things into types:
Warning:
These vegetables are organic.
Not: These vegetables are very organic.
I like salmon especially when it is wild.
Not: I like salmon especially when it is quite wild.

Adjectives: forms

Unlike in many other languages, adjectives in English do not change (agree) with the
noun that they modify:
All new foreign students are welcome to join the clubs and societies.
Not: All new foreigns students …
Every room was painted in different colours.
Not: … in differents colours.

Identifying adjectives
There is no general rule for making adjectives. We know they are adjectives usually by
what they do (their function) in a sentence. However, some word endings (suffixes) are
typical of adjectives.

suffix examples

-able, -ible comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible

suffix examples

-al, -ial comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential

-ful beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful

-ic classic, economic, heroic, romantic

-ical aeronautical, alphabetical, political

-ish British, childish, Irish, foolish

-ive, -ative active, alternative, creative, talkative

-less endless, motionless, priceless, timeless

-eous, -ious, - spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous,

ous famous

-y angry, busy, wealthy, windy

Warning:
Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:
The economic policy of this government has failed.
A diesel car is usually more economical than a petrol one.

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.
noun adjective

hero heroic

wind windy

child childish

beaut beautifu
y l

verb adjective

read readable

talk talkative

use useful

like likeable

I hate windy days.
San Francisco is a very hilly place.
Some words ending in -ly can be both adjectives and adverbs. These
include daily, early, monthly, weekly, nightly, yearly:
Adjective: She gets a weekly payment from her parents. (She gets money every week.)
Adverb: I pay my rent weekly. (I pay my rent every week.)
Some words ending in -ly are only adjectives and not adverbs. These
include: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lonely, lovely, oily, orderly, scholarly, sil
ly, smelly, timely, ugly, woolly.
We enjoyed the trip to America but it was a costly holiday.
Oily fish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.
Prefixes

Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- change the meaning of adjectives. Adding these

prefixes makes the meaning negative:

un- in- ir-

responsible –
fair – unfair active – inactive
irresponsible

appropriate –
happy – unhappy regular – irregular
inappropriate

sure – unsure complete – incomplete reducible – irreducible

im- il-

balance – imbalance legal – illegal

polite – impolite legible – illegible

possible –
logical – illogical
impossible

Adjectives: comparative and superlative

Many one-syllable adjectives have endings to show the comparative and superlative.

base form comparative superlative

fine finer finest

young younger youngest

base form comparative superlative

small smaller smallest

Some two-syllable adjectives which end in an unstressed syllable also have these
endings.

base form comparative superlative

easy easier easiest

funny funnier funniest

gentle gentler gentlest

However, we do not use these endings with two-syllable adjectives ending in a stressed
syllable nor with longer adjectives with more than two syllables. The comparatives and
superlatives of these adjectives are formed using more and most.

base form comparative superlative

complete more complete Not: completer most complete Not: completest

interestin more interesting most interesting

g Not: interestinger Not: interestingest

Adjectives: with -ing and -ed (interesting, interested)

We use the -ing and -ed forms of regular and irregular verbs as adjectives:
-ing forms

verb example

My brother is five and he’s

annoy
so  annoying.

amaz The Grand Canyon is

e an amazing  place.

boil Be careful! That’s boiling  water!

excite This film is not very exciting, is it?

-ed forms

verb example

bore Why do teenagers always look bored?

James Bond movies are always action-

pack
packed.

smoke Not everyone likes smoked salmon.

make My dress is hand-made. I really like it.

teach My Master’s degree was a taught course.

excite I feel excited about my new job.

Adjectives with -ing and -ed endings have different meanings.

-ing adjectives -ed adjectives
-ing adjectives describe the effect -ed adjectives describe how a person feels

The meeting was very boring. I felt bored at the meeting.

That was an exciting game. We were really excited about the game.
It was shocking  to see what the storm had We were shocked to see what the storm had
done to the house. done to the house.

Warning:
Commonly confused pairs of adjectives ending in -ing and -
ed are: interesting, interested; boring, bored; exciting, excited; embarrassing, embarras
sed.

Adjectives: order

Order of adjectives
When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a
particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually
come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):
She was wearing an amazing red coat.
Not: … red amazing coat
If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of
adjectives is:

order relating to examples

1 opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful

2 size big, small, tall

physical
3 thin, rough, untidy
quality

4 shape round, square, rectangular

order relating to examples

5 age young, old, youthful

6 colour blue, red, pink

7 origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish

8 material metal, wood, plastic

general-purpose, four-sided, U-
9 type
shaped

10 purpose cleaning, hammering, cooking

It was made of a  1strange,  6green,  8metallic material.

It’s a  2long,  4narrow,  8plastic brush.
Panettone is a  4round,  7Italian,  9bread-like Christmas cake.
Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which
included all these types would be extremely rare.
She was a  1beautiful,  2tall,  3thin,  5young,  6black-haired,  7Scottish woman.
What an  1amazing,  2little,  5old,  7Chinese cup and saucer!

Adjectives joined by and

When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such as be (a linking verb), the
second last adjective is normally connected to the last adjective by and:
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.
And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a
warm, welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more
adjectives of the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same
thing:
It was a blue and green cotton shirt.