APTIS TRAINING MATERIAL

Adjectives
Los adjetivos son palabras que describen nombres (cosas y personas).

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Se transforman los adjetivos a formas comparativas y superlativas de las siguientes formas:

Adjective Comparative Superlative

una sílaba se añade –er se añade –est

strong stronger the strongest
great
you can become stronger at transformers fitness centre.
the music store’s got the greatest variety of cds ever!

dos silabas, acabadas en –y elimina –y y añade –ier elimina –y y añade –iest

tidy tidier tidiest

funny their flat is tidier than ours.

they’re the funniest monkeys you’ve ever seen.

dos/tres/cuatro sílabas more … the most …

famous more beautiful the most beautiful
beautiful
self-confident you can become a more self-confident person.
he is the most famous actor in the film.

Algunos adjetivos de dos sílabas, (por ejemplo: quite, pleasant, common, polite) a veces se
puede usar –er o –est:
It’s quieter than any garden I’ve visited before.
Los adjetivos de dos sílabas acabados en –ow, -er y –le, usualmente pueden añadir –er o –est:
cleverer; the narrowest
La mayoría de los adjetivos que acaban en una vocal, en –b, -d, -g, -n, -p o –t, se duplica la
mencionada consonante final antes de añadir –er o –est:
bigger; the saddest
Unos pocos adjetivos tienen una forma comparativa y superlativa irregular:

good → better → best

bad → worse → worst

far → farther → farthest

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Comparative structures
Se puede usar las estructuras comparativas para decir que:

• More:

Our prices are better than any of our rivals.

We have a more interesting range of music than you’ll see anywhere else.
• Less:

Cassettes usually aren’t as / so expensive as CDs.

The CDs in the sale are much less expensive than usual.

• Equal:

Classical music is as popular as rock music with our customers.

Adjectives ending in –ing and –ed

Agunos adjetivos comunes están formados por verbos y tienen las formas acabadas en –ing y –
ed:
Se usa la forma –ed para describir nuestros sentimientos:
I’m tired. (= a description of how I feel: I’ve used up all my energy so I need a rest)
Se usa la forma –ing para describir las cosas que nos hacen sentir como indicamos:
This work is tiring. (= a description of the work: it takes a lot of energy to do it)
Compare:
It’s a boring film. The visitors are bored.

(= there’s no action in it) (= they have nothing to do)

We had a relaxing holiday. Good driving instructors always have a

relaxed manner.
(= the atmosphere was restful)
(= they don’t seem nervous)

That was a very satisfying meal. The airline has many satisfied customers.

(t=there was plenty to eat) (= the customers feel happy)

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Adjective position
Los adjetivos en Inglés van usualmente delante de la palabra que describe:
We visite dan old house.
We saw some beautiful paintings and some elegant furniture.
También, los adjetivos pueden ser seguidos de algunos verbos (tales como be, get, become,
look, seem, appear, sound, taste, smell, feel):
Everything seemed pleasant when we started.

The flowers smelt beautiful and the gardens looked wonderful.

But the weather got very hot and we all felt exhausted by the end of the day.

Hay algunas palabras en Inglés que pueden ser usadas como adjetivos:

a diamond ring; a library book; a seaside hotel; folk music; strawberry jam

Adjective order
Cuando se usa más de un adjetivo, usualmente se ponen en cierto orden. Decimos:
a strange old wooden chair (not a wooden old strange chair)
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Los adjetivos que dan información objetiva usualmente siguen a adjetivos de

opinión/impresión. Van en este orden:

Size Age shape Color Origin Material Purpose

an enormous old red car

a small oval French mirror

an antique silver soup spoon

Dos adjetivos de color son separados por and:

a black and white photograph
Cuando se pone más de un adjetivo después de un verbo, se usa and para separar el último de
ellos:
The day was hot and tiring.
Lord Byron was described as mad, bad and dangerous to know.
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Adverbs

Formation of adverbs
Los adjetivos (happy, beautiful) nos hablan de un sustantivo. Los adverbios (happily,
beautifully) nos hablan de un verbo, un adjetivo u otro adverbio. Nos dan información sobre el
tiempo (when?), lugar (where?), manera (how?) y frecuencia (how often?):
Today I feel happy because the weather is beautiful. Some children are playing happily in the
street and a blackbird is singing beautifullyin a tree outside.
Algunos adverbios son perífrasis:
He’s arriving on Tuesday, so we’re meeting him at the station.
La mayoría de los adverbios están formados añadiendo –ly al adjetivo:

sad → sadly

clear → clearly

Esta tabla muestra las reglas de spelling para estos adverbios:

Adjective Adverb

ending in a vowel and –l beautiful add –ly beautifully

ending in –y angry drop –y and add –ily angrily

ending in –le miserable drop –e and add –y miserably

ending in -e extreme keep –e and add -ly extremely

Un adjetivo finalizado en –ly (por ejemplo: friendly, likely, lively, lonely, lovely, silly, ugly) no
pueden convertirse en adverbio. Ha de usarse una perífrases en su lugar:
She started the interview in a friendly manner.
He laughed in a silly way.
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Adverbs and adjectives easily confused

Algunos adjetivos y adverbios tienen la misma forma. Algunos son: fast, early, hard, late, daily,
weekly, monthly:
Adjectives Adverbs

He caught the fast train. He ran fast to catch the train.

He caught the early train. He always arrives early.

She’s a hard worker. She works hard.

The bus is always late. I arrived home late.

My daily newspaper costs 90p. I swim daily.

Hard y Hardly son adverbios con diferentes significados.

Hardly significa “casi no”. Puede ir en varias posiciones en la oración:
She hardly noticed when he came into the room. (= she almost didn’t notice)

I had hardly finished my breakfast when they arrived. (=only just)

Rachel is hardly ever absent. (= almost never)

Hardly se usa frecuentemente con any:

There was hardly anyone in the cinema. (= almost nobody)

Hardly any of the children could read. (= almost none of them)

Late y lately son adverbios pero con diferentes significados.

Lately significa “recientemente”:

I haven’t read any good books lately.
El adverbio para good es well:
It was a good concert. The musicians played well.
Pero well es también un adjetivo que significa lo opuesto a “enfermo”:
I had a bad headache yesterday but I’m well today.
Algunos verbos son seguidos de adjetivos, no de verbos.

Comparative and superlative adverbs

La mayoría de adverbios se usa more o less para hacer comparaciones y the mosto the least
para hacer superlativos:
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Los adverbios sin –ly, forman su comparativo y superlativo de la misma forma que los adjetivos
cortos:
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hard → hard → hardest

high → higher → highest

late → later → latest

I work hard, my sister works harder than I do but Alex works the hardest.

Nota: early → earlier → earliest

Algunos adverbios tienen formas comparativas y superlativas irregulares:

well → better → best

badly → worse → worst

far → farther → farthest

I did better than him in the test.

None of the students lives very near the school, but Darren lives farthest away.
Los adverbios usan las mismas estructuras comparativas que los adjetivos:
He shouted as loudly as she did.
I can’t add up as quickly as you can.
They arrived later than we did.
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Modifying adverbs and adjectives

Algunos adverbios son usados para cambiar la fuerza de los adjetivos o adverbios. Estos son
algunos de los comunes:

stronger ↑ incredibly

extremely

really

very

rather

fairly

quite

weaker ↓ slightly

He dances extremely well.

The weather was very hot.
He spoke to her rather fiercely.
The house was quite old.

Algunos adjetivos (por ejemplo: perfect, impossible, excellent) puede ser sólo fortalecido con
adverbios como completely, absolutely, entirely. Se puede decir:
This crossword puzzle is completely imposible. (not … is very impossible.)

Adverb position
Los adverbios nos dicen:

• Cómo (how), dónde (where) y cuándo (when) sucede algo usualmente va al final (“end-
position”):

The meeting took place suddenly. (How?)

The meeting took place in the Town Hall. (Where?)
The meeting took place last Tuesday. (When?)

Si hay varios adverbios “end-position”, se ponen en este orden:

How? Where? When?

The meeting took place suddenly in the Town Hall last Tuesday.
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• Con qué frecuencia (how often) ocurre algo usualmente va en medio (“mid-
position”) antes de un verbo de una sóla palabra:

I usually travel by train.

Pero después de
am/is/are/was/were: I am often
late.

Si el verbo tiene dos o más partes, el adverbio va usualmente después de la primera

parte: I have never been to this part of town before.

• Cuando (when) ocurre algo puede ir al principio para dar énfasis (“front-position”):

Yesterday he painted the kitchen.

Podemos poner otros adverbios en front-position para enfatizar:

Angrily, she stormed out of the room.
Suddenly, she burst into tears.

• Cómo (how) ocurre algo que puede ir a veces en tres posiciones:

Carefully, he packed his

suitcase. He carefully packed his
suitcase. He packed his suitcase
carefully.

Un adverbio no va normalmente entre el verbo y su

objeto: She held his hand rightly. (not She held tightly his
hand.)