An adjective describes

a noun or a pronoun.
Examples:

An adjective answers:
happy dog
What kind?
Which one?
tired boy
How many?
seven girls
To find an adjective you need
to locate the noun first.

Three happy children played at the park.

The donkey stepped on my large hat.

The child was brave.

 Forms of adjectives

•Descriptive/ One-word adjective

•Noun as adjective
•Participial adjective
•Compound adjective
Descriptive (one-word) adjectives
•They tell us about the quality of a person, thing
or place.

Examples : ugly, small, good, sweet, etc.

She is a kind teacher.

I like Eddie Murphy because he is funny.
 Participial adjectives
•They are adjectives that are in present
participle (-ing) or past participle (-ed) form.

Examples :
Present participle form Past participle form
Confusing Confused
Boring Bored
Disgusting Disgusted
Interesting Interested
•The two forms (-ing and –ed) have different
meaning.

Examples:
1.The film bores the audience.
It was a boring film. (Active meaning)

2. The audience are bored by the film.

They are bored audience. (passive meaning)
 Nouns as Adjectives
Nouns can also act as adjectives. They can modify other
nouns.

Examples:
Joseph Lee has always lived in a chinese community.
(Chinese describes the noun community.)
Sheila loves vegetable soup.
(Vegetable describes the noun soup.)
Mrs. Pereira is proud of her rose garden.
(Rose describes the noun garden.)

The words chinese, vegetable, and rose are nouns

but in the above sentences they act as adjectives
because they modify other nouns.
 Compound Adjectives
A compound adjective is made of two or more
words that modify the same noun. The words are
separated by a hyphen. Examples: duty-free,
low-cut, water-tight, left-handed, six-year-old,
etc.
The airport has many duty-free shops.
Sharon loves to wear low-cut dresses.
She has a six-year-old son.
 FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVES
1. Colour
When you want to say what colour something
is, you use a colour adjective.

2. Classifying
These are adjectives that you use to identify
the particular class that something belongs to.
3. Qualitative
Adjectives that identify a quality
that someone or something has, such
as ‘sad’, ‘pretty’, ‘small’, ‘happy’,
‘wealthy’, and ‘wise’

4. Emphasising
You can emphasise your feelings
about something that you mention by
putting an adjective such as
‘complete’, ‘absolute’, and ‘utter’ in
front of a noun.
 Structure of Adjectives
• Attributives
- Comes directly before a noun, like in new car or
best friend
- Describes an attribute, or characteristic, of the
noun it is modifying.
- Can be used with both action and linking verbs
- Cannot act as subject complement

Examples:
I admired the pretty sky.
The black dog is barking.
 Structure of Adjectives

• Predicatives
- Follow the noun they modify
- Occur immediately after a linking verb
- Can act as subject complements
- Everything after the verb is considered
to be part of the predicate, which is
why these adjectives bear the name.
Examples:
The wall is purple.
The puppies are very hungry.
 Exercise
Identify the adjectives in these sentences.
Say whether they are attributive or predicative.
1. Jack is very smart.
2. My little sister is in school.
3. I would love some hot coffee.
4. The man is quite happy.
5. Andrew was sitting under a big tree.
6. Would your nice friend help me?
7. This burger is yummy!
8. I hate cold soup.
9. You can see my house from here!
10. Cindy showed us her new car.
 Comparison of Adjectives
• Positive
• Comparative
• Superlative
 Order of Adjectives
•Determiner (articles and other limiters: the book, your
car)
•Observation or opinion (a genuine fraud, an interesting
book, an expensive watch)
•Size and Shape (tiny, fat, square)
•Age (young, old, new)
•Colour (blue, sea-green)
•Origin (American, Chinese)
•Material (describing what something is made of: silk,
copper, wooden)
•Qualifier (final adjective, often an integral part of the
noun: vacation resort, wedding dress, race car)
 Tasks for students:
Do Task 1 and Task 2 (Poem- I Wandered
Lonely as a Cloud)

 Tutorial
– Role play entitled The Lost Pet
In groups of three, create a dialogue for the
following roles: pet owner, police officer,
journalist.
– Role play.
 ISL
– In groups, collect 3 advertisements from
different authentic sources and identify the
adjectives used in them.