ADJECTIVES

AND
ADJECTIVAL
CLAUSE
ADJECTIVE

I
 1. DEFINITION
● The adjective is a part of speech, expressing quality, size, colour, characteristics,…
● Main syntactical function in the sentence: attribute, predicative or complement.
E.g: The sky is blue./ The old tree was cut down to built a new house.
● Adjectives make our speech and writing more expressive and precise.
● In modern English, adjectives have no inflections of case, number or gender but the only
change of form that adjective undergo is for degrees of comparison:

E.g: short-shorter-shortest

Beautiful- more beautiful- most beautiful

 2. CLASSIFICATION OF
ADJECTIVE
On the ground of meaning and grammatical characteristics:
● Demonstrative adjectives are the adjectives used to demonstrate things, objects, people and
phenomena: e.g: That bag is beautiful. Those cakes are delicious.
● Interrogative adjective are the adjective used to form question to distinguish things, objects,
people and phenomena. E:g: What song are you listening ?
● Possessive adjectives are the adjectives expressing the possession. e.g: That is my book./ I don’t
know your name.
● Quantitative adjectives are the adjective denoting the quanlity. E.g: I have some books./ She
has a little confuse.
● Qualitative adjectives are the adjectives expressing the quality, color and size,.. Or things,
objects, people and phenomena. E.g: She is cute. It is a bad luck.
 2. CLASSIFICATION
On the ground of their complexity of form and structure:
● Short adjectives are adjective which have just one or two syllable, including the
derived and borrowing adjectives.
E.g: short, cold, hot, small, big, happy, sad,…
● Long adjectives are the adjectives which have more than two syllables, including the
derived and the borrowing adjectives.
E.g: beautiful, careful, modern, delicious,…
● Special adjectives are the adjectives of which the degrees of comparison are formed
in special ways.
E.g: good-better- the best, little- less- the least, much-more-most,..
 3. ADJECTIVE FORMATION
Many words are adjectives in their original forms ( single adjectives). However, the
adjectives can also be formed in different ways:
1,The derived adjectives are the adjectives formed by adding affixes ( prefixes or
suffixes) to the root morphemes:
Form Affixes Example
Dishonest, illogical, impersonal,
Prefixes + Dis-, il-,im- ,in- ,
Adjectives incorrect, irregular, unfair, anti-
adjectives ir- ,un- ,anti- ,…
social
-ful, -less, -ly, -y, Beautiful, harmless, friendly, sunny,
Nouns + suffixes Adjectives -en, -al, -ic, -ish, golden, educational, atomic, selfish,
-like,… childlike,…
- able, -ible, -ve, Changeable, adaptive, boring,
Verb + suffixes Adjectives
-ing, -en(ed),… broken, interested,…
 3. ADJECTIVE FORMATION
2, The compound adjectives are the adjectives formed by combining two or more free
morphemes together and are often written with hyphens:
Form Example
Noun + Adj World- famous, ice-cold, smoke-free, sugar-free
Noun + Past participle Sun-baked, child-wanted, middle-aged
Adj + Adj Fat-free, big-blue, light-pink
Adj + noun Full-length, last-minute, long-distance,..

Adj + noun + ed Open-minded, warm-hearted, cold-blooded

Adj + Present participle Good-looking, long-lasting, slow-moving, far-reaching
N+ Present participle English-speaking, time-saving, record-breaking, mouth-watering
Adverb + Past participle Well-behaved, well-educated, highly-respected, widely-recognized
 4. The comparative adjective
● In English, the gradable adjective are often used with degrees of comparison ( three degrees):

1, The positive degree of adjective is used to express the sameness or similarity of two or more
objects, things, people and phenomena. ( both short and long adjectives): As…Adjective…as

e.g: This homework is as easy as candy, English is as difficult as Vietnamese.

2, The comparative degree of adjectives is used to express the differences or the dissimilarity.
The negative form of the above structure is applied: Not so…Adj…As

e.g: This movie is not as interesting as that movie.

 4. The comparative adjective
The gradable adjectives used in comparison are divided into 3 kinds: Short adjectives, long adjectives, special
adjectives.
 The short adjective: 1-2 syllable (except borrowed adjectives such as modern, urgent... And the derived
adjectives: careful, bored, pleasant…)
Form: Short adj + er + than
E.g: He is stronger than I, This house is larger than that one.
Many one-syllable adjectives end with a single consonant after a single vowel consonant is double before the
ending –er:
E.g: big-bigger, fat-fatter, thin-thinner, sad-sadder,..
 The long adjectives: more than two syllables, derived adjectives and borrowed ones.
Form: More/less + long adj + than
E.g: This girl is more beautiful than that girl. This company is less competitive than that company.
 The special adjectives have the following forms: Good-better Many-more
Bad-worse Much-more
Far-further Little-less
Old-elder Late-later/latter
 4. The comparative adjective
● Two comparatives joined by “and” can convey the ideas of general increase or decrease:

E.g: John is getting taller and taller.

I became more and more patient.

“more and more” and “ less and less” do not usually combine with short adjective.

● The construction of “ the+ comparative+ the” can be used to show cause and effect when one change is made,
another follows:

e.g: The more effort you make, the more you achieve.

The longer your composition is, the more mistakes it gets.

● The construction “ not+adj+to do” is also used to express differences or dissimilarity:

e.g: The boy is not tall enough to join the competition.

 4. The comparative adjective
3, The super degree of adjectives is used to express the inferiority or the superiority comparison of one person or
thing with more than others in the same group of class.
The definite article “ The” is usually used before a superlative in a phrase or sentence. When superlatives are used
as complements, “the” is usually omitted.
The superlative degree structures:(the) short adjectives + est
E.g: She is the tallest girl in class, this book is the longest book I have ever read.
Many one syllable adjectives end with a single consonant after single consonant is doubled before the ending
“est”. ( big-biggest, thin-thinnest, sad-saddest, fat-fattest,…)
With long adjective: (The) most/least + long adj
e.g: Anna is the most beautiful girl in the class. He is the least famous member of this band.

Special adjectives has the following superlative forms:

Good-the best Much, many- the most
Bad-the worst Far-the farthest/furthest
Little-the least Old-the oldest/eldest
Late- the last/ latest Near- the nearest/next
 5. ADJECTIVE FUNCTIONS
1, Attribute: when they come before nouns in the noun phrase:
E.g: a big tree, a large house, an interesting movie
2, Complement: they are used after the link verbs or the “be” like verbs:
E.g: She is good-looking.
This movie seems interesting.
The adjectives beginning with “a” ( afraid, afloat, alive, asleep,..) describing health condition feelings, reaction
are usually used predicatively.
E.g: They are alive.
Many adjectives are used like nouns. In modem English, substantive adjective are:
+ Wholly substantivized ( converted into nouns), acquire all the characteristics of nouns: plural forms, possessive
case inflections, maybe associated with the definite and indefinite articles ( anative, 2 natives, the native’s
building).
+ Partially substantivized, take only the definite article, but are neither inflected for the plural forms, nor can be
used in the possessive case ( the rich, the poor, the old, the young, the true, the useful..)
 6. THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVE IN
THE SENETENCE
● In the English language, some adjectives
can be used together. However, they
should follow certain order as this:

This word order may depend

very much on the emphasis a
speaker/ writer wishes to
make.
Note: The general qualities go
ADJECTIVE
CLAUSE

II
 1. Definition
● Form: A subject + A verb
● An adjective clause is a subordinate or dependent clause. It must be connected to a
main or dependent clause.
● It modifies a noun.
● Beginning with a relative pronoun such as: who, whom, whose, which, that or a
relative adverb such as when or where.
● E.g:
 II, Classification of Adjective Clause

1, Based on Relative pronouns ( clause makers), we have types of Adjective clause as

follow:
 II, Classification of Adjective Clause

2, Based on function of adjectives clause:

a. Definite clause:
E.g: The girl who is standing there is my sister.

b. Infinite clause:
E.g: My father, who is standing there, is an engineer.
 REDUCED
ADJECTIVE CLAUSE

III
 1. Definition
● Adjective clause can be reduced to phrase. Unlike a clause, a phrase is a group of
words that does not contain a subject and a verb.
● An adjective phrase is a group of words headed by an adjective that describes
a noun or a pronoun.
 2. Classification of reduced adjective
clause
An adjective clause can often be reduced to an adjective phrase when the relative pronoun of the adjective
clause is the subject of the clause.
Note: The clause marker and the auxiliary words and/or “be” verbs are omitted. The main verb change depends
on the voice ( active or passive)
A, Active voice:
Active constructions in relative clauses are reduced to –ing participles
*If the relative clause contains verb (to) be, omit the relative pronouns and be form:
Ex: The man who is sitting on the desk is an English teacher. ( adjective clause)
The man sitting on the desk is an English teacher.( adjective phrase)
B, Passive voice:
Passive constructions in relative clauses are reduced to PAST PARTICIPLES (V3)
If the relative clause contains verb (to) be, omit the pronouns and be form:
Ex: The report which was prepared for the seminar was not accepted. ( clause)
The report prepared for the seminar was not accepted. (phrase)
 2. Classification of reduced adjective
clause
C, Subject + to be + adjective/noun/prepositional phrase
When relative clauses containing verb to be are reduced, the remaining parts could be: an
adjective -a prepositional phrase –a noun.
Subject + to be + adjective The student who is clever said the exam is
easy.
The student clever said the exam is easy.
Subject + to be + Noun Her name, which is Anna, contains easy
sounds.
Her name, Anna, contains easy sounds.
Subject + to be + prepositional phrase The man who is in my house is my father.
The man in my house is my father.
 2. Classification of reduced adjective
clause
● A verb that is used to indicate a permanent characteristic uses the –ing form

Present The window which overlooks the garden was broken.

The window overlooking the garden was broken.

Past The window which overlooked the garden was broken.

The window overlooking the garden was broken.

A verb that is used to indicate an ongoing activity uses -ing form

Present The police who are investigating the case have found an important clue.
continuous The police investigating the case have found an important clue.

Past The police who were investigating the case have found an important clue.
continuous The police investigating the case have found an important clue.

The past participle forms of many verbs are irregular:

I like cupcake that is made in Abby.
I like cupcake made in Abby.
 OMISSION OF THE
RELATIVE PRONOUN

IV
 Omission of the relative pronoun
● The relative pronouns ( which, that, who, whom) can be omitted when they are the object of the adjective
clause.
● When the relative pronoun is the subject of the adjective clause, it can not be omitted: Eva who was born in
Poland is a writer.-> Eva was born in Poland is a writer.
● If the relative pronoun is the object of the adjective clause, it can be omitted: The boy whom you don’t want
to talk to is my cousin. -> The boy you don’t want to talk to is my cousin.
● The relative pronouns whose, where and where by cannot be omitted: The man whose son is studying in
Poland. ( can not omitted). If we reduce it, the meaning of the sentence will change.
The place where I lived in was collapsed.-> The place living was collapsed.( cannot be omitted)
● Sometimes an adjective clause is used with a preposition.
There are a number of ways by which a message can be sent.
● Formal: that was the girl to whom I was referring. (the preposition goes at the beginning of the clause)
● Informal: that was the girl whom I was referring to. ( the preposition goes at the end of the clause)
 VI. “ that”, “ which” and “ who” in
adjective clause:
1, “ That” is not allowed to use in the follows:
- After prepositions: The cat which I gave a fish is very cute.
- In indefinite Adjective clause: My friends, whom you saw yesterday, is very clever.
2, “That” is compulsory ( or which and who is not allowed in the follows)
- After combined subjects: The woman and the cat that went to my house made unacceptable
action.
- After superlative: This is the most beautiful bag that I have ever seen.
- After words: all, every, only : You are the only person that can help me.
- After words: first, last: You was the last person that came in.
- After words: much, little, some, any, no: Little do you know that I was very upset
- In the structure It + be + that: It is John that made this mess.
- After interrogative pronouns: Who is she that you say hi ?