Adjectives

- Adjectives Before Nouns

- Adjectives After a Be Verb and a Linking Verb
- Word Order of Adjectives
- Other Parts of Speech used as Adjectives
- Adjective Pairs
- Comparative Form of Adjectives
- Superlative Form of Adjectives
• Adjectives describe nouns.
• An adjective is a word that tells you more about a person, an
animal, a place or a thing.
• In a sentence, we can place an adjective:
Before a noun
After a be verb and a linking verb
 Adjectives before nouns
• Examples:
• 1. Mark went to an expensive (adjective) restaurant (noun) for
dinner.
Expensive describes the noun restaurant.
Expensive comes before the noun restaurant.
• 2. The hungry (adjective) lion (noun) attacked the villagers.
Hungry describes the noun lion.
Hungry comes before the noun lion.
 Adjectives after a verb & a linking
verb
• Adjectives can also be placed after:
Be verbs – am, is, are, am, was, were, been, being
Linking verbs – smell, taste, look, see etc.
Examples:
1.Be verb
The cakes are (be verb) delicious (adjective).
Delicious describes the noun cakes.
2.Linking verb
The boss sounded (linking verb) angry (adjective).
Angry describes the noun boss.
 Word order of adjectives
• We sometimes use more than 1 adjective to describe a noun.
• Examples:
• 1. My uncle brought back a beautiful small vase from China. (2
adjectives)
• 2. My uncle brought back a beautiful small blue vase from China.
(3 adjectives)
• 3. My uncle brought back a beautiful small blue ceramic vase
from China. (4 adjectives)
• When we use more than 1 adjective to describe a noun, the
adjectives usually follow a particular order.
• 1. Opinion –nice, great, beautiful
• 2. Size and shape – small, long, big, thin
• 3. Age – new, old, young
• 4. Color – red, blue, green
• 5. Origin / Nationality – Malaysian, Indian, Siamese
• 6. Material – gold, glass, metal
• 7. Purpose – bath (towel), fishing (rod)
Other parts of speech used as adjectives
• Some words from other part of speech can be used as
adjectives:
• 1. Nouns
• 2. – ing form of verbs (present participle form)
• 3. – ed/en form of verbs (past participle form)
• Example of noun used as adjective:
• The lorry (adjective) driver (noun) was fined for speeding. –
lorry describes the noun driver.
• Even though the word lorry is a noun, it functions as
adjective here because it describes the noun driver.
• Nouns used as adjective cannot be written in the plural form
– lorries drivers x
Present participle & past participle forms of verbs used as
adjectives

• The –
Verb ing/ed/en forms of verbs sometimes
- ing/ed/en form of the functions
Adjective as
adjectives as they can be used to describe nouns.
verb
• These
Excite
adjectives are placed before the nouns.
- ing (present participle) Exciting

Injure - ed (past participle) Injured

Freeze - en (past participle) frozen

 Examples:

• 1. The exciting (present participle as adjective) game (noun)

thrilled many spectators. – exciting describes the noun game
• 2. The doctor treated the injured (past participle as adjective)
man (noun). – injured describes the noun man
• 3. She bought some frozen (past participle as adjective) mutton
(noun). – frozen describes the noun mutton
 Adjective pairs
• Some of the verb forms are paired because they look similar.
• They are called Adjective Pairs
• It is important to remember that though they look almost alike,
they have different meanings.
Adjectives ending in – ing often describe a situation or a thing.
Adjectives ending in – ed often describe how a person feels.
 Examples:
• 1. Malaysia Fest attracted many tourists as the events were
exciting. (exciting describes the noun events)
• 2. Sally was excited to receive so many presents on her birthday.
(excited describes how Sally felt)
• Some examples of adjective pairs:
• annoying – annoyed
• confusing – confused
• boring - bored
 Comparative form of adjectives
• The comparative form of adjectives is used when one noun is
compared to another.
• Comparative adjectives can be formed in two ways:
• 1. Adding – er to an adjective (e.g.: older, taller)
• 2. Adding more in front of an adjective ( e.g.: more expensive,
more confident)
• For example:
• Sue is older than Kathy. (the word than is used after the
comparative from)
 Superlative form of adjectives
• The superlative form of adjectives is used to compare three or
more nouns.
• Superlative adjectives can be formed in two ways:
• Adding – est to an adjective (e.g.: longest, oldest)
• Adding most in front of an adjective (e.g.: most intelligent, most
expensive)
• For example:
• Today is the happiest day of my life.
 Continuation…

• The definite article the is always used before the

superlative form of the adjective.
• - est and most are both forms of superlative adjectives,
therefore do not use them together.
• Incorrect – Liza’s watch is the most cheapest.
• Correct – Liza’s watch is the cheapest.