WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?

"

Simply put adjectives are descriptive words. Adjectives are used to describe or give information
about things, ideas and people: nouns or pronouns.

For Example:-

The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".)

The most common question an adjective might answer is "What kind of ...?"

The good news is that in English the form of an adjective does not change, once you have learnt it
that's it and it does not matter if the noun being described is male or female, singular or plural,
subject or object. Yay!

Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size colour etc (fact adjectives -
can't be argued with).

Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody - nice, horrid, beautiful
etc (opinion adjectives - not everyone may agree).

If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be
able to answer.

There are different types of adjectives in the English

language:
 Numeric: six, one hundred and one etc.
 Quantitative: more, all, some, half, more than enough etc.
 Qualitative: colour, size, smell etc.
 Possessive: my, his, their, your etc.
 Interrogative: which, whose, what etc.
 Demonstrative: this, that, those, these etc.

!Note - The articles a, an, and the are a special kind of adjective called articles, and the
possessives my, our, your, and their are sometimes known as possessive adjectives.

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Colour

Adjectives can be used to describe colour.

blue, red, green, brown, yellow, black, white, etc.

For Example:

 "The blue bag." or "The blue bags".

Opinion

Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.

good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc.

For Example:

 He was a silly boy. / She was a silly girl.

Size

Adjectives can be used to describe size.

big, small, little, long, tall, short, same as, etc.

For Example:

 "The big man." or "The big woman".

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Age

Adjectives can be used to describe age.

For Example:

 "He was an old man." or "She was an old woman."

Shape

Adjectives can be used to describe shape.

round, circular, triangular, rectangular, square, oval, etc.

For Example:

 "It was a square box." or "They were square boxes."

Origin

Adjectives can be used to describe origin.

For Example:-

 "It was a German flag." or "They were German flags."

Material

Adjectives can be used to identify the material something is made of.

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  "A wooden cupboard." or "Wooden cupboards."

!Note - In English we often change nouns into adjectives.

For Example: glass - a glass vase / metal - a metal tray etc.

Distance

Adjectives can be used to describe distance.

l -- o -- n -- g / short

long, short, far, around, start, high, low, etc.

For Example:

 "She went for a long walk." or "They went for lots of long walks."

Temperature

Adjectives can be used to describe temperature.

cold, warm, hot, cool, etc.

For Example:

 "It was a hot day" or "We eat ice cream on hot days."

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Time

Adjectives can be used to describe time.

late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc.

For Example:

 "She had an early start."

Purpose

Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These adjectives often end with "-ing".)

For Example:

 "She gave them a sleeping bag." or "She gave them sleeping bags."

!Note - Have you noticed how the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine,
feminine, singular or plural noun? Nice huh?

When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives may be separated by a
conjunction (and) or by commas (,).

For Example:

 "Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair."

More examples:

Adjective Pretty Serious Fast Quiet

For She is a pretty He was a serious It could be a fast They were quiet
Example: girl. boy. car. children.

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!Note - Adjectives that go immediately before the noun are called attributive adjectives.

Adjectives can also be used after some verbs. They do not describe the verb, adverbs do that.

Adjectives after a verb describe the subject of the verb (usually a noun or pronoun).

For Example:

 "Lynne looks tired."

The subject (in this case Lynne) is being described as tired not the verb to look.
There is also the adjective used to, which is such a beast that it gets its own section - Used To.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivetext.html#sthash.PnaitHEo.dpuf

ADJECTIVE ORDER

OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour, material, to
more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose.

We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of something.

Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it can sometimes depend on
what exactly you want to emphasise.

For example:

"That's a nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)

"That's a nice blue." (You like the colour.)

When we group adjectives together there is a general (sometimes flexible) rule for the position of
each type of adjective, these are:-

Position 1st* 2nd* 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th

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 Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Material Origin Purpose

Nice Small Old Square Black Plastic British Racing

Ugly Big New Circular Blue Cotton American Running

You might swap adjectives that express an opinion and an adjective based on fact depending on
what you wish to emphasise:-

For example:

 "She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.
 "He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.

This is just for fun as you wouldn't normally see so many adjectives in one description.

For example:

 "She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, stripey, cotton, British, knitting bag."

Does it matter if you get it wrong? Well outside of exams and tests, it won't kill you, but people
reading or listening to you will find it odd if you mix up the order.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectiveorder.html#sthash.UpVcoSqn.dpuf

COMMON ADJECTIVES TABLE

Appearance | Condition | Feeling | Shape | Size | Sound | Speed | Taste | Time |

Touch

(A list of English adjectives with dictionary look up - double click on any word for its definition and
pronunciation)

Shape Size Sound

broad average cooing

crooked big deafening
curved fat faint

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 deep gigantic harsh
even huge high-pitched
flat large hissing
hilly little hushed
jagged long husky
round massive loud
shallow medium melodic
square miniature moaning
steep narrow mute
straight petite noisy
thick short purring
thin skinny quiet
triangular small raspy
uneven tall screeching
tiny shrill
wide silent
soft
squeaky
squealing
thundering
voiceless
whispering

Speed Taste Time

fast bitter ancient

quick bland brief
rapid delicious early
slow different late
swift fresh long
greasy modern
hot new
juicy old
repulsive old-fashioned
revolting quick
ripe short

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 rotten young
salty
sour
spicy
stale
strong
sweet
tasteless
tasty
terrible
wonderful

Touch

blunt
boiling
breakable
breezy
broken
bumpy
chilly
clean
cold
cool
crooked
cuddly
curly
damaged
damp
different
dirty
dry
dusty
filthy
flaky
fluffy
fuzzy
greasy
grubby
hard

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 icy
loose
plastic
prickly
ripe
rough
rubbery
scratchy
shaky
shaggy
sharp
silky
slimy
slippery
smooth
soft
solid
steady
sticky
tight
uneven
unusual
unripe
warm
weak
wet
wooden
wooly

FEELINGS
Feelings - negative Feelings - neutral Feelings - positive

afraid alright agreeable

angry calm alert
annoyed different amused
anxious fair brave
arrogant fine bright

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 ashamed OK charming
awful pleasant cheerful
bad puzzled comfortable
bewildered cooperative
bored courageous
concerned delightful
condemned determined
confused eager
creepy elated
cruel enchanting
dangerous encouraging
defeated energetic
defiant enthusiastic
depressed excited
disgusted exuberant
disturbed faithful
doubtful fantastic
eerie friendly
embarrassed frowning
envious funny
evil gentle
fierce glorious
foolish good
frantic happy
frightened healthy
grieving helpful
guilty hilarious
helpless innocent
hungry jolly
hurt kind
ill lively
jealous lovely
lonely lucky
mad obedient
naughty perfect

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 nervous proud
obnoxious relaxed
outrageous relieved
panicky silly
repulsive smiling
safe splendid
scared successful
shy thoughtful
sleepy victorious
sore vivacious
strange well
tense witty
terrible wonderful
tired
troubled
unusual
upset
uptight
weary
wicked
worried

Appearance Condition

adorable alive
brainy
alert
broken
average busy
beautiful careful
blonde cautious
bloody clever
blushing crazy
damaged
bright
dead
clean difficult
clear easy
cloudy fake

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 colourful false
famous
concerned
forward
crowded fragile
curious guilty
cute helpful
dark helpless
dirty important
impossible
drab
infamous
distinct innocent
dull inquisitive
elegant mad
fancy modern
filthy open
outgoing
glamorous
outstanding
gleaming poor
graceful powerful
grotesque puzzled
homely real
light rich
right
misty
robust
motionless sane
muddy scary
plain shy
poised sleepy
quaint stupid
super
scary
tame
shiny thick
smoggy tired
sparkling wild
spotless wrong
stormy
strange
ugly
unsightly
unusual

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- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivecommon.html#sthash.ZCYWJXyY.dpuf

Comparative form of Adjectives

OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

When we compare things, people or even ideas we look at what makes them different from each
other.

Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other.
They normally come before any other adjectives.

!Tip - It's a good idea to learn opposites (antonyms) when learning adjectives.

For example:

TALL / SHORT

The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.
The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.

!Note - Have you noticed that when we are comparing two things like this we put than between the
adjective and the thing being compared.

FAST / SLOW

A car is faster than a bicycle.

A bicycle is slower than a car.

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For example:

BIG / SMALL

The red bag is bigger than the blue bag.

The blue bag is smaller than the red bag.

FORMING THE COMPARATIVE

The way you form the comparative from an adjective depends – on the number of syllables and the
spelling of the adjective.

Form Rule For example

Add -r to the end of the

Words of one syllable ending in 'e'. wide - wider
word.

For example:-

A motorway is wider than a road.

Double the consonant and

Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one
add -er to the end of the big - bigger
consonant at the end.
word.

For example:-

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 http://www.leunig.com.au/ - Reproduced with permission.

Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or Add - er to the end of the
high - higher
more than one consonant at the end. word.

Mount Everest is higher than Mount Snowdon.

Change 'y' to 'i', and add -er

Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'. happy - happier
to the end of the word.

For example:-

Some people seem to be luckier than other people.

Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'. Place 'more' before the beautiful - more

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 adjective. beautiful

For example:-

Arguably Rome is more beautiful than Paris.

!Warning - For every rule, there is at least one exception and there are also irregular adjectives that
you need to memorise as you come across them.

For example:-

 'good' becomes 'better'

 'bad' becomes 'worse'
 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'

!Warning - A lot of people write "then" instead of "than"- avoid it as it's simply not correct, and let's
face it, you would be marked down in a test or exam.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivecomp.html#sthash.MBAKOa0L.dpuf

Possessive Adjectives
OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.

Subject pronoun Possessive adjective

I my
you your
he his
she her
it its
we our
they their
For example:

 I own a laptop. = It is my laptop.

 You own this computer (I presume). = It is your computer.
 My husband owns a car. = It is his car.

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  My sister owns a house. = It is her house.
 My dog has a food bowl. = It is its food bowl.
 We love this website. = It is our website.
 Manchester United own a football ground. = It is their football ground.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectiveposs.html#sthash.f5JZKvFh.dpuf

Superlative Adjectives
OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

The superlative is used to say what thing, person, or idea has the most of a particular quality within a
group or of its kind.

Superlative adjectives normally come before any other adjectives.

Snowdon is
not the
highestmountain
in Britain.
Ben Nevis is the
Mount Snowdon is 3,559 feet highest mountain
Ben Nevis is 4,408 feet high.in Britain.
high.

FORMING THE SUPERLATIVE

Form Rule For example

Add -st to the end of the

Words of one syllable ending in 'e'. wide - widest
word.

The Amazon River is the widest river in the world.

Words of one syllable, with one Double the consonant

vowel and one consonant at the and add -est to the end of big - biggest
end. the word.

In 2010 a dog called Giant George was given the title of the biggest dog in the

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 world.

Words of one syllable, with more

Add - est to the end of
than one vowel or more than one high - highest
the word.
consonant at the end.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the word. (But it isn't the
tallest mountain in the world.)

Change 'y' to 'i', and add -

Words of two syllables, ending in happy -
est to the end of the
'y'. happiest
word.

In 2013 Australia was named the happiest country in the world.

Words of two syllables or more, not Place 'the most' before beautiful - the
ending in 'y'. the adjective. most beautiful

Some people say that the Maldives have the most beautiful beaches in the
world.

Don't forget that some adjectives are irregular:-

 'good' becomes 'the best'

 'bad' becomes 'the worst'
 'far' becomes 'the furthest'

For example:

 "Jill is the best student in the class ."

 "Jack is the worst student in the class."
 "In our solar system the planet Pluto is the furthest planet from the Sun."

!Note - Have you noticed that these superlatives are preceded by 'the'.

For example:

 "The Rio de la Plata river, on the southeast coastline of South America, is the widest river in
the world."
 According to the List of World records Carol Yager (1960-1994), from Michigan,
is the fattest person ever to live, weighing 725 kg (1,600 lb).

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  "Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world."
 "I think that Castle Combe is the prettiest village in England."
 "Arguably, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world."

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivesuper.html#sthash.o3613jWb.dpuf

Irregular Adjectives
OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

Adjective Comparative Superlative Example

Historians say that Hitler was worse than

Mussolini.
bad worse the worst
He was one of the worst dictators the world has
ever seen.

Mars is further from the Sun than Earth.

far further the furthest
Pluto is the furthest world from the Sun.

Her English was better than the teacher's.

good better the best
She was the best English speaker in the class.

My sister Karen is older than me.

the oldest
old (age) older / elder
My elder sister Karen is the eldest in our
the eldest
family.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectiveirregular.html#sthash.yP0wQHaW.dpuf

ADJECTIVES

Used to something

They say you can get used to anything.

The use of used to do something is explained here. However, used to has another meaning, it can
be used as an adjective and we use it to talk about things that have become familiar, and are no
longer strange or new.

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Used to usually comes after verbs such as be, get or become.

 After a while you get used to the noise.

 She will become used to the smell.
 I was used to the web site.

You can also say that someone is used to doing something.

 I'll never get used to getting up at six o'clock in the morning.

 It took me a while until I was used to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/usedtotext2.html#sthash.qAu6vfhp.dpuf

Personality Adjectives Table

(A list of English adjectives used to describe people's personalities with dictionary look up - double
click on any word for its definition and pronunciation)

OVERVIEW | ORDER | COMPARATIVE | POSSESSIVE | SUPERLATIVE

Positive | Negative

POSITIVE
a-e f-p q-z

adaptable fabulous quiet

fair receptive
adorable
faithful reflective
agreeable fantastic relieved
alert fearless resolute
alluring frank responsible
ambitious friendly righteous
amusing funny romantic
generous sedate
boundless
gentle selective
brave good self-assured
bright happy sensitive
calm harmonious shrewd
capable helpful silly
charming hilarious sincere

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 cheerful honorable skilful
impartial splendid
coherent
industrious steadfast
confident instinctive stimulating
cooperative jolly talented
courageous joyous thoughtful
credible kind thrifty
cultured kind-hearted tough
knowledgeable trustworthy
dashing
likeable unbiased
dazzling lively unusual
debonair lovely upbeat
decisive loving vigorous
decorous lucky vivacious
delightful mature warm
modern willing
determined
nice wise
diligent obedient witty
discreet painstaking wonderful
dynamic peaceful zany
eager perfect zealous
efficient placid
plausible
enchanting
pleasant
encouraging plucky
enduring productive
energetic protective
entertaining proud
enthusiastic punctual

excellent
excitable
exuberant

NEGATIVE
a-e f-p q-z

abrasive fanatical quarrelsome

abrupt repulsive
fierce
abusive ruthless
finicky
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 aloof flashy sad
ambiguous scary
flippant
angry secretive
annoyed foolish selfish
anxious forgetful silly
arrogant frantic slow
awful fretful sneaky
bad frightened snobbish
belligerent spendthrift
furtive
boorish squeamish
boring greedy stingy
callous grieving strange
careless grouchy sulky
clumsy gruesome tacky
combative grumpy tense
confused terrible
guarded
cowardly testy
crazy gullible thick-skinned
creepy helpless thoughtless
cruel hesitant threatening
cynical horrible tight
dangerous hurtful timid
deceitful tired
ignorant
defective tiresome
defiant irresolute troubled
depressed jealous truculent
deranged jittery typical
disagreeable lacking uptight
disillusioned lazy vague
disturbed vengeful
lonely
domineering venomous
draconian
malicious volatile
embarrassing materialistic voracious
envious mean vulgar
erratic mysterious wary
evasive naive wasteful
evil weak
nasty
wicked
naughty worthless
nervous wretched
noisy
obnoxious
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 outrageous
over zealous
panicky
pathetic
possessive

- See more at:

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectivepersonality.html#sthash.qKBDz6Za.dpuf

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