THE ADJECTIVE

1. An adjective describes the person, thing etc. which a noun refers to. We use adjectives to say
what a person, etc. is like or seems like. For example, adjectives can give us information
about:
Quality: a beautiful dress, a nice day;
Size: a big car, a small coin, a tall man.;
Age: a new handbag, a young man;
Shape: a round table, a square box;
Temperature: a cool evening, a hot day; Colour:
blue eyes, grey hair, a white horse; Origin: a
Japanese camera, a Swiss watch.

2. An adjective is gradable when we can form a comparative and superlative from it:
(big), bigger, biggest; (good), better, best etc.
An adjective is non-gradable when:
▪ we cannot modify it (i.e. we cannot use it with very, too etc)
▪ we cannot make a comparative or superlative from it: e.g.daily, dead, medical, unique
etc.

3. Adjectives may be attributive and predicative. Attributive adjectives generally precede

nouns: a tall man/woman/tree, tall men/women/trees.
BUT: Attorney General, Governor General, Poet Laureate, Sergeant Major, Asia Minor,
Goodness gracious!, hope eternal, sum total, time immemorial Predicative adjectives
occur after the link verbs: He looks fine.

Link(ing) verbs: to be (young, old, quiet), to become (fat), to seem (nice), to continue
(shameless), to appear (happy, sad), to look (fine, ill, well, pretty), to sound (good, strange,
tired), to feel (hungry, soft, hard, painful), to taste (good, bitter, delicious), to keep (silent), to
remain (loyal), to stay (true), to grow (thirsty, sleepy), to get (old, tired), to go (red), to run (dry),
to turn (sour) to fall (ill), to sit (quiet)

Consider the following examples and identify the attributive and predicative adjectives:
a. It is a rather tall tree.
b. He was elected Attorney General.
c. We chose the shortest route possible. – the best book imaginable, the best hotel available
d. A wall five feet high was built opposite to their house.
e. They are ashamed.
f. The half-asleep child started to cry when the bell rang.
4. The Irregular Comparison of Adjectives/Adverbs

Positive Degree Comparative of Superiority Relative Superlative

good/well better the best
bad/ill worse the worst
little less/lesser the least
many/much more the most
old older/elder the oldest/the eldest
far farther the farthest/the farthermost
further the furthest/the furthermost
near nearer the nearest/the next
fore former the first/the foremost
late later latter the latest the
last
hind hinder the hindmost/the hindermost
out outer the outmost/the outermost the
utter utmost/the uttermost
in inner the inmost/the innermost
up upper the upmost/the uppermost

the youngest – very young

5. Classification of adjectives:
A. Modifying Adjectives:
1. Qualifying/Qualitative: denote some quality of an object – beautiful, important, rare etc.
Most of them have degrees of comparison (exceptions are represented by the so-called
‘Latin comparatives’: inferior, superior, minor, major, perfect, unique, equal, supreme etc)
2. Relative: show qualities characterizing an object by referring it to another object: a
wooden house, a silk blouse, a stone wall. They do not have degrees of comparison.

B. Determinative Adjectives (do not show the quality of an object, they determine it):

1. Article-like Adjectives: some, any: He’ll need some courage to phone them. It wasn’t of
any consequence.
2. Demonstrative Adjectives: this, that, these, those, such a(n), the same, the other, another,
other (also in the category of Indefinite Adjectives) – That song reminded him of
summer.
3. Possessive Adjectives: my/your/his/her/its/our/your/their – His idea seemed interesting.
4. Interrogative Adjectives are used in direct or indirect interrogative sentences: what?
which? whose? through what? by whose? Which book do you choose?
5. Exclamatory Adjectives are used in exclamatory sentences, where they have the meaning
of an elliptical qualitative adjective denoting the quality in its highest degree: What a
movie! Such an idea! What rain!
6. Pronominal Relative Adjectives lend precision to the noun to which they are attached:
what, whatever, which, whichever, whose. He can’t imagine what consequences that may
have.
7. Adverbial Adjectives: alike, alone, alive, ashamed, asleep, aloof, awake, aware, alight,
afloat, ablaze etc. They occur in predicative position (after link verbs): He is asleep.
8. Numeral Adjectives determine nouns in a definite numerical sense: Five students took
part in the competition.
9. Indefinite Adjectives determine in a more or less ‘vague’ or ‘indefinite’ manner the nouns
to which they are attached: each, every, both, any, every, either, (a) little, (a) few, many,
several, much, some, near, next, last, far, former, various, different, all, whole, certain etc.
Many people visited the exhibition last week.
10. Negative Adjectives: no, not a, not one, not a single, neither. For those language exams,
no dictionaries were allowed.