Chapter

THE ADJECTIVE

. d · fv e and limiting. Descriptive ad· .

Adjectives fall into two categories.: ce·scrptp1 ortant
• t
erest·1ng, or a phJyesc·tivel s
)
C1ever, 1 0 are
those which express an inherent quaI ity un 1· ·'r a d.Jec. t1ves p1ace rest· tea state
I)
·
such as age, colour, size (young, red, smal · imi mg 5 . t . nction on the
nouns they modify expressing distance, quantity, poss es t0n, etc.( b is, much, my).

3.1. DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES

3.1.1. Formation of Adjectives
There are three ways of building up adjectives in English: derivation with the help of affixes
(prefixes and suffixes), conversion and composition.

3.1.1.1. Derivation
The commonest prefixes used to form adjectives in English are:
a-: alive; asleep
ab-: abnormal; absolute
ante-: antedeluvian; antenatal
bi-: biaxial; bifocal
circum-: circumfluent; circumpolar
col-·: collateral; collinear
com-: compact; compound
con-: concave; congenial
contra-: contradistinct; contrarotating
cor-: correlative; cordate
dis-: disadvantageous; discourteous
ef-: effluent; effuse
ex-: exanimate; exchangeable
extra-: extraordinary; extra-terestrial
hyper-: hypercritical; hypersensitive
ii-: illegal; illegible
im-: immaterial; immature
in-: incapable; inhuman
inter-: interactive; interdependent
 T fl E A OJl ! C T I V E
67
;,·-: ir·respectivc; incgulnr
,,.,is-: misleading; mislnistful
,,on-: nondurable; nonparallel
r cr-: permissive; pcrmutahlc
r rc-: precautions; preclinical
,-tt ro-: retroactive; retrograde
s,11l -: subordinate; suburban
s11rcr-: supernatural; supersonic
5 ur-:
surmountable; surpassing
tn111s-: translucid; transparent
,,um-: ultraconfident; ultramodern
un-: unfair; unattractive

The most frequent suffixes employed in building up adjectives are the followin .
-able: agreeable; remarkable g.
-ible: sensible; permissible
-al: autumnal; global
-an: Mexican; republican
-ant: hesitant; dominant
-ed: distinguished; learned
-en: golden; earthen
-ern: eastern; western
-Ju. l: careful; useful
-ial: · adverbial; celestial
-ic: historic; 1nagnetic
-ical: economical; geographical
-ish: childish; foolish
-ing: amazing; lasting
-ive: active; attractive
-ly: elderly; friendly
-ous: courageous; dangerous
-some: handsome; quarrelsoine
-ward: backward; inward
-y: dusty; muddy

Of the suffixes mentioned above, -ed and -ing deserve special attention since they are
often misused by the learners of English. In fact, they are Past Participles and Present
Participles, respectively, the former having a passive meaning "affected in this way': while
teh latter has an active meaning "having this effect': Some pairs of such adjectives are the
following:
amazed - amazing confused - confusing
alarmed - alarming deafened - deafening
annoyed - annoying depressed - depressing
aston· h - astonishing disappointed - disappointing
d is e
c d
harm - charming disturbed - disturbing
e
 y AND PRACTICE
, 1\,11\ ll . TflEOR
t:N<; l.lSII <,HAM •
taxe_d relaxing
, • ,g re fie f.
c m hnr r .t sc tl - cmh.trrasstl sa ts·
•· satis yang
_d
c n t rc- taim' ,1 cntcrt.1ining hocke_d shockin g
s . .
fosd natc d - fosd na ting
surpr·,sed- surpns1ng
fri htcnc,1 - frightening terrified - terrifying
horrified - horrfying tired - tiring
insult ed - insulting worried - worrying
intcrcscd - intc rcsti ng
ple ased - pleasing
.th the help of suffixes, are quite numerous .
L d f 111 nouns, wi , a 11ts
As th e adjectives 1 orme ro . . .
· _. th mentioning. . of
the most frequent ones is wor expression - expressive
accident - accidental fable _ fabulous
advantage - advantageous faith_ faithful
affection - affectionate faithless
ancestor - ancestral fame - famous
angel - angelic
fashion - fashionable
anger - angry
fault - faulty
athlete - athletic
favour - favourable
autumn - autumnal
beauty - beautiful fire - fiery
beautious (archaic) fool - foolish . .. ..

bible - biblical foolhardy

boy- boyish fortune - fortunate
capacity - capacious fraud - fraudulent
caution - cautious friend - friendly
centre - central friendless
charity - charitable fur - furry
child - childish fury - furious
choir - choral giant - gigantic
circle - circular girl - girlish
colony - colonial gold - golden
comfort - comfortable grace - graceful
continent - continental grief - grievous
courage - courageous haste - hasty
coward - cowardly hero - heroic
craft - crafty hun1our - hu111orous
credit - creditable hygiene - hygienic
crime - criminal industry - industrial
custo m - customary industrious
danger - dangerous influence - influential
deceit - deceitful injury - injurious
disaster - disastrous labour - laborious
economy - economical luxury - luxurious
effect - effective n1an - manly
expense - expensive marvel - marvellous
 I
TIIE Al >JEc n v ,
ol d" - mclotlious 69
f1\C I , rchellion - rebellious I
n l _ mctnlhc I
1nc l• region - regional
,· y - merciful
11u r-
uul - methodical response - responsible
responsive
fl\Cll • I
,• ., d e - nu n,culous
fl\ II •• • •
school - scholastic I
· schicf - nusducvous sense - sensible
nt1·
- )' - miserable
scr I
11\ ' l
untai n - n1ountainous senseless
1110 service - serviceable
,11l l -
sclc - n1uscular
, usic - n1usical shower - showery
0 skill - skilful
11
, yster y - n1ysterious
nation - national star - starry I
nature - natural sun- sunny
noise - noisy suspicion - suspicious
noiseless sympathy - sympathetic
nonsense - nonsensical tempest - tempestuous
occasion - occasional terror - terror-stricken
ocean - oceanic triangle - triangular
tribe - tribal
ornament - ornamental
value - valuable
peril - perilous
victory - victorious
person - personal
vigour - vigorous
picture - picturesque
volcano - volcanic
pirate - piratical
water - watery
poet - poetic
winter - wintry
poetical
wool - wollen
poison - poisonous
wretch - wretched
3.1.1.2. Conversion

1. Nouns changed into adjectives: a stone wall; a winter coat. Some nouns can become
adjectives by adding the suffix -ed: a whiskered man; she is fated to win.
A few "material,, nouns mayalso be turned into adjectives with the help of the suffix -en:
flax - flaxen; gold - golden; wood - wooden. Such adjectives, being now considered
obsolete, usually have the meaning "made of». Compare:
These people are working in a gold mine.
Alice has got a golden watch as a birthday present. (Nowadays, most English peopl
would say, however, "a gold watch".)
2. Verbs changed into adjectives:
This was a make-and-break situation.
3. Adverbs changed into adjectives:
Remember the above rule.
She was my only friend. . . . n
4. On the other hand, some adjectives preceded by the def1n1te article can be used as nou
when they denote either abstract notions:
He was afraid of the unknown.
 7fl b N,C, 1.b" li1 (', R /\ M M AR . THEORY AND PRACTICE
.

N n whole class: the blind; the lrnvc,

I . the dea,d· the old; the poor•, the ri.ch; the.
\ \ ' Cllll ll lc
.c sick ; th,
l
The rkh ought to help the poor.
One Iso. · l d. 1 this group the adjectives designating nationalir
cana llh.u e JI d ies. Bllt
so me adjcl.':tives have t eI 1 form when use as nouns: English- the
w, e1h·i
same £
C.l - tl,c Chinese. others have different forms : Germa n - the Gerrnan.
uncse f . s, llu.ngsil,h ,
the R u.ss1ans. l'J,,a. t is why a list with the names o countries, of their inha b1· tansts1a,0
their language will be useful': sand
Country People Inhabitant . Adjective
Albania the Albanians an Albanian Albanian*
Argentina the Argentinians an Argentinian Argentine
Australia the Australians an Australian Australian
Austria the Austrians an Austrian Austrian
Belgium the Belgians a Belgian Belgian
Brazil the Brazilians a Brazilian Brazilian
Bulgaria the Bulgarians a Bulgarian Bulgarian*
Canada the Canadians a Canadian Canadian
Chile the Chilians a Chilian Chilean
China the Chinese a Chinese Chinese*
Cuba the Cubans a Cuban Cuban
Czechoslovakia the Czechs a Czech
Denmark Czech*
the Danes a Dane Danish*
Egypt the Egyptians an Egyptian Egyptian
England the English an Englishman English*
Finland the Finns a Finn Finnish*
France the French a Frenchman French*
Germany the Germans a German German*
Greece the Greeks a Greek Greek*
Holland the Dutch a Dutchman Dutch*
The Netherlands
Hungary the Hungarians a Hungarian Hungarian
Italy the Italians
India an Italian Italian*
the Indians an Indian Indian
Indonesia the Indonesians an Indonesian Indonesian*
The Isle of Man The Manx
a Manx Manx*
Japan the Japanese
Korea a Japanese Japanese*
the Koreans a Korean
Mexico Korean*
the Mexicans a Mexican Norwegi.an*
Norway the Norwegians Mexican
Peru a Norwegian
the Peruvians a Peruvian 1
Peruvian 7
Poland the Poles a Pole Polish* (
1 A . . d
· cco r tng to Dan Du\escu et al., Manual de conversatie in limba engleza, Bucure tI ,
ectives marked with may also be used for the corresponding language of the country).

P· 612
 TIIE Ar >J l'.C l IVE
71
J'tlrtu al the Portuguese
a Portuguese Portuguese•
RtH111llliR the ltomnnlans
a Romanian Romanian•
s,otlnnd the Scots
a Scot Scottish•
a Scotsman
Sp.till the Spaniards
a Spaniard Spanish*
S \\'Ctlc ll the Swedes
a Swede Swedish•
S"' u zcr la the Swiss
a Swiss Swiss
nd Turkey the Turks
a Turk Turkish*
'fhc USA the Americans
an American American
Russia the Russians
a Russian Russian*
Viet-Nam the Vietnamese
a Vietnamese Vietnamese*
sometimes,
ad adj.ectives may also serve as
verb d · .
s mo 1 fy mg·
a) verbs: to hold tight; to break loose; ·
b) adverbs: far ahead; straight ahead;
c) other adjectives: dead drunk; dark blue;
d) Preposit io nal phrases: deep in the heart·, e1c ore m1·a m.gh t.
longb
,1.1.3. Composition
3
compound adjectives may generally be made up of:
adjective + noun: a heavy-weight champion
a long-distance telephone
call adjective + Past Participle: a hard-boiled egg
a big-framed man
noun + Past Participle: snow-covered peaks
an air-conditioned room
heart-broken; moon-lit
adverb + Past Participle: far-fetched; well-meant
noun + adjective: colour-blind; crystal-clear
adverb+ adjective: downright; evergreen; wide-open
adverb+ Present Participle: hard-working
noun+ Present Partiqple: cancer-producing substances
blood-curdling scene
verb+ noun: a telltale signal
verb+ verb: a would-be champion
verb+ adverb: a runaway Negro
a go-ahead man
noun+ noun: a sound-proof room
preposition + overground; underage
noun: a ten-year-old boy
numeral+ noun (singular): a forty-acre farm
. Another device of making up adjectives is composition by partial conversion and suf
fixation, that is adjective+ noun + -(e)d. In this case the noun and the -(e)d have the
form
oaf P ast Participle of regular verbs. Such compound adjectives usually refer to:
...
 · ·a / ; ·,: •·., ' 'iii
.
I II ■ •-

PRACTICE
T f t EO ll y AND
_ ,\ i\t M A H- d-hearted man;
•
'"" c,H a k•n dh
shirt; an o Jd-fashione
1: N <, I.·
. -hoil·c,1 woni:in;
. at;
.,rct. ll lo l"k- c I L· h il d;. •" Ac1,u k • - c.o f<n 1r c c,l wheeled ca. r
whllc rhrcc-
I •) -., r h1- i,
n) l ' l"< ' ! ' l t. •
c;· lo u g -sI· t, , •( •tI ilc c- ohnn
,11,
c II c·d g11n,a
l ) · · ,loll•
d " 'lw r c., "m p lr sca . S . .
f Ad J"ec t 1ve .
lish: The Pos1t1ve - when speak
2 Th
3 1 . ..
e Co rn p a . ono nson fadjcc
fl I.
.t1ve.s m En11g· good; di.f t, ri,reh or nparat;,.i,n"
C
rsi o icu b
11 s of compa · . ts I g· sma , t f e ....
· ·
-c- ck g n· c. O f obJeC, e·g. on i'th ano ther object or sebo o jec,ts e 11
T•he r e Ia . n.· 1 on <,>t,icct oro set • sci o f obJ·ects WSupera/ ti·ve _ when
·lnl l oneo ject ora Set·of.
o , t c r <
w h e n 1.. o m- !- n 1.. , i · • r in.g one ob je
• m o re I ct odr : ficult, the longest; the smallest; the best; the
and tsThee.g.
lon cr. smnllcr, beth: , more objects or se ,
h
o . 1c, · ·is compared with . s form The Comparative and The Superlativ, e
-t s
m t difficult. in which adjective

the\'Acco . rd. in
are d1v1 c d g tdo itnhd" wreagythere
teo ctives uaI rand
are cI sses of adjectives which will forrn teh
irregulart.wo sub a
\vi h. the regulara Je fi II ws·
t 1 1 1
compa ra. t i ve an d the at1· as 0 0

ve.
superI
Positive Comparative Superlative
I. Monosyllabic adjectives -er the -est
(except: rhtht; real; wrong)
long longer the longest
.
. eluded aJI adjectives ending In -y (busy; happy; healthy;
lazyI;nluthckisyg; rnoouispy, ;thetecr.e) aarsewaelsllomas ome oth er adjectives·. clever; common;
handsome; nar-
row; pleasant; quiet; simple; Slupid.
NOTE

a) sSuopmerelaotrivtheosgurfafpixheisc:al peculiarities arise from the addition of the

comparative and the

• single final consonants are doubled when the preceding vowel is stresse ,· .., ., ...,..,
.,,..
witha single letter: big- bigger - the biggest; hot - hotter- theho ttesf. _ , .·.,
• the letterI is doubled {in British English) after an unstressed vowel:cr ue l.i -
cruellest); ', ·
• the final - is changed t -i- when follomng a consonant: happy- hap p ie 1 1:·
early- earhe-r the earliest, but 1t remains unchanged when preceded by• ·
 grayer-: the grayest, However, such adjectives as: shy, sly, sorry, wry don o ! .I
• adJecti_ves en ing in ·e add only ·r or -st: fine- finer- the finest; frq ·.
freest; ripe- riper - the ripest. I ,1 •.

b) iWn hperon ntuhn_eccoimatpioanra: lvie and the superlative there occu

suffixes are added•

• /r/ Which is not Pronounced in th f . . .

1; . l<

'
'l
before the in flect io n • de Id' I e Inal position In the positive degree, . J.
d · ar '" dearer /di / h d
• Ia jectives ending in - ij
the number
/' • of syllables /I/ Ino t'_SYa
is w·tl •c value
II b·
increased• · havea
I / -• t"dear"
:,r:, Ill before
e earest the • .•·
/di:,rist/;
I
pest s1mpf:,stf; humble /hA1 b . simp e s1mp:,J-/ simpler /sim • \!
n l-! humbler /'hAmbf:,/ - the humblest . it