Adjectives

• An adjective is a word added to a noun or

pronoun, and generally expresses quality: a
wise man; a new book; you two are diligent.
• A common adjective is an adjective denoting
quality or situation: as, good, bad, peaceful,
warlike, eastern, western, outer, inner.
• A proper adjective is an adjective formed
from a proper name: as, American, English,
Platonic, Genoese.
• A participial adjective is one that has the form
of a participle, but differs from it by rejecting
the idea of time: as,
• "An amusing story,"
• A compound adjective is one that consists of
two or more words joined together, either by
the hyphen or solidly: as, nut-brown, laughter-
loving, four-footed; threefold, lordlike, lovesick.
• Cardinal: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, etc.
 Order of Adjectives
• When more than one adjective comes
before a noun, the adjectives are normally
in a particular order. Adjectives which
describe opinions or attitudes (e.g.
amazing) usually come first, before more
neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):
• She was wearing an amazing red coat.
• Not: … red amazing coat
• If we don’t want to emphasize any one of the
adjectives, the most usual sequence of adjectives is:
• Order Relating to Examples
• 1. Qty/No
• 2. Opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful, wonderful, nice, great
• 3. Size big, large, long, small, short, tall
• 4. Physical quality thin, rough, untidy, soft, wet, difficult, warm, fast
• 5. Shape round, square, rectangular
• 6. Condition pathetic, miserable
• 7. Age young, old, youthful, new
• 8. Color blue, red, pink, green, black
• 9. Pattern wavy, spiral, symmetrical
• 10. Origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish, American, British
• 11. Material metal, wood, plastic, stone, steel, paper
• 12. Type general-purpose, four-sided, U-shaped, electric kettle,
political matters, road transport
• 13. Purpose cooking utensils, bread knife, bath towel
• It was made of a strange (opinion), green
(color), metallic (mat) material.
• It’s a long (size), narrow (shape), plastic (mat)
brush.
• Panettone is a round (shape), Italian (origin),
bread-like (type) Christmas cake.
• invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase
which included all these types would be extremely rare.
• She was a beautiful (op), tall (size), thin (ph qlty), young (age),
black-haired (color), Scottish (origin) woman.
• What an amazing (op), little (size), old (age), Chinese (origin)
cup and saucer!
 Adjectives joined by and
• When more than one adjective occurs after a verb
such as be (a linking verb), the second last adjective
is normally connected to the last adjective by and:
• Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it
is sad, dark and cold.
• And is less common when more than one adjective
comes before the noun (e.g. a warm, welcoming
place). However, we can use and when there are two
or more adjectives of the same type, or when the
adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:
• It was a blue and green cotton shirt.
• Although you generally shouldn't use more
than 2 or 3 adjectives together it is possible to
make a sentence like this:
• "I just bought a lovely, large, warm, new, red,
stripey, foreign, cotton sweater."
• Adjectives have, commonly, no modifications
but the forms of comparison. Comparison is a
variation of the adjective, to express quality in
different degrees: as, hard, harder, hardest;
soft, softer, softest.
• There are three degrees of comparison; the
positive, the comparative, and the superlative.
• The 'positive degree is that which is expressed
by the adjective in its simple form: as,
"An elephant is large; a mouse, small; a lion,
fierce, active, bold, and strong."
• The comparative degree is that which is more
or less than something contrasted with it: as,
• "A whale is larger than an elephant; a mouse is
a much smaller animal than a rat."
• The superlative degree is that which has most
or least of all included with it: as,
• "The whale is the largest of the animals that
inhabit this globe; the mouse is the smallest of
all beasts."—Dr. Johnson.
• Those adjectives whose signification does not
admit of different degrees, cannot be
compared: as, two, second, all, every,
immortal, infinite.
• Those adjectives which may be varied in
sense, but not in form, are compared by means
of adverbs: as, fruitful, more fruitful, most
fruitful; fruitful, less fruitful, least fruitful .
 Regular comparison
• Adjectives are regularly compared, when the
comparative degree is expressed by adding er,
and the superlative, by adding est to them: as,
great, greater, greatest; mild, milder, mildest .
 Variations
• In the variation of adjectives, final consonants
are doubled, final e is omitted, and final y is
changed to i, agreeably to the rules for
spelling: as, hot, hotter, hottest; wide, wider,
widest; happy, happier, happiest.
How do we form an adjective?
We can add endings to a We can add endings to a verb:
noun:   -y scare scary
-ish Ex. boy  boyish Run  runny
- interest + ing  interesting,
-y    Ex. hair hairy
annoying
-ary Ex. station stationary --interest +ed  interested,
-ful Ex. joy  joyful annoyed

My children are interested in reading. We have many interesting books.

The annoyed movie patron complained so loud that he was annoying.

The author had a closed mind when he wrote his closing argument.
• The two degrees of superiority may also be
expressed with precisely the same import as
above, by prefixing to the adjective the adverbs
more and most: as, wise, more wise, most wise;
famous, more famous, most famous; amiable,
more amiable, most amiable.
• The degrees of inferiority are expressed, in like
manner, by the adverbs less and least: as, wise,
less wise, least wise; famous, less famous, least
famous; amiable, less amiable, least amiable.
The regular method of comparison has,
properly speaking, no degrees of this kind.
• The following adjectives are compared
irregularly: good, better, best; bad, evil, or ill,
worse, worst; little, less, least; much, more,
most; many, more, most.
 Types of Adjectives
• Quality
• Color
• Class
• Emphasizing
• Participle
• Proper
• Interrogative
• Compound
• Comparative 
• Superlative
Adjectives of Quality
• A sad tale
• A wise man
• A happy mother
 Adjectives of Color
• Blue eyes
• A red apple
• A black cat
• A green glass
 Adjectives of class
Identifies a particular class of which the
noun belongs to.
• Financial help
• A Cultural programme
• A Political party
• Domestic animals
 Compound Adjectives

Made up of two or more words usually

with hyphens between them
• a bottle-green car
• a low-paid job
• a good-looking girl
• one-way traffic
 Interrogative Adjectives

Adjective used to ask a question

regarding the noun that follows it;
• Which book is this?
• Which pen do you like the best?
• What dress is she wearing tonight?
 Make Adjectives
• Child
• Season
• Worth
• Value
• Silk
• Dirt
• Delight