Adjective - Introduction, Types, Order and Example

Introduction

What is an Adjective?

adjective (noun): a part-of-speech that modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun

An adjective is one of the eight parts of speech .

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. It "describes" or "modifies" a noun (The big dog was hungry ). In these examples, the adjective is in bold and the noun that it modifies is in italics.

An adjective often comes BEFORE a noun:

a green car

car a dark sky

sky an interesting story

And sometimes an adjective comes AFTER a verb:

My car is green .

. The sky became dark .

. His story seemed interesting .

But adjectives can also modify pronouns (She is beautiful ). Look at these examples:

They were empty .

. I thought it seemed strange .

. Those are not expensive .

Note that we can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady / it is black and white ).

Adjective Form

Some adjectives have particular endings, for example:

-able/-ible: washable, credible

-ish/-like: childish, childlike

-ful/-less: careful, careless

-ous: dangerous, harmonious

-y: dirty, pretty

However, many adjectives have no obvious form.

Comparative, Superlative

Most adjectives can be comparative or superlative, for example:

big, bigger, biggest

good, better, best

beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful

Types of Adjectives

Comparative Adjectives

When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same or different. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can use comparative adjectives to describe the differences.

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

There are two ways to make or to "form" a comparative adjective:

short adjectives: add "-er"

adjectives: add long adjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives: add -er examples 1-syllable adjectives old, fast 2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy RULE: add "-er" old → older Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r late → later Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant big → bigger Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy → happier

Long adjectives: use more examples 2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y modern, pleasant all adjectives of 3 or more syllables expensive, intellectual RULE: use "more" modern → more modern

expensive → more expensive

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use "-er" OR "more":



quiet → quieter/more quiet

clever → cleverer/more clever

narrow → narrower/more narrow

simple → simpler/more simple

Exception: The following adjectives have irregular forms:



good → better

well (healthy) → better

bad → worse

far → farther/further

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things, only 2 things).

Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than".

Look at these examples:

John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is taller than John.

John. America is big. But Russia is bigger .

. I want to have a more powerful computer.

computer. Is French more difficult than English?

If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table below:

Earth Mars Diameter (km) 12,760 6,790 Mars is smaller than Earth. Distance from Sun (million km) 150 228 Mars is more distant from the Sun. Length of day (hours) 24 25 A day on Mars is slightly longer than a day on Earth. Moons 1 2 Mars has more moons than Earth. Surface temperature (degrees Celcius) 22 -23 Mars is colder than Earth.

Superlative Adjectives

A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things.

We can use superlative adjectives when talking about three or more things (not two things).

Formation of Superlative Adjectives

As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative adjective :

short adjectives: add "-est"

adjectives: add long adjectives: use "most"

Short adjectives 1-syllable adjectives old, fast 2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy RULE: add "-est" old → the oldest Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -st late → the latest Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant big → the biggest Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy → the happiest

Long adjectives 2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y modern, pleasant all adjectives of 3 or more syllables expensive, intellectual RULE: use "most" modern → the most modern

expensive → the most expensive

Exception: The following adjectives have irregular forms: good → the best

bad → the worst

far → the farthest/furthest

Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or more things. Look at these examples:

John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is the tallest .

. Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is the biggest .

. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

If we talk about the three planets Earth, Mars and Jupiter, we can use superlative adjectives as shown in the table below:

Earth Mars Jupiter Diameter (km) 12,760 6,790 142,800 Jupiter is the biggest . Distance from Sun (million km) 150 228 778 Jupiter is the most distant from the Sun. Length of day (hours) 24 25 10 Jupiter has the shortest day. Moons 1 2 16 Jupiter has the most moons. Surface temp. (degrees Celcius) 22 -23 -150 Jupiter is the coldest .

Order

Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

before the noun after some verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell, taste)

adj.

before

noun adj.

after

verb 1 I have a big dog. 2 Snow is white.

Adjective Before Noun

We often use more than one adjective before the noun:

I like big black dogs.

dogs. She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. First of all, the general order is:

opinion , fact

"Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true about something.

a lovely new dress (not a new lovely dress )

dress (not ) a boring French film (not a French boring film )

2. The "normal" order for fact adjectives is

size, shape, age, colour / origin / material / purpose

a small 18th-century French coffee table

table a rectangular black wooden box

3. Determiners usually come first , even though some grammarians regard them as fact adjectives:

articles (a, the)

possessives (my, your...)

demonstratives (this, that...)

quantifiers (some, any, few, many...)

numbers (one, two, three)

Note that when we want to use two colour adjectives , we join them with "and":

Many newspapers are black and white .

and . She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

Here are some examples of adjective order:

adjectives head noun determiner opinion adjectives fact adjectives other size, shape, age, colour origin material purpose* two ugly black guard dogs a well-known Chinese artist a small, 18th-century French coffee table your fabulous new sports car a lovely pink and green Thai silk dress some black Spanish leather riding boots a big black and white dog this cheap plastic rain coat an old wooden fishing boat my new tennis racket a wonderful 15th-century Arabic poem

*often a noun used as an adjective

Adjective After Verb

An adjective can come after some verbs, such as: be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, sound

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always refers to and qualifies the subject of the clause, not the verb.

Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective

Ram is English .

. Because she had to wait, she became impatient .

. Is it getting dark ?

? The examination did not seem difficult .

did not . Your friend looks nice .

. This towel feels damp .

. That new film doesn't sound very interesting .

doesn't very . Dinner smells good tonight.

tonight. This milk tastes sour .

. It smells bad .

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not include all stative verbs.