3 Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They give you more information about people, places, and things.

Kinds of Adjectives
Some adjectives tell about the size of people or things.

a big house a large army a huge ship a tall building

a long bridge a high mountain a short man a thin boy

tiny feet big hands a short skirt long trousers

Some adjectives tell about the color of things.

a red carpet a white swan a blue uniform

a gray suit an orange balloon a yellow ribbon

a brown bear green peppers black shoes

Some adjectives tell what people or things are like by describing their
quality.

a beautiful woman a handsome boy a poor family a rich couple a strange place

a young soldier an old uncle a kind lady a familiar voice a deep pool

a flat surface a hot drink a cold winter a sunny day cool weather

Some adjectives tell what things are made of. They refer to substances.

a plastic folder a paper bag a cotton shirt a jade ring

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a stone wall a metal box a silk dress a wooden spoon

a clay pot a glass door a concrete road a porcelain vase

Adjectives: The Order of Adjectives

Some adjectives are made from proper nouns of place. These adjectives are called adjectives of origin.

a Mexican hat the French ag an American custom a Japanese lady an Indian temple

a British police ofcer a Filipino dress Washington apples a Spanish dance an Italian car

The Order of Adjectives

Sometimes several adjectives are used to describe a single noun or pronoun. When you use two or more adjectives, the usual order is: size, quality, color, origin, substance. For example:

a small size a stylish quality

green plastic box color substance red color Italian car origin

Here are more examples.

a large Indian temple a colorful cotton shirt delicious Spanish food crunchy Australian apples

a tall white stone building a long Chinese silk robe an old graceful Japanese lady a short handsome English man

Adjectives of quality sometimes come before adjectives of size. For example:

beautiful long hair

elegant short hair

But adjectives of size always come before adjectives of color. For example:

beautiful long black hair

elegant short red hair

If you use any adjective of substance, it comes after the color adjective. For example:

a beautiful long black silk dress

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Exercise 1
Read the following passage and underline the adjectives. Write S above adjectives of size, C above adjectives of color, Q above adjectives of quality and O above adjectives of origin. Sydney is a large Australian city with busy streets and expensive shops. In summer, its a very hot place. People wear cool clothes and drink cool drinks. There are beautiful sandy beaches where people can rest and look up at the wide blue sky. There are big parks for tourists to visit. Japanese tourists like to sit and watch other people. British tourists take photographs of the strange plants and colorful birds.

Exercise 2
The following passage contains a lot of adjectives. Some of the adjectives appear in the wrong order. First underline the wrongly ordered adjectives. Then write them in their correct order on the lines below the passage. My friend Jeremy is a handsome tall boy. He always wears a white long T-shirt and a big red cap. He carries a blue huge canvas bag to school. His favorite food is red crunchy apples and he always has one in his bag. Our teacher is an English kind tall man called Mr. Clark. He wears a blue smart suit and glasses with black plastic thick frames.

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Adjectives: Adjective Endings

Adjective Endings
Adjectives have many different endings.

Some adjectives end in -ful. These adjectives describe noun or pronouns that are full of something or have a lot of something.

a beautiful face a cheerful baby a powerful machine a skillful player

a painful injury a joyful smile a wonderful time a useful book

a careful student a helpful teacher playful children colorful clothes

Some adjectives end in -ous.

a famous writer a mountainous area a dangerous job a humorous lm mischievous children

Some adjectives end in -y.

a courageous soldier an adventurous explorer a poisonous snake a generous gift marvelous results

a messy room a sleepy dog a muddy path an easy test

a noisy car a cloudy sky a sunny day a lazy worker

dirty hands thirsty children stormy weather juicy fruit

Some adjectives end in -less. These adjectives describe a person or thing that does not have something.

a cloudless sky a sleeveless dress a careless driver a joyless song a useless tool

a meaningless word a fearless ghter homeless people seedless grapes harmless animals
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Adjectives: Adjective Endings Some adjectives end in -al.

a national ag musical instruments electrical goods a coastal town

personal possessions a traditional costume magical powers medical equipment

Here are some adjectives that end in -ic, -ish, -ible, -able, -ive and -ly.

a fantastic singer an energetic dog basic grammar enthusiastic shouting a selfish act foolish behavior stylish clothes childish talk

a terrible mess a sensible answer horrible smells visible footprints a likeable child comfortable clothes valuable advice suitable colors

an imaginative story expensive jewelery talkative children a creative artist friendly teachers a lovely dress a lively cat an elderly man

Many adjectives end in -ing.

loving parents a caring nurse a flashing light a smiling face a boring story a gleaming car N o t e s

an interesting book a disappointing result an outstanding swimmer an exciting ride chattering monkeys shocking news

Words like smiling, caring and ashing are present participles of verbs. They are formed by adding ing to the verbs. Many present participles can also be used as adjectives.

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Adjectives: Describing What Something Is Made Of

Many of adjectives end in ed.

N o t e s
Words like closed, wasted and escaped are past participles of verbs. Many past participles can also be used as adjectives.

a closed door boiled eggs wasted time a painted wall reduced prices

satisfied customers worried passengers escaped prisoners excited students invited guests

Describing What Something Is Made Of

Some nouns can be used like adjectives. For example, if you have a chair that is made of plastic, you can use the noun plastic as an adjective and say that the chair is a plastic chair. If you have a watch that is made of gold, you can say it is a gold watch. But the nouns wood and wool cant be used like this. To make adjectives of these nouns you have to add en.

noun wood wool

adjective wooden woolen

example a wooden door a woolen jumper

Describing What Something Is Like

Theres another way to make adjectives from nouns. Suppose you want to say that something is like a certain material, although not made of it. To make these adjectives, add -en to some nouns and -y to other nouns.

noun gold silk lead

adjective golden silky or silken leaden

example a golden sunrise (= bright yellow like gold) silky skin (= as soft as silk) a leaden sky (= dark gray like the color of lead)
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Exercise 3
The following sentences contain adjectives made by adding endings to nouns. Write the noun that each adjective comes from on the line after each sentence. The first one has been done for you. Remember that some nouns must be changed slightly before the ending is added. 1. Shes always making careless mistakes. 2. It was a very painful injury. 3. Witches and wizards have magical powers. 4. These oranges are very juicy. 5. Dogs are usually more energetic than cats. 6. Our neighbors are not very friendly. 7. She keeps her toys in a large wooden box. 8. Take off your muddy shoes before you come in. 9. May I borrow your pencil sharpener? Mine is useless. 10. What a beautiful dress!
care

Exercise 4
Fill in the blank spaces with adjectives made from the verbs in parentheses. Remember that both present participles and past participles can be used as adjectives. Choose the adjective that suits the sentence best. The first one has been done for you. 1. It wasnt a very 2. We could hear the
interesting

(interest) movie. (excite) fans screaming. (bore).

3. I hope the pupils dont think that my classes are 4. My dad had a very 5. Have the police found the 6. The supermarket sells lots of 7. The players on the 8. Some of the old houses had
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(worry) look on his face. (steal) car yet? (freeze) food. (win) team dont look tired at all. (break) windows.

Adjectives: The Comparison of Adjectives

The Comparison of Adjectives

The Comparative Form To compare two people or things, use the comparative form of an adjective. The comparative form is usually made by adding er to the adjective.

adjective dark light high low old young rich poor tall small soft

comparative form darker lighter higher lower older younger richer poorer taller smaller softer

adjective hard warm cold fast slow

comparative form harder warmer colder faster slower

N o t e s
The word than is often used to compare two things or people. For example, you say:

Mr. Lee is taller than Philip. A car is faster than a bike.

The Superlative Form

When you compare three or more people or things, use the superlative form of an adjective. The superlative form is usually made by adding est to the adjective.

adjective dark light high low old young rich poor tall small soft hard

superlative form darkest lightest highest lowest oldest youngest richest poorest tallest smallest softest hardest

adjective warm cold fast slow

superlative form warmest coldest fastest slowest

N o t e s
The word the is often used before the superlative form. For example:

A bee is a small insect. A ladybird is smaller, but an ant is the smallest.

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Adjectives: The Comparison of Adjectives

If the adjective ends in e, add r to form the comparative and st to form the superlative.

adjective nice close large rude safe wide

comparative nicer closer larger ruder safer wider

superlative nicest closest largest rudest safest widest

Suppose the adjective is a short word that ends in a consonant and has a single vowel in the middle. Just double the consonant and add er to make the comparative and est to make the superlative.

adjective sad wet slim thin big

comparative sadder wetter slimmer thinner bigger

superlative saddest wettest slimmest thinnest biggest

Suppose the adjective has two syllables and ends in y. Just change the y to i and add er to make the comparative and add est to make the superlative.

adjective comparative superlative easy funny dirty noisy happy

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adjective comparative superlative heavy lovely pretty tidy friendly tiny heavier lovelier prettier tidier friendlier tinier heaviest loveliest prettiest tidiest friendliest tiniest

easier funnier dirtier noisier happier

easiest funniest dirtiest noisiest happiest naughtiest

naughty naughtier

Adjectives: The Comparison of Adjectives

Use more and most to compare most other two-syllable adjectives. You will also use more and most with all adjectives that have more than two syllables.

adjective famous precious handsome exciting beautiful expensive comfortable delicious interesting difcult

comparative more famous more precious more handsome more exciting more beautiful more expensive more comfortable more delicious more interesting more difcult

superlative most famous most precious most handsome most exciting most beautiful most expensive most comfortable most delicious most interesting most difcult

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

A few adjectives dont form their comparative and superlative forms in any of the usual ways. The comparative and superlative forms of these adjectives are different words, called irregular forms.

adjective good bad little many far

For example:

comparative better worse less more farther or further

superlative best worst least most farthest or furthest

My painting is good, Melanies painting is better, but Andrews painting is the best.
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Adjectives: Adjective Phrases

Adjective Phrases
Phrases can be used like single adjectives to describe nouns and pronouns. Phrases that are used in this way are called adjective phrases. Most adjective phrases come after the word they describe. Look at these examples. The adjective phrases are in bold and the nouns they describe are in color.

Who is the girl with long hair? My friend lives in the house across the street. Mrs. Morris is tall and slim. This is the road to Toledo. The lady in the bookshop is a friend of mine.

Some adjective phrases come before the word they describe. The words in these phrases are often joined with hyphens.

a long-legged bird a well-dressed lady a fun-loving teenager user-friendly equipment

an eight-year-old child a ten-cent coin a twenty-story building a large-sized shirt

Exercise 5
Read the following passage. Write the correct comparative and superlative forms of the adjectives in parentheses in the blank spaces. The first one has been done for you. Paul likes playing football. Hes a very good player, but his friend Sally is a (good) player. Shes the (fast) and boys who are (old) and
better

(good) player in the whole school. She is (strong) than all the boys, even the (big) than her. Thats why

Paul likes her. Paul thinks all games are exciting, but football is the (exciting) game and its (noisy) than all the other games he plays with

his friends. When the grass is wet, everyone gets dirty when they play football. But Sally gets (dirty) and
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(wet) than everyone else.

Exercise 6
Complete the following sentences. Write an adjective phrase that includes the preposition in parentheses. The first one has been done for you. 1. Is this the train to Tokyo 2. They live in a big house 3. Emilly's desk is 4. The bucket has a hole 5. Who is the man (to)? (near). (oppposite). (in). (with)?

Exercise 4
Complete the following sentences. Write an adjective phrase, using the adjective in parentheses and another adjective linked with and or but. The first one has been done for you. 1. My dog is small and brown 2. His sister's hair is 3. Our teacher is 4. Tomorrow's weather will be 5. The museum was (small). (black). (oppposite). (sunny). (quiet).

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