Adjectives
Categories of Adjectives
A. Articles
B. Nouns as Adjectives
Nouns can also be used as adjectives. They tell what kind or which one about the noun
modified.
Ex: afternoon class music lesson football practice
• The "noun as adjective" always comes first
If you remember this, it will help you to understand what is being talked about:
• A race horse is a horse that runs in races
• a horse race is a race for horses
• a boat race is a race for boats
• a love story is a story about love
C. Proper Adjectives
A proper adjective is formed from a proper noun and begins with a capital letter.
Ex: Rembrandt was a Dutch painter.
The Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
The following suffixes are often used to create proper adjectives: -an, -ian, -n, -ese, and -
ish. Sometimes there are other changes as well. In some cases, the noun and adjective forms are
the same.
PROPER NOUNS PROPER
ADJECTIVES
Alaska Alaskan
Queen Victoria Victorian
Vietnam Vietnamese
Denmark Danish
Navajo Navajo
D. Predicate Adjectives
these adjectives follow linking verbs and modify the subject of a sentence. Unlike
most adjective, these are separated from the words they modify.
Ex: is, am, were, smell, feel, taste, look, sound, have been, did seem
A predicate adjective helps to describe the subject or subjects in a sentence by
giving information about characteristics such as the subjects’ appearances and
feelings.
Example: I have been sleepy lately.
The flag is red, white and blue.
The car sounds strange.
I feel exhausted.
You did seem lonely.
Position of Adjectives
A. Adjectives can come before nouns.
Ex: I found some hilarious pictures
Clever people won’t stay in such an environment.
B. Adjectives can come after the linking verb and functions as a complement to the subject.
Ex: Most students are happy.
She looked sad.
C. Adjectives can come after an object and functions as objective complements.
Ex: “I paint the plaster walls white.”
“Bheema joined Ghandi in his struggle for India’s independence and called his father
a traitor.”
He called the man a liar.
D. Adjectives can come after intensifiers.
Ex: His feet are not very cold
The meat is completely frozen.
E. Adjectives can come between the noun marker and the noun.
Ex: The clouds, white and fluffy, floated across the sky.
Derivation of Adjectives
This is how adjectives are formed:
N+y Tasty
N + full Beautiful
N + less Fearless
N + en Strengthen
N + ive Massive
N + ous Nervous
N + ish Selfish
N + al Menopausal
N + ary Customary
N + some Worrisome
N + ly Chiefly
N + ic Alcoholic
N or V + able (ible) Laughable
Convertible
Comparing with Adjectives
One way on how adjectives describe a noun is by comparison. Below are some rules for
comparing with adjectives.
Many adjectives have different forms to indicate degree of comparison.
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):
Ex: She was wearing an amazing red coat.
The usual sequence of adjectives is:
order relating to examples
1 opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful
2 size big, small, tall
physical
3 thin, rough, untidy
quality
4 shape round, square, rectangular
5 age young, old, youthful
6 colour blue, red, pink
7 origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish
8 material metal, wood, plastic
9 type general-purpose, four-sided, U-
order relating to examples
shaped
10 purpose cleaning, hammering, cooking
Ex: It was made of a strange, green, metallic material
Opinion color material
She was a beautiful, tall, thin, young, black-haired, Filipino woman.
Opinion size phy qua/. Age color origin
