Lesson 3- Adjectives

( 3) ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word that tells us something about a noun, that is, about a person, an animal, a thing or a place.

For example:

She is a pretty girl.

A giraffe has a long neck.

The table is round.

That is an old temple.

There are various kinds of adjectives:

1. An adjective which tells us about the quality of the noun.

For example: the blue sky, a big house, a square table, a cold morning.

2. An adjective which tells us about the quatity of the noun.

For example: The zoo has many animals.

The pen has not much ink left.

3. An adjective which tells us about the ownership of the noun.

For example: That is my dog.

Those are their bicycles.

4. An adjective which poses question in an ‘interrogative’ manner.

For example: Which school do you go to?

Whose car is this?

5. An adjective which specifies a noun.

For example: This boy is a member of the club.

That girl is my sister.

¨ Adjectives which end in ‘-ing’, e.g. an interesting film, an amazing player, an annoying habit,

¨ Adjectives which end in ‘-ed, e.g. the damaged goods, the escaped prisoners, improved version,

Forming adjectives

Adding ‘y’.Drop ‘e’.	Add ‘ful’.* Change ‘y’ to ‘i’.	Add ‘ous’ or ‘ious’. *Drop ‘y’.	Add ‘less’.
anger	care	mountain	aim
ease*	doubt	danger	end
greed	peace	industry	harm
ice*	beauty*	mystery*	sense
oil	pity*	glory*	use

Add ‘al’. * Drop ‘e’.	Add ‘able’.	Add ‘ic’.*Drop ‘y’.	Add ‘ive’.
music	accept	acrobat	attract
nation	comfort	artist	effect
person	enjoy	photograph	act
nature*	fashion	sympathy*	instruct
agriculture*	respect	robot	progress

Adjectives can be formed from Nouns.

Noun	Adjective
accident	accidental
danger	dangerous
length	long
star	starry
wind	windy

Adjectives can be formed from Verbs.

Verb	Adjective
enjoy	enjoyable
help	helpful
obey	obedient
play	playful
talk	talkative

Adjectives can be formed from Adjectives.

Adjective	Adjective
comic	comical
correct	corrective
elder	elderly
red	reddish
sick	sickly

Comparison of adjectives

· We use the Positive degree to compare two equal nouns. For example: His house is as big as my house.

· We use the Comparative degree to compare two unequal nouns. For example: His house is bigger than my house.

· We use the Superlative degree to compare three or more Nouns. For example: His house is the biggest in the neighbourhood.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bold	bolder	boldest
deep	deeper	deepest
near	nearer	nearest
rich	richer	richest
tall	taller	tallest

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
careful	more careful	most careful
enjoyable	more enjoyable	most enjoyable
forgetful	more forgetful	most forgetful
useful	more useful	most useful
wonderful	more wonderful	most wonderful

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bad	worse	worst
good	better	best
little	less	least