ADJECTIVES

I. FORM:

 In English, adjectives have only one form, regardless of the genre or number of the noun.

Examples: an old man / old men

an old woman / old women
an old car / old cars

 When a noun is used as an adjective, it does not have a plural form.

Examples: two hours → a two-hour meeting

three weeks → a three-week holiday

 We can use adjectives derived from Present Participle (-ing) and Past Participle (Vb. III)

Examples: The news was surprising to us all.  feeling

We were all surprised by the news.  effect

The film was boring.

After having watched the film, Peter was bored.

II. POSITION:

An adjective can come in two places in a sentence:

 before a noun: new shoes, an interesting book, the young girl.

 after verbs such as be, look, appear, seem, feel, taste, smell, sound, etc., when we describe the
subject of the sentence.

Examples: These shoes look new.

The book seems interesting.
The girl is young.

 a few adjectives (e.g. asleep, alone, afraid, alive, awake, ill, well) can come after a verb, but not
before a noun, so we use other adjectives instead.

Examples: The baby is asleep → The asleep child → The sleeping baby
The man was alone → The alone man → The lonely man
The dog looks afraid → The afraid dog → The frightened dog
The child is ill → The ill child → The sick child

 in expressions of measurement, the adjective normally comes after the measurement noun.

Examples: I'm twenty-four years old.

He's 1.80 metres tall.
The Brooklyn Bridge is 1.8 kilometres long.

 an adjective turns into a noun if it is preceded by the definite article the. However, the noun created
in this manner designates a whole class and not a particular item (a person, a thing).
Examples: The rich don't always know the real value of money. → the people who are rich, in general.
This hostel was specially built to shelter the homeless. → the homeless people

III. ORDER:

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, they generally go in the following order:

size + age + shape + colour + origin + material + purpose + NOUN

Examples: a new English book

a small brown paper bag
a big old round yellow English tweed sun hat

IV. PUNCTUATION:

 There is usually no punctuation between two or more types of adjectives before a noun.

Example: Anderson works in a lovely old Victorian building. His office has big black leather chairs.

 We normally put a comma between describing adjectives in a set of two or more of the same type,
especially those representing opinions where the order could easily be changed.

Example: She likes wild, vivid, flashy designs.

He was just a normal, quiet, rather shy teenager.

 We use and between two adjectives of the same type, e.g. colours, and also between two adjectives
that come after a linking verb.

Example: The suspect was wearing a red and black cap.

She likes Greek and Lebanese food.
We discussed financial and educational topics.
– What does your bag look like? – It’s small and black.

 In the case of three or more adjectives of the same type, we use commas between the first and and
between the last two.

Example: In recent years, the island has experienced social, political and economic problems.

V. DEGREES OF COMPARISON:

1) For short (usually monosyllabic) adjectives we add -er (comparative) and the … -est (superlative).

Examples: ADJECTIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

smart smarter the smartest

young younger the youngest
cold colder the coldest
 Sometimes, there are changes in spelling:

Examples: ADJECTIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

hot hotter the hottest

big bigger the biggest
red redder the reddest
happy happier the happiest
sunny sunnier the sunniest

2) Adjectives which are longer receive more (comparative) and the most (superlative).

Examples: ADJECTIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

interesting more interesting the most interesting

beautiful more beautiful the most beautiful
honest more honest the most honest
reliable more reliable the most reliable

VI. IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES:

Some adjectives have irregular comparatives and superlatives.

Examples: ADJECTIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

good better the best

bad worse the worst
far farther the farthest
further the furthest
old older the oldest
elder the eldest
little less the least
much/many more the most

VII. USE OF COMPARISONS:

1) Comparatives:

 We use comparatives to compare one thing / person (one group of things / persons) with another;

Examples: Mark is smarter than his brother.

Mark is more intelligent than his brother.
Lions are bigger than leopards.
China is more populated than India.

 We can use comparative + “and” + comparative to say that something increases or decreases;

Examples: The weather is getting colder and colder.

Things are becoming more and more expensive all the time.
  When we use “the” + comparative clause … “the” + comparative clause, we show that two things
change together or that one thing depends on the other;

Examples: The richer one is, the less fortunate they are.
The smaller a car is, the easier it is to park.

 We can grade comparatives by using very (much), a lot, a little, a (little) bit, etc.

Examples: Mark is a bit smarter than his brother.

Lions are much bigger than cats.
China is a lot more populated than Romania.

 we use as … as to show that something is similar to something else.

Examples: as good as gold

as guilty as sin
as happy as a cricket
as black as coal
as beautiful as a rose

2) Superlatives:

 We use superlatives when we compare one or several persons / things in a group with the rest of the
people / things in that group;

Examples: Jim is the most talented guy in our company.

That must be the most boring film I've ever seen.
Airplanes are the fastest means of transport.

 Before a superlative, we often use such phrases as by far, easily or definitely.

Examples: Jim is by far the most talented guy in our company.

This is definitely the most interesting course this year.
That must be by far the fastest car I've ever driven.