Adjectives

Adjectives are an important part of speech. They usually describe a person or thing. They tell us what somebody or something is like.

• 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
• a dark 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).

The adjective is the enemy of the noun

This is sometimes said because, very often, if we use the precise noun we don't need an adjective. For example, instead of saying "a large, impressive house" (2 adjectives + 1 noun) we could simply say "a mansion" (1 noun).

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

• 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.

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

In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the adjective "big":

A1   A2

A1 is bigger than A2.

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

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

• short adjectives: add "-er"
• 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.
• America is big. But Russia is bigger.
• I want to have a more powerful 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.

Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things), in fact one or both of the things may be a group of things.

• Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains.

Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt Everest) to one other thing (all other mountains).

• 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).

In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big":

A   B   C

A is the biggest.

Formation of Superlative Adjectives

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

• short adjectives: add "-est"
• long adjectives: use "most"

We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

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

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use "-est" OR "most":

quiet → the quietest/most quiet

clever → the cleverest/most clever

narrow → the narrowest/most narrow

simple → the simplest/most simple

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.

When we compare one thing with itself, we do not use "the":

England is coldest in winter. (not the coldest)

My boss is most generous when we get a big order. (not the most generous)

• The Superlative Comparative Song

So you think your dog’s better than mine, do you?

Well we’ll soon see about that...

Here we go...

My cute dog is cuter than your ugly dog

My cute dog is the cutest of them all

Your ugly dog is uglier than my cute dog

I reckon it’s the ugliest dog for sure

My fast dog is faster than her slow dog

My fast dog is the fastest of them all

Her slow dog is slower than my fast dog

I reckon it’s the slowest dog for sure

My quiet dog is quieter than his noisy dog

My quiet dog is the quietest of them all

His noisy dog is noisier than my quiet dog

I reckon it’s the noisiest dog for sure

My cute dog is cuter than your ugly dog

My cute dog is the cutest of them all

Your ugly dog is uglier than my cute dog

I reckon it’s the ugliest dog for sure

My fast dog is faster than her slow dog

My fast dog is the fastest of them all

Her slow dog is slower than my fast dog

I reckon it’s the slowest dog for sure

My quiet dog is quieter than his noisy dog

My quiet dog is the quietest of them all

His noisy dog is noisier than my quiet dog

I reckon it’s the noisiest dog for sure

• Proper Adjectives

a Trumpian tweet, a Shakespearean play, the Thai baht, French cars

Each of the four examples above contains an adjective (Trumpian, Shakespearean, Thai, French) and you will immediately note that each adjective is capitalized—it starts with a capital letter. That is because each of those adjectives comes from a name (Trump, Shakespeare, Thailand, France). Names of people, organizations, countries, towns etc are "proper nouns" and need to be capitalized in English. Adjectives made from proper nouns are "proper adjectives" and also need to be capitalized.

Proper nouns are nouns that refer to unique places, people or organizations. The word "country" is a common noun because there are many countries. The word "Thailand" is a proper noun because there is only one Thailand and Thailand is its name. Just like you. You are unique and you have a name. Your name is a proper noun and in English we spell it with a capital letter at the start (example Elizabeth, Donald).

What are Proper Adjectives?

Most adjectives are "common adjectives". They describe people, places and things, for example:

• tall man, big dog, noisy baby
• large garden, empty room, beautiful city
• red car, hot weather, expensive watch

"Proper adjectives" also describe people, places and things, but they are based on names and therefore need to be capitalized, like the names. For example, Spain is the name of a country and starts with a capital letter. The adjective based on Spain (Spanish) must also start with a capital letter. Mars is the name of a planet and starts with a capital letter. The adjective based on Mars (Martian) must also start with a capital letter. Shakespeare was the name of a famous writer and starts with a capital letter. The adjective based on Shakespeare (Shakespearean) must also start with a capital letter.

• Since you live in Spain, do you enjoy Spanish food?
• If people ever live on the planet Mars, they will have to endure the extremes of the Martian climate.
• Although William Shakespeare is best known for his plays, many exams also cover Shakespearean poetry.

Proper adjectives are mostly of two types:

1. those that come from names of places—countries, continents, regions, cities
2. those that come from names of people—usually famous people, mostly historical, some modern

Proper Adjectives from Place Names (countries, continents, regions, cities)

Your country is a proper noun and it has a capitalized proper adjective. Here are a few examples of proper adjectives based on place names, and you can find a much longer list of proper adjectives based on place names here:

(place name) proper noun	proper adjective	example sentence
Africa	African	Jumbo was a famous African elephant.
Alaska	Alaskan	I just love to eat Alaskan salmon.
Alps	Alpine	We need an Alpine guide, please.
Amazon	Amazonian	They cut their way through the Amazonian rainforest.
Antarctica	Antarctic	Nothing could prepare them for the ferocity of the Antarctic winds.
Asia	Asian	How many Asian countries have you visited?
Atlantis (fictional)	Atlantean	He built an Atlantean castle for himself.
Bali	Balinese	They scanned the Balinese skyline.
Barcelona	Barcelonian	This is one of many Barcelonian traditions.
Brazil	Brazilian	I have a Brazilian boss.
Britain	British	My teacher is British.
China	Chinese	Let's go to a Chinese restaurant.
Costa Rica	Costa Rican	What are the Costa Rican beaches like?
Himalayas	Himalayan	Have you ever experienced a Himalayan winter?
Iran	Iranian	We haven't crossed the Iranian border yet.
Laos	Laotian	Is there a Laotian consulate here?
Lilliput (fictional)	Lilliputian	The only way this Lilliputian economy can grow is by exporting.
Madagasacar	Madagascan, Malagasy	His wife is Malagasy.
Mexico	Mexican	Do you like Mexican food?
Middle East	Middle Eastern	There has been a massive growth in Middle Eastern airlines.
Moscow	Muscovite	He was accompanied by two Mucovite women.
Paris	Parisian	Many Parisian streets are lined with trees.
Polynesia	Polynesian	It is one of the most endearing Polynesian traditions.
South America	South American	Cape Horn is the southern tip of the South American landmass.
the Philippines	Philippine	Can you change some Philippine pesos?
Tibet	Tibetan	He photographed the stunning Tibetan landscapes.
Toronto	Torontonian	We inched our way through the Torontonian traffic.
Uzbekistan	Uzbek	The Uzbek border is five miles from here.
Vienna	Viennese	Though I was born in London, my father was Viennese.

Proper Adjectives from People's Names (eponymous )

Your name is a proper noun and if you were super-famous it might have a capitalized proper adjective. Nouns and adjectives derived from people's names—both real and fictional—are called "eponymous". Eponymous adjectives are by definition proper adjectives. Here are a few examples, and you can find a much longer list of eponymous adjectives here:

(person's name) proper noun	proper adjective	example sentence
Gautama Buddha	Buddhist	This is the most famous of the Buddhist temples here.
Confucius	Confuciawas	He was a famous Confucian scholar.
Charles Darwin	Darwinian	Some people challenge the concept of Darwinian evolution.
Jesus Christ	Christian	These traditions are inherently Christian.
Queen Elizabeth	Elizabethan	Part of this building is Elizabethan.
Adolf Hitler	Hitlerian	The Hitlerian moustache originated in the need to trim moustaches to fit under gas-masks, worn in response to British mustard gas attacks.
Niccolò Machiavelli	Machiavellian	The tactics he encountered were almost Machiavellian.
Karl Marx	Marxist	We discussed the finer points of Marxist theory.
George Orwell	Orwellian	The vision he described was of a truly Orwellian future.
Vladimir Putin	Putinist	Many believe that the Putinist doctrine is no more than old-fashioned nationalism.
William Shakespeare	Shakespearean	How many Shakespearean plays have been made into films?
Margaret Thatcher	Thatcherite	He was at best a devoted Thatcherite editor.

Prefixes with Proper Adjectives

Normally, a prefix attached to a proper adjective should not be capitalized. Look at these examples:

• pre-Christian
  Paganism was one of many pre-Christian religions.
• pan-European
  The search for a pan-European identity started well before 1900.
• post-Thatcherite
  Did wages go up in post-Thatcherite Britain?

Note that the prefix should not be capitalized, unless it starts the sentence:

• anti-Western
  Anti-Western sentiment was an inevitable consequence.

If the prefix itself is formed from a proper noun, then the prefix should of course by capitalized. In the following example, Austro- comes from the proper noun Austria and Hungarian comes from the proper noun Hungary.

• Austro-Hungarian
  The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne led directly to the First World War.

In the next example, the prefix Afro- comes from the proper noun Africa, and Caribbean is the proper adjective from the proper noun Caribbean:

• Afro-Caribbean
  He loves Afro-Caribbean music.

Hyphenation with Proper Adjectives

The same logic applies with suffixes and other hyphenated forms—capitalize only the word or words derived from a proper noun:

• English-speaking
  She asked for an English-speaking guide to show her around.

When Proper Adjectives Lose their Connection

Sometimes proper adjectives lose their connection with the proper noun that gave them the right to be capitalized, for example:

• gargantuan, titanic, caesarian, draconian, herculean, spartan

• Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

1. Adjective Before Noun
2. Adjective After Verb

		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.
• 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)
• 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
• 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.
• 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

Not all grammarians agree about the exact order of adjectives, and the detailed rules are complicated. The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. These rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following conversations:

Conversation 1

A "I want to buy a round table."

B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?"

Conversation 2

A "I want to buy an old table".

B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"

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.
• Your friend looks nice.
• This towel feels damp.
• That new film doesn't sound very interesting.
• Dinner smells good 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.

Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective), the adjective can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.

• Adjective Gradability

Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns. Some qualities can vary in intensity or "grade", for example:

• rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest

The adjective hot is gradable.

Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:

• extremes (for example: freezing)
• absolutes (for example: dead)
• classifying (for example: nuclear)

The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear are non-gradable.

Gradable Adjectives

A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity. Look at these examples:

grading adverbs a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly, hugely, immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, slightly, unusually, very

+

gradable adjectives angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast, friendly, good, happy, high, hot, important, long, popular, rich, strong, tall, warm, weak, young

"Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives". "Grading adverbs" are also called "submodifiers".

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

• big, bigger, the biggest
• hot, hotter, the hottest
• important, more important, the most important

Look at these example sentences:

• My teacher was very happy with my homework.
• That website is reasonably popular. But this one is more popular.
• He said that France was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.

Non-gradable Adjectives

A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:

• It was rather freezing outside.
• The dog was very dead.
• He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.

Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:

• freezing, more freezing, the most freezing
• dead, deader, the deadest
• nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear

Don't try to learn lists of gradable and non-gradable adjectives! It's better to understand what makes an adjective gradable or non-gradable. This is a matter of logic and common sense. Most native-speakers have never heard of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. They just "feel" that it doesn't make sense to say "fairly excellent" or "very unique". You probably have the same idea in your language.

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:

• It was freezing outside.
• The dog was dead.
• He is investing in nuclear energy.

However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually just give the adjective extra impact), for example:

non-grading adverbs	non-gradable adjectives
absolutely	awful	extreme
utterly	excellent
completely	terrified
totally	dead	absolute
nearly	impossible
virtually	unique
essentially	chemical	classifying
mainly	digital
almost	domestic

Here are some example sentences containing non-grading adverbs with non-gradable adjectives:

• Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again.
• Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique.
• It starts an essentially chemical reaction.

Gradable / Non-gradable Adjectives

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It's possible for the same adjective to be gradable with one sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:

example sentence	adjective	sense
He's got a very old car.	gradable	not young
I saw my old boyfriend yesterday.	non-gradable	former, ex-
He has some dreadfully common habits.	gradable	vulgar
"The" is a very common word in English.	gradable	prevalent
The two countries' common border poses problems.	non-gradable	shared

Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The adverbs really (very much) and fairly and pretty (both meaning "to a significant degree, but less than very") can often be used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives:

gradable	non-gradable
Please don't forget! It's really important.	He was really terrified.
He's a fairly rich man.	It's a fairly impossible job.
He's pretty tall.	It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The sense of the adverb "quite" changes according to the gradability of the adjective that we use it with:

	adjective	sense
It's quite warm today.	gradable	fairly, rather
Are you quite certain?	non-gradable	completely, absolutely

Reference

Non-gradable adjectives

Although we don't recommend that you learn lists of non-gradable adjectives, here are some for reference. You can decide for yourself whether they are extreme, absolute or classifying.

• alive, awful, black, boiling, certain, correct, dead, domestic, enormous, environmental, excellent, freezing, furious, gigantic, huge, immediately, impossible, minuscule, mortal, overjoyed, perfect, pregnant, principal, ridiculous, superb, terrible, terrified, unique, unknown, white, whole

Non-grading adverbs

Again, no need to learn lists. Here are a few examples. There are many more. Remember that you cannot use all non-grading adverbs with all non-gradable adjectives. Some collocate (go together). Some don't.

• absolutely, almost, completely, entirely, exclusively, fully, largely, mainly, nearly, perfectly, practically, primarily, utterly, virtually

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjective-what.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-comparative.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-superlative.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-superlative-comparative-song.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-proper.php

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-order.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-gradability.htm