What is an Adjective?

The English Adjective

The Adjective is a part of speech that describes noun’s qualities:

color, size, taste, appearance, age, forms, material, shape and

answer to a question what? (what kind of)

red, good, young, strong, smart, interesting.

 

Adjectives do not have gender, number and case:

an old woman, an old man, two young men, three little kids.

 

Adjectives change in a form showing comparison:

small                   smaller                  smallest

 

 Adjectives are divided into:

simple, derivative and compound.

 

Simple Adjectives:

do not have suffixes and prefixes: big, short, red, black, young

 

Derivative Adjectives:

are formed by adding suffixes or prefixes, and sometimes the both of them at the same time:

correct          in – correct

important      un– important

 

significant      in – significant

tolerant          in – tolerant

un – comfort – able

un – success – ful

 

             Common suffixes for Adjectives:

               able/ible                adorable

                                                terrible

                ant/ent                  pleasant

                                                confident

                ate                          passionate

                ful                          wonderful

                ian                         Canadian

                ical                         medical

                ish                          selfish

                like                         child-like

                some                      awesome

                y                               noisy

                ous                          famous

                  less                       helpless

 

                 Common prefixes for Adjectives:

Un	Unjust
	unfortunate
Im	immature
	impatient
In	inconvenient
Ir	irreplaceable
Il	Illegal
Non	non-political
Dis	dishonest

 

                    Compound Adjectives:

   Some adjectives have a compound form and consist of

two words with one semantic meaning:

short-term   blue-collar   white-washed    ill-minded

home-bred   ice-cold       overcooked       well-known         seasick

 

Adjectives occur before nouns modifying them and have

attributive function, when it comes after a verb it plays predicative function:

The large (attributive) vase is on the table.

The vase is large (predicative).

 

Click here to learn more about The English Adjective

Click here to learn more about What is a Pronoun? The Functions of the English pronouns.

Click here to learn more about What is a Noun? How to use it?