ADJECTIVES LNG2163MS ONALIZA SATIMIN

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?Tells you such things as the size, age, colour, material or quality of a person or thing. Might also show the speaker’s own opinion of something.

ATTRIBUTIVE

Comes before the noun it describese.g. Polite children don’t interrupt.I’m here to see the amazingsight.

PREDICATIVE

Comes after a linking verb

e.g. Ben seemed upset.This tea tastes odd.

POSITION OF ADJECTIVES IN A SENTENCE

Certain transitive verbs can also act as a kind of linking verb and have an adjective as an object complemente.g. I consider him irresponsible.I find that unbelievable.

• Some often-predicative adjectives can have a different meaning in the attributive position:

• What are among the normally predicative adjectives?

Predicative Attributive

I’m feeling fine. …fine weather.

Sorry I’m late. My lategrandfather…

…growing oldtogether.

I met an old friend.

I was not present on that occasion.

The present owner of the property…

Payment is duetomorrow.

You were driving without due care.

POSTPOSITIVE ADJECTIVES

• There is a third position that an adjective can take. It comes directly after a noun (or pronoun).

e.g. 1. Are you doing anything interesting

later?2. The cops want to contact the people

concerned.3. Those present gave their full support

to the scheme.

TYPES OF ADJECTIVES AND THEIR ORDER

OPINION

SIZE

COLOUR

AGE

ORIGIN

SHAPE

MATERIAL

PURPOSE

e.g. elegant, beautiful, ugly

e.g. large, small, tall, thin

e.g. old, ancient

e.g. round, flat, circular

e.g. blue, red, yellow

e.g. English, French, Indian

e.g. steel, wooden, leather

e.g. wedding, sleeping

• When you use a string of adjectives that are of different kinds, you don’t need commas between them:

A high circular grey stone wall

• When the adjectives are of the same kind, you usually put commas between them:

A violent, brutal attackA nasty, dishonest trick

• Certain adjectives can be made nouns to refer to a class of people.

• Definite article ’the’ is placed before these adjectives.

Classes within the community: the dead, the disabled, the richPeople of certain nationalities: the British, the Irish

Commas between adjectives

ADJECTIVES THAT CAN BECOME NOUNS

THE COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMSPOSITIVE

(normal base form of the adjective)

COMPARATIVE(comparing two

things, two people, and so on)

SUPERLATIVE(comparing three or more things, people, groups)

HOW DO COMPARATIVES WORK GRAMMATICALLY

• Comparative + than• Comparative + to: adjectives with the ending -ior in English and can be used in a

comparative or non-comparative way.e.g. The Duck Restaurant is inferior to the Swan Restaurant.

The Duck is an inferior restaurant.• Comparative + of + the two people or things being comparedThe taller of the two girls was called Melanie.

HOW DO SUPERLATIVES WORK GRAMMATICALLY

• The + superlative• Superlative with following noun omitted• Superlative + of + plural group• Superlative + in + place• Superlative + of + period of time• Possessive (apostrophe) + superlative• One of the + superlative

GRADABLE AND NON-GRADABLE ADJECTIVES

• Adjectives that can have a comparative and superlative form are called gradable, because it’s possible for there to be different grades or degrees of the quality concerned,

e.g. Joe is clever, Dan is cleverer than Joe, but Jim is the cleverest.

• Gradable adjectives can appear stronger or less strong using intensifiers (very, extremely) or modifiers (fairly, pretty, quite, rather, slightly, a bit, a little, somewhat).

• Some adjectives are non-gradable. For example, something can't be a bit finished or very finished. You can't be a bit dead or very dead. These adjectives describe absolute qualities. To make them stronger we have to use modifiers like absolutely, totally or completely:

Thank you, I love it! It's absolutely perfect!Their farm was totally destroyed by a tornado.My work is completely finished. Now I can relax.

ADJECTIVES + PREPOSITION