Adjectives are used to give us more information about nouns.
Blue cars
Young children
Difficult questions
When using more than one adjective, you should use this order: size/shape + age + color + origin + material.
A small wooden box
An old Russian painting
To make many opposite adjectives we use the prefixes un, in, or dis at the start of the word.
believable – unbelievable
complete - incomplete
We use comparative adjectives to compare to nouns.
My sister is older than me
Short one-syllable words usually take er to make the comparative.
I think dogs are more intelligent than cats.
Longer words take more to make the comparative.
The town is even dirtier than I remember.
For adjectives that end in y, change the y to i and add er.
The superlative form is made by adding -est or most
Small – smaller –smallest
Beautiful – more beautiful – most beautiful
Adjectives that already express an extreme do not take a comparative or superlative. For example, when something is very cold we say that it is freezing.
Turn the heater on; it’s freezing in this room.
We cannot say: It’s more freezing than yesterday, or It’s very freezing in here.
Participle verb forms can be adjectives.
A bored student - the -ed tells us how the student feels i.e. He feels bored.
A boring student - the ing tells describes the students i.e. He is boring, don't talk to him!
It can be difficult to remember which prepositions to use with -ed form.
I'm scared of spiders.
She's interested in art.
They were satisfied with the service.
We were excited by the news.
Now take this short adjective quiz:
