Where adjectives go in a sentence
Level: beginner
We use adjectives to describe nouns.
Most adjectives can be used in front of a noun:
They have a beautiful house.
We saw a very exciting film last night.
or after a link verb like be, look or feel:
Their house is beautiful.
That film looks interesting.
Adjectives with ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’
Level: beginner
A lot of adjectives are made from verbs by adding -ing or -ed:
-ing adjectives
The commonest -ing adjectives are:
| amusing annoying boring disappointing exciting interesting | frightening tiring shocking surprising worrying |
If you say something is interesting, you mean it interests you:
I read a very interesting article in the newspaper today.
If you say something is terrifying, you mean it terrifies you:
That Dracula film was absolutely terrifying.
-ed adjectives
The commonest –ed adjectives are:
| annoyed bored closed delighted disappointed | excited frightened tired worried |
If something bores you, you can say you feel bored.
We had nothing to do. We were really bored.
If something terrifies you, you can say you are terrified.
I didn’t really enjoy the Dracula film. Most of the time I was terrified.
Adjective order
Level: intermediate
Two adjectives
We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:
a handsome young man
a big black car
that horrible big dog
Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun:
| good bad lovely strange | nice beautiful brilliant excellent | awful important wonderful nasty |
He’s a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful teacher.
That’s a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful book.
Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of noun, for example:
| Food | Furniture, buildings | People, animals |
|---|---|---|
| delicious tasty | comfortable uncomfortable | clever intelligent friendly |
We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:
nice tasty soup
a nasty uncomfortable armchair
a lovely intelligent animal
We usually put an opinion adjective in front of a descriptive adjective:
a nice red dress
a silly old man
those horrible yellow curtains
Adjectives after link verbs
We use some adjectives only after a link verb:
| afraid alive alone asleep content glad | ill ready sorry sure unable well |
Some of the commonest –ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:
| annoyed bored finished pleased thrilled |
We say:
Our teacher was ill.
My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
The policeman seemed to be very annoyed.
but we do not say:
We had
an ill teacher.
When he heard the news he wasa very glad uncle.
He seemed to bea very annoyed policeman.
Level: advanced
Three or more adjectives
Sometimes we have three adjectives in front of a noun, but this is unusual:
a nice handsome young man
a big black American car
that horrible big fierce dog
It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.
Adjectives usually come in this order:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General opinion | Specific opinion | Size | Shape | Age | Colour | Nationality | Material |
Adjectives in front of nouns
A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:
| north south east west | northern southern eastern western | countless occasional lone mere | indoor outdoor |
We say:
He lives in the eastern district.
There were countless problems with the new machinery.
but we do not say:
The district he lives in is eastern.The problems with the new machinery were countless.
Comparative and superlative adjectives
Level: beginner
Comparative adjectives
We use comparative adjectives to show change or make comparisons:
This car is certainly better, but it’s much more expensive.
I’m feeling happier now.
We need a bigger garden.
We use than when we want to compare one thing with another:
She is two years older than me.
New York is much bigger than Boston.
He is a better player than Ronaldo.
France is a bigger country than Britain.
When we want to describe how something or someone changes we can use two comparatives with and:
The balloon got bigger and bigger.
Everything is getting more and more expensive.
Grandfather is looking older and older.
We often use the with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on another:
The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
(= When you drive faster, it is more dangerous.)The higher they climbed, the colder it got.
(= When they climbed higher, it got colder.)
Superlative adjectives
We use the with superlative adjectives:
It was the happiest day of my life.
Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
That’s the best film I have seen this year.
I have three sisters: Jan is the oldest and Angela is the youngest.
How to form comparative and superlative adjectives
We usually add –er and –est to one-syllable words to make comparatives and superlatives:
| old | older | oldest |
| long | longer | longest |
If an adjective ends in –e, we add –r or –st:
| nice | nicer | nicest |
| large | larger | largest |
If an adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant, we double the consonant:
| big | bigger | biggest |
| fat | fatter | fattest |
If an adjective ends in a consonant and –y, we change –y to –i and add –er or –est:
| happy | happier | happiest |
| silly | sillier | silliest |
We use more and most to make comparatives and superlatives for most two syllable adjectives and for all adjectives with three or more syllables:
| careful | more careful | most careful |
| interesting | more interesting | most interesting |
However, with these common two-syllable adjectives, you can either add –er/–r and –est/–st or use more and most:
| common cruel gentle handsome likely | narrow pleasant polite simple stupid |
He is certainly handsomer than his brother.
His brother is handsome, but he is more handsome.
She is one of the politest people I have ever met.
She is the most polite person I have ever met.
The adjectives good, bad and far have irregular comparatives and superlatives:
| good | better | best |
| bad | worse | worst |
| far | farther/further | farthest/furthest |
Intensifiers
Level: intermediate
We use words like very, really and extremely to make adjectives stronger:
It’s a very interesting story.
Everyone was very excited.
It’s a really interesting story.
Everyone was extremely excited.
We call these words intensifiers. Other intensifiers are:
| amazingly exceptionally incredibly | particularly remarkably unusually |
We also use enough to say more about an adjective, but enough comes after its adjective:
If you are seventeen, you are old enough to drive a car.
I can’t wear those shoes. They’re not big enough.
Intensifiers with strong adjectives
Strong adjectives are words like:
| very big | enormous, huge |
|---|---|
| very small | tiny |
| very clever | brilliant |
| very bad | awful, terrible, disgusting, dreadful |
| very sure | certain |
| very good | excellent, perfect, ideal, wonderful, splendid |
| very tasty | delicious |
We do not normally use very with these adjectives. We do not say something is very enormous or someone is very brilliant.
With strong adjectives, we normally use intensifiers like:
| absolutely completely exceptionally particularly | really quite totally utterly |
The film was absolutely awful.
He was an exceptionally brilliant child.
The food smelled really disgusting.
| Be careful! |
|---|
| Level: advanced Intensifiers with particular adjectives Some intensifiers go with particular adjectives depending on the meaning of the adjective: I’m afraid your wife is dangerously ill. The engine was dangerously hot. The car was seriously damaged. Fortunately none of the passengers was seriously hurt. Some intensifiers go with particular adjectives. For example, we use the intensifier highly with the adjectives successful, intelligent, likely and unlikely: He was highly intelligent. She’s a highly successful businesswoman. but we do NOT say: We were bitterly disappointed to lose the match. It can get bitterly cold in winter. You need to use your dictionary to find which nouns these intensifiers go with. |
Level: intermediate
Intensifiers with comparatives and superlatives
We use these words and phrases as intensifiers with comparative adjectives:
| much far a lot quite a lot | a great deal a good deal a good bit a fair bit |
He is much older than me.
New York is a lot bigger than Boston.
We use much and far as intensifiers with comparative adjectives in front of a noun:
France is a much bigger country than Britain.
He is a far better player than Ronaldo.
We use easily and by far as intensifiers with superlative adjectives:
The blue whale is easily the biggest animal in the world.
This car was by far the most expensive.
Level: Advanced
Adjectives as intensifiers
We use some adjectives as intensifiers with nouns:
| absolute complete total | perfect real utter |
We say:
He’s a complete idiot.
They were talking utter nonsense.
but we do NOT say:
The idiot was complete.The nonsense they were talking was utter.
Mitigators
Level: intermediate
Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. When we want to make an adjective less strong we use these words: fairly, rather, quite
By the end of the day, we were rather tired.
The film wasn’t great, but it was quite exciting.
and in informal English: pretty
We had a pretty good time at the party.
| Be careful! |
|---|
| Level: advancedquiteWhen we use quite with a normal adjective, it makes the adjective less strong:The food was quite bad. (= The food was bad but not very bad.)My nephew is quite clever. (= My nephew is clever but not very clever.)But when we use quite with a strong adjective, it means the same as absolutely:The food was quite awful. (= The food was absolutely awful.)As a child he was quite brilliant. (= As a child he was absolutely brilliant.) |
Level: intermediate
Mitigators with comparatives
We use these words and phrases as mitigators:
| a bit just a bit a little a little bit | rather slightly just a little bit |
She’s a bit younger than I am.
It takes two hours on the train but it is a little bit longer by road.
This one is rather bigger.
We use slightly and rather as mitigators with comparative adjectives in front of a noun:
This is a slightly more expensive model than that.
This is a rather bigger one than that.
Noun modifiers
Level: beginner
We often use two nouns together to show that one thing is a part of something else:
the village church
the car door
the kitchen window
the chair leg
my coat pocket
London residents
In these examples, the first noun is called a noun modifier.
| Be careful! |
|---|
| We do not use a possessive form for these things. We do NOT talk about: |
We can use noun modifiers to show what something is made of:
a gold watch
a leather purse
a metal box
We often use noun modifiers with nouns ending in –er:
an office worker
a jewellery maker
a potato peeler
We use measurements, age or value as noun modifiers:
a thirty-kilogram suitcase
a two-minute rest
a five-thousand-euro platinum watch
a fifty-kilometre journey
We often use nouns ending in –ing as noun modifiers:
a shopping list
a swimming lesson
a walking holiday
a washing machine
We often put two nouns together and readers/listeners have to work out what they mean:
an ice bucket
(= a bucket to keep ice in)an ice cube
(= a cube made of ice)an ice breaker
(= a ship which breaks ice)the ice age
(= the time when much of the Earth was covered in ice)
Sometimes we find more than two nouns together:
London office workers
grammar practice exercises
Noun modifiers come after adjectives:
the old newspaper seller
a tiring fifty-kilometre journey