Definition of Adjective

Adjectives are words that use to describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like huge, little, and sharp are descriptive, and they are all case of descriptors. Since descriptive words are utilized to recognize or evaluate distinct individuals and one of a kind things, they are normally situated before the thing or pronoun that they adjust. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.

Notes - Forming Adjective

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:

1.      -able/-ible forgettable, responsible, visible

2.    -al chemical, national, industrial
3.      -ful beautiful, colorful, faithful
4.      -ic artistic, classic, romantic, fantastic
5.    -ive attractive, imaginative, decorative
6.    -less hopeless, careless, useless
7.     -ous dangerous, jealous, anonymous, nervous 

Forming adjectives from ending

Sometimes when adding these endings changes have to be made. Here are some rules for forming adjectives and their exceptions:

Add	Exceptions	Word	Adjective
-al	If ending with an ‘e‘, drop it	Brute Universe	Brutal Universal
-y	If ending with an ‘p‘, drop it	Sleep Slop	Sleepy Sloppy
-ful	If ending with a ‘y‘, replace with an ‘i‘	Beauty Duty	Beautiful Dutiful
-ous/-ious	If ending with a ‘e‘, drop it	Advantage Adventure	Advantageous Adventurous
-ic	If ending with a ‘t‘, drop it	Artist  Rust	Artistic Rustic

Forming adjectives from nouns and verbs

Adjectives can be formed from different words. They can be formed from nouns:

Noun	Adjective
Anger	Angry
Juice	Juicy
Luck	Lucky
Pain	Painful
Youth	Young

From Verb:

Verb	Adjective
Please	Pleasant
Attract	Attractive
Freeze	Frozen
Amuse	Amused
Urge	Urgent

Examples

1.      Our house color is a kind of yellow. → We live in a yellowish house.

2.      He often acts like a child. → He often acts in a childish way.

3.      The event was a big success. → We enjoyed a successful event.

4.      We enjoyed the sound of the drum’s rhythm. → We enjoyed the drum’s rhythmic sound.

5.      She adopted a dog without a home. → She adopted a homeless dog.

6.      Look out, that plant is poison. → Look out for that poisonous plant.

7.      It looks like it will rain today. → It looks like we’ll have rainy weather today.

Notes - Denominal adjective

What are denominal adjectives?

Denominal adjectives (sometimes called denominal adjectives) are adjectives derived from nouns. For example:

1. Friday is a busy day for me.

2. The Chinese Embassy is just down the road.

3. The Prime Minister is a close friend of mine.

Examples of denominal adjectives:

1. A mathematical puzzle.
2. A biological experiment.
3. A wooden boat.
4. I married an American woman.
5. The Jewish community in NY is very big.
6. Mary has a collection of expensive Russian dolls.
7. In the winter you must wear heavy woolen clothes.
8. The polar bear is listed as threatened.
9. We walked along at a leisurely pace.
10. He does an hourly check of his email. 

Notes - Comparing Adjective

As well as serving as adjusting words like beautiful and big, adjectives are also used for indicating the position on a scale of comparison. The lowest point on the scale is known as the outright shape the center point is known as the similar structure, and the highest point is known as the superlative structure. Here are a few example:

1.   This book is longer than that book.
2.   My exam mark is better than your.
3.   My grandmother is older than your grandmother.

Here are the rules for choosing and forming the right form:

Add	When	Example	Forming and Exceptions
more	Words of two syllables not ending with ‘y‘	She is more beautiful than her sister.	·         Insert more before the adjective
–er	Words of one syllable	The table in this class is smaller than other class.	·         Words ending with ‘e‘, add ‘r‘ to the end of the word (e.g., lame → lamer). ·         Words with one vowel and one consonant at the end, double the consonant and add –er to the end of the word (e.g., big → bigger). Words with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end, add –er to the end of the word (e.g., hard → harder).
more	Three syllable words or longer	This is a more powerful cable.	Insert more before the adjective
-er	Words of two syllables ending with ‘y‘	This doll is prettier.	Change ‘y‘ to ‘i‘, and add –er to the end of the word.

Notes - Superlatives

The superlative is used to say what thing or person has the most of a particular quality within a group or of its kind.

1.      KLCC is the highest building in Malaysia.
2.    China has the most population in the world.
3.    He is the heaviest person in the room.

Here are the rules for choosing and forming the right form:

Add	When	Example	Forming and Exceptions
–est	Words of two syllables ending with ‘y‘	The Horror movie is the scariest movie in this year.	Change ‘y‘ to ‘i‘, and add –est to the end of the word.
most	Three syllable words or longer	The doll is the most expensive toy in the shop.	Insert most before the adjective
–est	Words of one syllable	He is the shortest boy is the boy.	·         Words ending with ‘e‘, add ‘st‘ to the end of the word (e.g., large → largest). ·         Words with one vowel and one consonant at the end, double the consonant and add –est to the end of the word (e.g., big → biggest). ·         Words with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end, add –est to the end of the word (e.g., blue → bluest).
most	Words of two syllables not ending with ‘y‘	Thian Hooi is the most clever boy in the kindergarden.	Insert most before the adjective

Exceptions (irregular forms).

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Absolute	Comparative	Superlative
Good	Better	Best
Bad	Worse	Worst
Little	Less	Least
Much/many/some	More	Most

Notes - Compound Adjective

What are compound adjectives?

A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives are joined together to modify the same noun. These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or ambiguity. For example:

1. I love this brightly-lit room!
2. Danny’s dog is well-behaved.
3. You have to be open-minded about things.

Compound adjectives – Exceptions

Note that combining an adverb and an adjective does not create a compound adjective. No hyphen is required because it is already clear that the adverb modifies the adjective rather than the subsequent noun. For example:

1.      It was a terribly hot day.

2.      It is an amazingly good idea.

Notes - Order of adjective

How to order adjectives in English?

In many languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the adjective order in English is: 

1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Colour
7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
8. Purpose or qualifier

When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word and is placed between the two adjectives:

1. The house is green and red.
2. The library has old and new books.

When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma between each of the coordinate adjectives:

1. We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street.
2. My friend lost a red, black and white watch.

Examples:

1. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion – color – material]
2. Some slim new French trousers. [dimension – age – origin]
3. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin]
4. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color – material]
5. My sister has a big, beautiful, tan and white, bulldog. [size – quality – colour – colour]