Adjectives. Adjectives endings.

 Adjectives

 

Adjectives are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs. Examples of adjectives are: big, small, blue, old, rich and nice. They give us more information about people, animals or things represented by nouns and pronouns:

*Examples:

That’s a big house.

Look at the grey horse.

Some dogs have long tails.

She is tall.

 

Meanings of adjectives

Adjectives give us more information. They modify or describe features and qualities of people, animals and things.

Here are some of the common meanings.

 

1-           examples	meaning
I am fond of ice cream. Cairo is different from Alexandria. His car is similar to mine.	Relations between people and things. These adjectives usually require a word or phrase (complement) to complete their meaning.

Other examples:

keen (on), near (to), aware (of)

 

 

 

2-           examples:                                

He’s generous.

She’s a kind woman.

The waiter was very polite.

 

 

* Meaning:

                                                            Descriptions of                                                                                           people and things in terms of their actions.

 

 

*Other examples:

talkative, cruel, cooperative, helpful, useful

 

 

3-           Examples:

That’s an old house.

The Olympic stadium is big.

*Meaning:

Features that will last a long time or will not change (permanent).

 

* Other examples:

tall, old, good, rough, true, ugly, red, heavy

 

 

4-           Examples:

Anyone hungry?

Lunch is nearly ready.

It’s so cold in Nick’s house.

 

·      Meaning:

·      States and conditions that can change.

 

 

·      Other examples:

·      absent, ill, dry, full, lonely, wet, hot, thirsty, angry

 

 

5-Examples:

I saw a great French film last night.

I don’t like modern paintings.

I live in a detached house.

·      Meaning:

·      Classifying people and things into types.

 

·      Other examples:

 

organic (vegetables), impressionist (painter), wild (salmon)

·      Adjectives: forms:

Unlike in many other languages, adjectives in English do not change (agree) with the noun that they modify:

 

·      Examples:

All new foreign students are welcome to join the clubs and societies.

Not: All new foreign students …

Every room was painted in different colours.

Not: … in differents colours.

·     Identifying adjectives

There is no general rule for making adjectives. We know they are adjectives usually by what they do (their function) in a sentence. However, some word endings (suffixes) are typical of adjectives.

·      suffix	·      examples
·      -able, -ible	·      comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
·      -al, -ial	·      comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
·      -ful	·      beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-ic	classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ical	aeronautical, alphabetical, political
-ish	British, childish, Irish, foolish
-ive, -ative	active, alternative, creative, talkative
-less	endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
-eous, -ious, -ous	spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
-y	angry, busy, wealthy, windy

Warning:

Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:

The economic policy of this government has failed.

A diesel car is usually more economical than a petrol one.

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

·      Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.

 

 

noun	adjective
hero	heroic
wind	windy
child	childish
beauty	beautiful

 

verb	adjective
read	readable
talk	talkative
use	useful
like	likeable

 

I hate windy days.

San Francisco is a very hilly place.

Some words ending in -ly can be both adjectives and adverbs. These include daily, early, monthly, weekly, nightly, yearly:

Adjective: She gets a weekly payment from her parents. (She gets money every week.)

Adverb: I pay my rent weekly. (I pay my rent every week.)

 

 

·      Some words ending in -ly are only adjectives and not adverbs. These include: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lonely, lovely, oily, orderly, scholarly, silly, smelly, timely, ugly, woolly.

We enjoyed the trip to America but it was a costly holiday.

Oily fish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.

 

 

 

 

·      Prefixes:

 

Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- change the meaning of adjectives. Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

 

Adjectives: forms

 

 

Unlike in many other languages, adjectives in English do not change (agree) with the noun that they modify:

All new foreign students are welcome to join the clubs and societies.

Not: All new foreigns students …

Every room was painted in different colours.

Not: … in differents colours.

Identifying adjectives

There is no general rule for making adjectives. We know they are adjectives usually by what they do (their function) in a sentence. However, some word endings (suffixes) are typical of adjectives.

suffix	examples
-able, -ible	comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
-al, -ial	comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
-ful	beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-ic	classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ical	aeronautical, alphabetical, political
-ish	British, childish, Irish, foolish
-ive, -ative	active, alternative, creative, talkative
-less	endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
-eous, -ious, -ous	spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
-y	angry, busy, wealthy, windy

Warning:

Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:

The economic policy of this government has failed.

A diesel car is usually more economical than a petrol one.

·         Adjectives

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.

noun	adjective
hero	heroic
wind	windy
child	childish
beauty	beautiful
verb	adjective
read	readable
talk	talkative
use	useful
like	likeable

I hate windy days.

San Francisco is a very hilly place.

Some words ending in -ly can be both adjectives and adverbs. These include daily, early, monthly, weekly, nightly, yearly:

Adjective: She gets a weekly payment from her parents. (She gets money every week.)

Adverb: I pay my rent weekly. (I pay my rent every week.)

Some words ending in -ly are only adjectives and not adverbs. These include: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lonely, lovely, oily, orderly, scholarly, silly, smelly, timely, ugly, woolly.

We enjoyed the trip to America but it was a costly holiday.

Oily fish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.

·         Prefixes:

 

Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- change the meaning of adjectives. Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

un-	in-	ir-
fair – unfair	active – inactive	responsible – irresponsible
happy – unhappy	appropriate – inappropriate	regular – irregular
sure – unsure	complete – incomplete	reducible – irreducible

 

 

 

im-	il-
balance – imbalance	legal – illegal
polite – impolite	legible – illegible
possible – impossible	logical – illogical

 

Put a video with the adjectives endings and make examples and sentences.