Adjectives

ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. 

Adjectives generally appear immediately before the noun.

• A pretty girl

• Red flowers

• A long stick

• Heavy boxes

• Warm weather

* Commonly, adjectives of opposite meaning are formed by adding a prefix such as un, in, or dis.

• clear – unclear, important – unimportant, predictable – unpredictable, believable – unbelievable, common – uncommon, conventional – unconventional, certain – uncertain
• definite – indefinite, correct – incorrect, comparable – incomparable, complete – incomplete, evitable – inevitable, expensive – inexpensive
• able – disable, assemble – disassemble, content – discontent, similar – dissimilar

* When using a string of adjectives, they should appear in a set order: size/shape + age + color + origin + material.

• A big brown house
• A small old English desk
• A beautiful black Italian leather purse
• Delicious Chinese food

* The + adjective describes a class or group of people and acts as a noun.

• the old, the young, the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, etc.
• This popular TV show is loved by the old.

Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

1. before the noun
2. after some verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell, taste)

		adjectivebefore noun	noun	verb	adjectiveafter verb
1	I have a	big	dog.
2			Snow	is	white.

- TYPES:

* Determiners

Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically similar. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.

Articles:

• a, an, the

Possessive Adjectives:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Other determiners:

• each, every
• either, neither
• some, any, no
• much, many; more, most
• little, less, least
• few, fewer, fewest
• what, whatever; which, whichever
• both, half, all
• several
• enough

* Possessives 

Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them with pronouns!

We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive adjectives are:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• whose (interrogative)

number	person	gender	possessive adjective	example sentence
singular	1st	male/female	my	This is my book.
	2nd	male/female	your	I like your hair.
	3rd	male	his	His name is "John".
		female	her	Her name is "Mary".
		neuter	its	The dog is licking its paw.
plural	1st	male/female	our	We have sold our house.
	2nd	male/female	your	Your children are lovely.
	3rd	male/female/neuter	their	The students thanked theirteacher.
singular/plural	1st/2nd/3rd	male/female (not neuter)	whose	Whose phone did you use?

Note1:

Compare:

your = possessive adjective
you're = you are

its = possessive adjective
it's = it is OR it has

their = possessive adjective
they're = they are
there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside)

whose = possessive adjective
who's = who is OR who has

Note2: 

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective "its". We use an apostrophe to write the short form of "it is" or "it has". For example:
it's raining = it is raining
it's finished = it has finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.

* Comparatives

When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same or different. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can use comparative adjectives to describe the differences.

In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the adjective "big":

A1 A2 A1 is bigger than A2.

Note: We can use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things).

* Superlatives

A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things.

In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big":

A B C A is the biggest.

Note: We can use superlative adjectives when talking about three or more things (not two things).

* Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives

Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns.

• Some qualities can vary in intensity or grade (for example: rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest).
  
  The adjective hot is gradable.
• Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:
  1. extremes (for example: freezing)
  2. absolutes (for example: dead)
  3. classifying (for example: nuclear)

The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear are non-gradable.

- Gradable Adjectives

A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity. Look at these examples:

grading adverbs a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly, hugely, immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, slightly, unusually, very

+

gradable adjectives angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast, friendly, good, happy, high, hot, important, long, popular, rich, strong, tall, warm, weak, young

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

Note: "Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives". "Grading adverbs" are also called "submodifiers".

• big, bigger, the biggest
• hot, hotter, the hottest
• important, more important, the most important

Look at these example sentences:

• My teacher was very happy with my homework.
• That website is reasonably popular. But this one is more popular.
• He said that Holland was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.

Note: The adjective dead is non-gradable because it is anabsolute. Dead is dead. We cannot be more or less dead. One person cannot be "deader" than another. Other absolutes include: correct, unique, perfect

- Non-gradable Adjectives

A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:

• It was rather freezing outside.
• The dog was very dead.
• He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.

Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:

• freezing, more freezing, the most freezing
• dead, deader, the deadest
• nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:

Note: Don't try to learn lists of gradable and non-gradable adjectives! It's better to understand what makes an adjective gradable or non-gradable. This is a matter of logic and common sense. Most native-speakers have never heard of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. They just "feel" that it doesn't make sense to say "fairly excellent" or "very unique". You probably have the same idea in your language.

• It was freezing outside.
• The dog was dead.
• He is investing in nuclear energy.

However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually just give the adjective extra impact), for example:

non-grading adverbs	non-gradable adjectives
absolutely	awful	extreme
utterly	excellent
completely	terrified
totally	dead	absolute
nearly	impossible
virtually	unique
essentially	chemical	classifying
mainly	digital
almost	domestic

Here are some example sentences with non-gradable adjectives:

• Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again.
• Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique.
• It starts an essentially chemical reaction.

- Adjectives that can be gradable and non-gradable

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It's possible for the same adjective to be gradable with one sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:

	adjective	common =
He's got a very old car.	gradable	not young
I saw my old boyfriend yesterday.	non-gradable	former, ex-
He has some dreadfully common habits.	gradable	vulgar
"The" is a very common word in English.	gradable	prevalent
The two countries' common border poses problems.	non-gradable	shared

Source: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/

             http://www.talkenglish.com/Grammar/Grammar.aspx