The Adjective

The adjective is a modifier. The adjective modifies a noun in a sentence. When a word is used to modify a noun, it is called an adjective.

So what exactly does the word “modify” mean? The word “modify”, as used in this sense, means to “add to the meaning of”.

So the adjective adds to the meaning of the noun. It makes the meaning of the noun sharper, clearer or more accurate.

For example, I can say “A dog is on the road.” In that sentence, it is left to the reader’s imagination what kind of dog is on the road. On the other hand, I can use adjectives to modify or paint a clearer picture of the dog on the road. Here are some examples:

A big dog is on the road.

A small dog is on the road.

A playful dog is on the road.

A black dog is on the road.

A fierce dog is on the road.

I can also use multiple adjectives to modify just one noun. Here are some examples.

A small, playful, black dog is on the road.

A fierce, big, brown dog is on the road.

Most of the time we find adjectives before nouns, like we saw in the previous examples:

favourite bike

used car

substitute teacher

old phone

exotic drinks

adventurous holiday

But as you already know, English isn’t quite as simple as that – and there are always exceptions to the rule. That’s why it’s important to know them so you can teach your students as best as you can!

With that in mind, we need to remember that adjectives sometimes come after the noun they are modifying and they will usually follow one of these verbs, which talk about senses and perception:

For example, we say: “be happy”, “feel hungry”, “smell delicious” or “appear grumpy”. Can you think of any more adjectives using these verbs yourself?

If we are using a range of adjectives to describe a noun, they need to go in a particular order. Let’s add a few more adjectives to Jack’s sentence – not that you would ever use this many adjectives unless you were writing for a furniture catalogue!

Adjective order

OPINION – SIZE – AGE – SHAPE – COLOUR – ORIGIN – MATERIAL – USE

Example: a beautiful, big, antique, round, brown, Italian, wooden dining table.

	OPINION	SIZE	AGE	SHAPE	COLOUR	ORIGIN	MATERIAL	USE
Jack’s	beautiful,	big,	antique,	round,	brown,	Italian,	wooden	dining	table

The adjective is a modifier, and so is the adverb. Whereas the adjective modifies nouns, the adverb modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

Comparative Adjectives

A type of adjective used to compare two or more things.

Adjectives or adverbs with ONE syllable take -er. (Except for fun, bad and good which are irregular.)

• warmer / colder / hotter / wilder /safer, etc.

Adjectives and adverbs with TWO syllables ending in -y and some other random TWO syllable words, also take -er.

• friendlier / prettier / lovelier / narrower / simpler / quieter / cleverer

Other TWO syllable words take more and not -er as do adjectives longer than TWO syllables.

• more modern /more ancient / more tiring / more boring / more expensive / more beautiful / more comfortable

Superlative Adjectives

An adjective representing the highest quality or degree of a noun.

Let’s look again at the examples we used before:

• Poland is colder than Vietnam.
• Alicja’s apartment is more expensive than Ollie’s.
• Jack’s classroom is tidier than Anne’s.

We know that these are comparative adjectives, but we’re going to show you how to change these to be stronger and to show the superlative version of the adjective:

• Poland is the coldest country (of all the countries we are talking about).
• Alicja’s apartment is the most expensive (of all the apartments we are talking about).
• Jack’s classroom is the tidiest (of all the classrooms we are talking about).

The rules on forming superlative adjectives are thankfully very similar to those for comparative adjectives:

Adjectives or adverbs with ONE syllable take -est.

The warmest / the coldest / the hottest / the wildest / the safest, etc.

Adjectives and adverbs with TWO syllables ending in -y have an -iest ending. Some other random TWO syllable words take -est.

The friendliest / the prettiest / the loveliest / the narrowest / the simplest / the quietest / the cleverest

Other TWO syllable words take most and not -est as do adjectives longer than TWO syllables.

The most modern / the most ancient / the most tiring / the most boring / the most expensive / the most beautiful / the most comfortable

Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives

As you’ll know already with English grammar, there are irregular versions of comparative and superlative adjectives out there.

Examples include: good and bad.

Let’s look at some of the irregular comparative and superlative forms:

As we’ve warned you before, there are some exceptions to these rules about comparative and superlative adjectives. “Good”, “bad” and “fun”  are some of the trickiest ones to get to grips with for students as they are commonly used words with irregular comparative and superlative forms.

Check out the table below for some examples of how the comparative and superlative adjectives are formed: