Adjectives

What are adjectives? Adjectives are describing words - they are used to describe nouns e.g. We could use the adjectives tasty, smooth, sweet and brown to describe the noun chocolate A more sophisticated word for ‘describe’ is MODIFY, therefore we say adjectives modify nouns, and we can say that adjectives are a type of MODIFIER

Quick test: Think of a noun to go with each of the following adjectives. An example is given for you: E.g. Golden- ticket Bright- Smelly- Fussy- Miniature- Generous- Royal-

Pre-modification In English, adjectives almost always come before nouns, therefore we can say that adjectives PRE-MODIFY nouns For example, in the following sentence the adjective “hairy” is premodifying the noun “men” (which is a concrete, common, plural, count noun btw ): Hairy men give me the creeps

Different Adjectives There are loads of different types of adjectives One initial distinction you can make is that some adjectives are FACTUAL and some are OPINIONATIVE. Factual adjectives describe definite indisputable qualities such as size, colour, age, etc. For example, big, yellow and new are all factual adjectives Opinionative adjectives describe disputable, subjective qualities such as kindness, attractiveness and rudeness. For example, friendly, pretty and abrupt are all opinionative adjectives

More on factual adjectives Some other factual qualities we use factual adjectives for... shape, origin/ location, material, texture, taste, smell, pattern, temperature, speed, sound Therefore, here are some examples of factual adjectives... circular, foreign, Indian, wooden, soft, sour, smelly, striped, cold, fast, loud

More on opinionative adjectives... Opinionative adjectives are usually either POSITIVE or NEGATIVE For example, the adjective “nice” is clearly positive, whereas “bad” is clearly negative Some adjectives can be either positive or negative depending on context For example, the adjective “unusual” is used positively in the first sentence and negatively in the second: I want to do something unusual for my birthday; I’m so bored of clubbing I don’t like these decorations - they’re a bit too unusual for me

Quick test Say whether each of the following adjectives is factual or opinionative. If opinionative, is it positive, negative or context-dependent? E.g. Wicked- opinionative, context-dependent Special Grey Dutch Unhealthy Sticky Unpleasant Childish Woollen Naughty

Gradation/ Comparison Most adjectives can be “GRADED”/ “COMPARED” This basically just means that they can be more/ less something and the most/ least something E.g. Beautiful more beautiful/ less beautiful; the most beautiful/ the least beautiful When an adjective is more/ less something (e.g. More/ less beautiful) we call this the COMPARATIVE form of the adjective And when an adjective is the most/ least something (e.g. The most/ least beautiful) we call this the SUPERLATIVE form of the adjective When an adjective is just in its simple, standard form (i.e. not in the superlative of comparative form), we call this the BASE FORM of the adjective; we can also call it the POSITIVE FORM

Absolute Adjectives Some adjectives cannot be graded/ compared-these are called ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVES For example, “perfect” is an absolute adjective because something cannot be more or less perfect- it’s either perfect or it’s not Also, you’re either vegetarian or you’re not- you can’t be more or less vegetarian

Quick test List as many absolute adjectives as you can think of- this is quite tricky though!

Positive vs negative comparison If we say something is more/ the most something, this is called POSITIVE COMPARISON, e.g. more interesting/ the most interesting If we say something is less/ the least something, this is called NEGATIVE COMPARISON We will only be focusing on positive comparison for the rest of the PowerPoint so you can forget about negative comparison 

How to form the comparative There are two ways to form the comparative One is to add a suffix (-er, -r or –ier), e.g. Cool cooler; nice nicer; funny funnier The other way is to plonk “more” in front of the adjective For adjectives with one syllable (monosyllablic) we tend to add the appropriate suffix, e.g. Shy shyer There are only four monosyllabic adjectives that take “more”: fun, real, right and wrong For adjectives that have three or more syllables (polysyllabic) we use “more”, e.g. Intelligent more intelligent For two-syllable (disyllabic) adjectives, we sometimes use the suffix, and we sometimes use the word “more”, e.g. Pretty prettier; Careful more careful

How to form the superlative Again, there are two ways to do this: Add the suffix –st, -est, or –iest to the adjective (e.g. Weirdest) OR... 2. Plonk “most” in front of the adjective (e.g. Most interesting) The rules you use to decide which method to use are the same as for forming the comparative, i.e. How many syllables in the adjective?

Inflection By the way, when we add bits onto words, e.g. when we add the suffixes onto adjectives to form comparatives and superlatives, this is called INFLECTION Therefore we can say “sometimes we INFLECT adjectives to grade/ compare them, and sometimes we use the words ‘more’ and ‘most’”

Irregular comparatives and superlatives The following adjectives are irregular in the comparative and superlative: Good better the best Bad worse the worst

Quick test: How would you form the comparative and superlative of the following adjectives + explain why - an example is given for you: E.g. Hard harder the hardest (monosyllabic= add suffixes) Happy Tasty Great Fantastic Exciting Strange

Challenge: Read the following short passage from Harry Potter and pick out all the adjectives; say whether each adjective is factual or opinionative (and if it’s opinionative, say whether it’s positive or negative), and say whether each adjective is in the base, comparative or superlative form. As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn’t believe it was her ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. E.g. New= factual, base form