Contents

1. Types of uses ........................................................................................................................... 1

2. Kind of adjective ..................................................................................................................... 1
3. Position of Adjective ............................................................................................................... 2
4. Adjective Order ....................................................................................................................... 3
5. Adjective formation ................................................................................................................. 4
6. Comparison of Adjective ......................................................................................................... 4
7. Gradable and Non-gradable adjective ..................................................................................... 6
 Definition: Adjective is a word or term used to express the quality, quantity, number
and to point out the person or thing is regarded as an adjective (J D Murthy, 2003). According
to Milon Nandy, 1997, adjective is defined as a word or term used to describe or limit the
meaning of a Noun or a Pronoun. It is an adjunct of noun and pronoun.

1. Types of uses
There are two uses of every adjective namely:
 Attributive uses: an adjective used with noun is known as attributive adjective.
Ex: beautiful girl, hard work, nice book, clever student …
 Predicative use: an adjective used with verb called predicative adjective.
Ex: She is beautiful.
He is very clever.

2. Kind of adjective
Grammatically, adjectives are divided into 8 types.
- Qualitative Adjective: it is an adjective used to talk about the quality or describe a
person, thing, is known as qualitative adjective or descriptive adjective and they
answer the question of what kind.
Ex: wealthy, regional, international, proper, suitable…
- Quantitative adjective: an adjective used to mention about quantity of thing called
adjective of quantity. These adjective are: little, much, enough, any, some, whole,
all, half, and sufficient. They answer the question how much.
Ex: I have enough money.
There is little water in the bottle.
There is no water in the glass.
- Demonstrative adjective: an adjective which point out a person or things called
demonstrative adjective. It answers the question which. They are: this, that, these,
and those.
Ex: this is my pen.
That is your own job.
These are my pens.
- Distributive adjective: an adjective used to refer to each and every person or thing
separately is known as distributive adjective. Here are some adjectives: each,
every, either, neither, any, none ,both
Ex: each student is reading a book silently.
I come to class every morning.
Neither country accepts the treaty.
- Interrogative adjective: it is used to make the question is known as interrogative
adjective such as what, which, or whose.

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 Ex: What advice do I need?
Whose book is it?
Which school do you prefer?
- Possessive adjective: an adjective used to talk about ownership or possession is
known as possessive adjectives. They are answer question whose: my, your, its,
their, her, and his.
Subjective Pronoun Possessive Adjective
I My
You Your
We Our
They Their
He His
She Her
It Its
Ex: my mother is a good cook.
They always play with their toys.

- Numeral adjective: an adjective used to talk about the number of things or person
is known as numeral adjective and they answer the question how many. The
numeral adjective is further categorized into two main types.
o Definite numeral adjective: refers to exact number and order.
- Cardinal number: one, two, three…
- Ordinal number: first, second, third…
o Indefinite numeral adjective: not refers to exact number. They are
included some, any, all, no, few, several, and sundry.
- Proper adjective: an adjective derived from a proper name is known as a proper
adjective.
Ex: Japanese people, Cambodian government…

3. Position of Adjective
An adjective can come in two places in a sentence.
- Before a noun
Young man, an empty house
- After the linking verbs: be, look, appear, seem, feel, taste, smell, and sound which
describe the subject of a sentence.
Ex: I feel happy today.
They seem handsome.
- After certain noun in appositive noun
Ex: the girl, rich and pretty, is a university student.
Man, handsome and healthy, became a millionaire.
- After a certain noun in objective complement
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 Ex: She makes me happy.
They leave their children alone.

Note: in some cases, some adjectives can not precede the noun such as alone, asleep, alive,
awake, ill, and well. For example, we can say he is asleep but not asleep man.

4. Adjective Order

When we use two or more adjectives together, opinion adjective (interesting or

beautiful…) normally go before the fact adjective.
Grammatically, they must follow in certain orders:
Determiner + opinion +size + age + shape +color + origin +material + purpose +noun

Determiner Determiners tall you about how many of the things which you want to talk
about. Example: a, one, two, three,…
Opinion An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people
may not agree with you). Examples: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult
Size A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. Examples:
large, tiny, enormous, little
Age An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Examples: ancient, new, young, old
Shape A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples:
square, round, flat, rectangular
Colour A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something. Examples:
blue, pink, reddish, grey
Origin An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples:
French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
Material A material adjective describes what something is made from. Examples:
wooden, metal, cotton, paper
Purpose A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives
often end with "-ing". Examples:
sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin")

determiner Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose noun

A silly young English man

two huge round metal bowls

A small red sleeping Bag

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 two pairs
interesting small old Blue Japanese Leather Running Shoes
of

a beautiful long new black Cambodian silk Sleeping clothe

5. Adjective formation
Adjective can be formed from a noun, a verb, or another adjective by adding some
suffixes such as –full, -less, -ish,-y, -en, -ly, -ous, -able, or –ible,- ed, -like, -ic, -al, -ing,.

 Adjective are formed from Noun.

Noun Adjective Noun Adjective
beauty beautiful rain rainy
harm harmful day daily
care careful nation national
care careless capacity capable
gold golden ability able
child childish danger dangerous
wind windy history historical

 Adjective are formed from Verbs

Verb Adjective Verb Adjective
destroy destructive agree agreeable
construct constructive continue continuous
Work workable please pleasant
run running talk talkative
symbolize symbolical learn learnable
understand understandable sleep sleepy
write written help helpful

 Adjective can form from adjective

Adjective Adjective Adjective Adjective
ironic ironical historic historical
lyric lyrical philosophic philosophical

6. Comparison of Adjective
Comparison of adjective has three degrees in English.
Positive degree Comparative degree Superlative degree

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 a. Adjectives that have one syllable and end in two consonants are made into
Comparative and Superlative by adding “er and est” to the adjective.
Ex: small smaller smallest
Tall taller tallest
Older older oldest
b. Adjectives that have one syllable and end in one consonant but are led by one
vowel are made into Comparative and Superlative by doubling consonant before
we put “er and est”.
Ex: thin thinner thinnest
Fat fatter fattest
Hot hotter hottest
c. Adjectives that have one or two syllables and end in “Y” are made into
comparative and superlative by changing Y to “i ” before we put “er and est” .
Ex: happy happier happiest
Pretty prettier prettiest
Lucky luckier luckiest
Busy busier busiest

Adjectives that have two, three, four syllable are made into Comparative and
Superlative by putting “more and most” before positive.
Ex: handsome more handsome most handsome
Polite more polite most polite
Important more important most important
Expensive more expensive most expensive

Comparison of irregular Adjective : in English, three some exceptional cases for comparison
of adjective.
Ex: good better best
Bad worse worst
Little less lest
Far farther/further furthest/ farthest
Structures
1. Positive degree
Sub + be + as…(adj)…as + obj
Ex : I am as tall as her sister.
She is as thin as Dary
You are as clever as my.
They are as good as my children.
2. Comparative Degree
Sub + be + comparative + than + obj
Ex: I am taller than him.
Dary is fatter than him
These exercises are easier than those exercises.
Piseth’s t-shirt is more expensive than David’s t-shirt.

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 3. Superlative Degree
Sub + be + the + Superlative + obj
Ex: he is the tallest in the class.
She is the most beautiful in the family.
Piseth and Dara are the luckiest in company.
Her house is the biggest house in our village.

Note: grammatically, many adjectives don’t admit of the idea of degree. Some attribute no
quality at all. For example: each, two, some, any, or many. Generally, only the qualitative and
a few of quantitative adjective can be inflected for degree excepted the non-gradable adjective.

7. Gradable and Non-gradable adjective

 Gradable adjective can be used with adverbs such as very or extremely to say
that a thing or person has more or less of a particular quality.

Intensifying adverb Gradable adjective

very, awfully, rather, extremely, terribly, angry, big, busy, comfortable, rich
fairly, really, pretty, quite, deeply, happy, important, quiet, strong, wet
slightly, immensely, hugely, reasonably, clever, excited, funny, nice, expensive, silly,
dreadfully, intensely, unusually, etc. surprised, angry, tasty, etc.

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

 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.
 Un-gradable adjective or limit adjective imply to a large degree and are used with
intensifying adverbs such as absolutely or totally.
Intensifying adverb Non-gradable adjective

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absolutely awful, soaking, brilliant, thrilled, hilarious,
utterly huge, fantastic, exorbitant, gorgeous,
almost amazed, priceless, ridiculous, furious,
totally essential, extraordinary, fascinating,
nearly delighted, exhausted, endless, devastated,
virtually delicious, etc.
essentially
mainly
completely

Note: 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

Gradable adjective Non-gradable adjective Gradable adjective Non-gradable adjective

bad awful simple extraordinary
good gorgeous valuable priceless
big huge nice fantastic/wonderful
important essential/vital cold freezing
surprised amazed expensive exorbitant
excited thrilled clever brilliant
funny ridiculous angry devastated
tired exhausted silly hilarious
happy delighted wet soaking

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 References

J D Murthy (2003). Contemporary English Grammar for Scholars and Students. Book Palace,
New Delhi, India.

Milon Nandy (1997). Advanced English Grammar and Language. Kepong 52100, Kuala
Lumpua, Malaysia.

Bhatia.H.S,(1995). Comprehensive High School English Grammar and Composition. Book

Palace, New Delhi, India.

Beaumont.D & Granger.C,(1989.1992). The Heinemann English Grammar: An Intermediate

Reference and Practice Book. A Provision of Heinemann Publishers (Oxford) Ltd,
London.

Swan.M (1984).Oxford University Press: Basic English Usage. Oxford, England.

Seaton.A & Mew.Y.H (2007). Basic English Grammar Book 1 for English Language
Learners. Saddleback Education Publishing, 3 Watson, Irvine, United State.

Seaton.A & Mew.Y.H (2007). Basic English Grammar Book 2 for English Language
Learners. Saddleback Education Publishing, 3 Watson, Irvine, United State.

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