Adjectives

 Overview of Adjectives

We use adjectives to describe nouns and pronouns. Here are some examples of adjectives.

big	small	happy	interesting
interested	red	green	historical
fascinating	unbelievable	dirty	fast

We can use adjectives in a couple of different ways.

1. We can use an adjective at the end of a sentence to describe the subject.

• The dog is fast.
• The car is red.
• Nick is funny.
• She is beautiful.

Use "and" to connect two adjectives.

• The shirt is black and green.
• The lions were big and scary.
• The house is nice and clean.
• The ice cream was cool and delicious.

If there are more than 2 adjectives, then use commas (,) to separate them and use "and" in between the last two adjectives.

• She is funny, nice, and interesting.
• The dress was long, elegant, and expensive.

2. We can use adjectives before nouns.

• The big dog is running.
• The cute girl looked at me.
• We could smell the delicious cookies.
• I bought a new phone.
• We went to a beautiful beach.

Note: Articles "a", "an", and "the" go before the adjective when adjectives are used before a noun.

• She bought cute a dress.
• She bought a cute dress.

3. We can use adjectives before a noun and after a "be verb" in the same sentence.

• The big dog is cute.
• The beautiful house is too expensive.

4. We make negative sentences by using the word "not".

Subject + be verb + not + adjective...

• Bill is not nice.
• The dogs are not big.
• The building isn't old.
• The books weren't interesting.
• The sunset was not gorgeous.

5. Sometimes we can form the opposite adjective by using a prefix. Here are the most common prefixes for negative adjectives. They mean "not".

• dis-
• im-
• in-
• im-
• ir-

So, we can make negative sentences with adjectives in two ways.

• I am not happy. = I am unhappy.

Here are some examples.

Positive	Negative
acceptable	unacceptable
considerate	inconsiderate
polite	impolite
proper	improper
possible	impossible
respectful	disrespectful
responsible	irresponsible
perfect	imperfect
mature	immature
imaginable	unimaginable
honest	dishonest

Not all adjectives change like this. And there is no clear rule to remember which prefix to use, but there are patterns. For example, adjectives that begin with "r" almost always add the prefix "ir-".

• regular / irregular
• responsible / irresponsible

But there are always exceptions.

• Respectful / disrespectful

If we do not know the prefix for a word, it is not a problem. We can always use the word "not" to make a negative sentence.

• dishonest = not honest
• irresponsible = not responsible
• unimaginable = not imaginable
• immature = not mature
• impossible = not possible

Remember that some words can add a prefix and also have another word that means the opposite.

• happy / unhappy = sad
• mature / immature = childish

Some words do not.

• big / small

6. If we use many adjectives together in a sentence, then we should follow this order. If one is not used in the sentence, then skip it and go to the next one.

1. Size (small, big, tall, etc.)
2. An opinion or quality (beautiful, good, strange, etc.)
3. Age or temperature (new, hot, ancient, etc.)
4. Shape (round, square, etc.)
5. Color (green, black, red, etc.)
6. Origin (German, Korean, Brazilian, etc.)
7. Material (glass, cotton, silk, etc.)

Usually, we do not use many adjectives in a row, so this is not very important. However, if we do not follow this order, then our sentence will sound strange to native speakers.

We do not need commas in between the adjectives if they are from a different category such as size and origin.

• I have a green beautiful glass old vase.
• I have a beautiful old green glass vase.

We will talk about this more in another lesson.

7. Adjective clauses perform the same function as an adjective. They tell more about a noun. We use adjective clauses when we need to tell more than an adjective can explain.

• I want to go to a place that has a beautiful beach.

"That has a beautiful beach" tells more about "place". So, it does the same job as an adjective.

We can always just use an adjective, but an adjective clause lets us be more specific.

• I want to eat some spicy food.
• I want to eat some food that is so spicy that I will sweat.

We will cover a lot more about adjectives in the following lessons. There are also many lessons to help you learn English grammar, speak fluent English, and learn everything else you want to about the English language. 

Participial Adjectives

Some adjectives have two forms. For example, "bored" and "boring". These are called participial adjectives.

A participle is a word that can act as a verb or an adjective. In this lesson, we are mainly looking at when these words are used as adjectives.

Past participles end in "-ed" and present participles end in "-ing". Here are a few examples.

Past Participles	Present Participles
bored	boring
excited	exciting
satisfied	satisfying
annoyed	annoying
tired	tiring

Participial adjectives come from verbs.

• Her actions surprised me. (verb)
• Her actions were surprising. (present participle)
• I was surprised by her actions. (past participle)

We use past participles to talk about how somebody feels. So, past participles will always be used with people or animals.

Past participles follow a "be verb" or the verb "feel".

• I am bored.
• She is tired.
• They are confused.
• Mark was shocked.
• Mary was touched by the movie.
• The students were pleased with their test results.
• He feels depressed.
• She felt inspired by the book.

Present participles tell how something makes us or other people feel. We use present participles when the subject has caused a feeling.

Present participles always follow a "be verb".

Present participles are used with things. Anything that is not alive will always use present participles.

• The movie was interesting.
• The ending of the book was surprising.
• It is exciting.
• The results were disappointing.
• Camping is interesting.
• Hiking is tiring.

When we use present participles with people, we are talking about how they make other people feel. They do not show how the person in the sentence feels.

• They are annoying.
• She is interesting
• Mark is terrifying.

Look at the difference.

• Bill is boring.
  (=Bill is not fun. Bill makes me or other people bored.)


• Bill is bored.
  (=Bill feels bored.)


• The dog is terrifying.
  (=The dog is scary. The dog makes me or other people feel scared.)


• The dog is terrified because of the thunderstorm.
  (The dog feels scared.)

All of these present and past participles also have a verb form.

• She is annoyed. (past participle)
• She is annoying. (present participle)
• She annoys me. (verb)


• He was surprised. (past participle)
• That was surprising. (present participle)
• The news surprised me. (past tense verb)


• He was disappointed after the game. (past participle)
• The movie was disappointing. (present participle)
• I don't want to disappoint my parents. (verb)

Here is a list of the most common participial adjectives. If you want to be a fluent English speaker, then you should know all of these. If you do not know some of these, then write them down and look them up later.

Past Participles	Present Participles
alarmed	alarming
amazed	amazing
amusing	amused
annoyed	annoying
astonished	astonishing
bored	boring
comforted	comforting
confused	confusing
depressed	depressing
disappointed	disappointing
disgusted	disgusting
distressed	distressing
disturbed	disturbing
embarrassed	embarrassing
entertained	entertaining
excited	exciting
exhausted	exhausting
fascinated	fascinating
frightened	frightening
horrified	horrifying
inspired	inspiring
interested	interesting
irritated	irritating
moved	moving
paralyzed	paralyzing
pleased	pleasing
relaxed	relaxing
satisfied	satisfying
shocked	shocking
soothed	soothing
startled	startling
stimulated	stimulating
surprised	surprising
terrified	terrifying
tired	tiring
touched	touching

Adjective Clause (Relative Clause)

An adjective clause (also known as a relative clause) does the same job as an adjective – it tells more about a noun. We use adjective clauses when we want to be more specific or tell more than just regular adjectives can do. Adjective clauses are placed after the noun they are modifying.

Sometimes, we can say the same thing with an adjective and an adjective clause.

• I want to live in a big house. (Regular Adjective)
• I want to live in a house that is big. (Adjective Clause)

These sentences have the same meaning. However, sometimes there is not one adjective to describe something. Look at this example.

• I want to stay at a hotel.

This sentence does not give us a lot of information. We can add more information about the hotel using an adjective clause.

• I want to stay at a hotel that is next to the beach with an infinity pool.

There is no single adjective that means "next to the beach with an infinity pool".

Let's see some common ways to use adjective clauses.

1. We often use adjective clauses after a noun at the end of a sentence. When we are talking about things or place, we can use "that" or "which".

• America is a country that is located south of Canada.
• She likes stories that have a surprising ending.
• They want to stay in a hotel that has an outdoor swimming pool.
• The Eiffel Tower is a place that many tourists go to take pictures, but many French people avoid because there are too many tourists.
• I want to eat something which is hot and spicy.

Note: English speakers use "that" more.

It is also possible to use "where" for places. After "where" we need to add a new subject.

• I want to go to a country where there is delicious food.
• She lived in a place where you could buy fresh fruit every morning.

If there is no new subject, then use "that".

• I want to live in a place where I can spend a lot of time outside.
• I want to live in a place that has many parks.

2. We can also use adjective clauses at the beginning or middle of a sentence. They just need to come after a noun. Again, we use them to give more information.

• The machine broke down. (What machine?)
• The machine that is located next to the door broke down.

Here are some more examples.

• The boy that failed the test is crying.
• The house that is next to the factory caught on fire.
• The shirt that was $500 a week ago is now $300.

3. We can use "who" or "that" when the noun is a person.

• I know a woman who has 50 cats.
• I know a woman that has 50 cats.


• The man who is wearing the red hat is my brother.
• The man that is wearing the red hat is my brother.

Here are some more examples.

• Police officers are people who catch bad buys and help keep order.
• She wants to meet a man who is funny, tall, and has a good job.
• A doctor is a person that helps sick people.
• The man who is sitting next to Mark is my boss.
• Anyone who wants to help can help.
• The people who came to the concert were very excited.

4. When "who", "that", or "which" is the object, then we can leave it out. If this is too hard to remember (and many English learners think it is) then never leave out those words. If we include "who", "that", or "which" we are never wrong.

• The woman who I wanted to see was gone.
• The woman I wanted to see was gone.

The woman is the object. "I" is the subject and the person doing the action (the action in this sentence is "to see").

• The dress which she bought at the new store was expensive.
• The dress she bought at the new store was expensive.

"She" is doing the action of buying. "The dress" is the object that was purchased.

"Whom" can be used instead of "who" if "who" is the object.

• The people whom I invited to the party are my friends.

Note: "Whom" is considered very formal and not used a lot. Most people just use "who".

5. We can use adjective clauses after many different nouns.

• The day that I met her was the best day of my life.
• The reason that she didn't come was that she was sick.
• The idea that our company cannot get any bigger is mistaken.

When the noun is "reason" we can use "why" instead of "that".

• The reason that I don't like her is that she isn't nice.
• The reason why I don't like her is that she isn't nice.


• My family the reason that I work.
• My family is the reason why I work.

Adjective clauses can help us be more specific and help our language sound natural and intelligent. However, these are difficult and take time to learn how to use correctly. Practice using them in your writing and speaking and before you know it, you will be a master at using adjective clauses.

Adjective Word Order

When a noun is modified by more than one adjective, we usually use the following order. But most of the time we do not need to worry about this because we usually do not use many adjectives in one sentence.

Here is the natural word-order for adjectives. If one kind of adjective is not present in the sentence, then we skip to the next one.

1. Size (small, big, tall, etc.)
2. An opinion or quality (beautiful, good, strange, etc.)
3. Age or temperature (new, hot, ancient, etc.)
4. Shape (round, square, etc.)
5. Color (green, black, red, etc.)
6. Origin (German, Korean, Brazilian, etc.)
7. Material (glass, cotton, silk, etc.)

We do not need to separate the adjectives with commas when the sentence ends in a noun.

• She has a big beautiful round green Korean vase.
• They live in a small cozy red wooden house.
• That is an interesting ancient Persian text.

We use commas or the word "and" when we are listing adjectives.

• She is nice, funny, and interesting.
• The house is big, red, and old.

Notice that there is no noun at the end of the sentence. That is because the adjectives are modifying the subjects at the beginning of the sentences.