Adjectives - are content words that provide imagery and character to discourse by describing the nouns in a sentence. Ex: Room 105 is cold.

Prototypical Adjectives - Easily identified on their inherent characteristic of describing nouns. HOT COLD

Derivational Endings Morphological Clues- Some endings can help identify adjectives ous- gorgeous able- impossible ful – helpful ic – chaotic ist – journalist ive- expressive ible- feasible less- clueless

Some endings can make words belong to two groups!!! It’s a relative problem. (adjective) My relative lives nearby. (noun)

Inflectional Clues: there are inflections that adjectives take. When we compare two things we use the comparative suffix -er. I am taller than Amy. When we compare more than two things we use the superlative suffix –est Lisa is the Tallest in our group. Adjective Comparative Superlative Tall taller tallest

Why don’t we say beautifuller?

Why don’t we say Beautifuller? Of course there’s an exception to Comparative and Superlative suffixes!!!! Why don’t we say Beautifuller? Adjectives with two syllables or more we add the more or most before the adjective to form the comparative and superlative forms. Adjective Comparative (more) Superlative (most) Gorgeous more gorgeous the most gorgeous

BUT WAIT!!!! One more exception Words that end in y or le take on morphological inflections –er and –est. Adjective Comparative (more) Superlative (most) Pretty prettier prettiest Little littler littlest

Descriptive Adjectives – can also be used to compare two like nouns or noun phrases We use as + adjective + as The man was as tall as the door.

All adjectives cannot be compared All adjectives cannot be compared. Gradable adjectives can be compared but adjectives that describe technical fields or absolute terms cannot. Technical fields. Biologist, psychological Absolute Terms Chief, perfect

Structural Clues Structural Clues – Since word order is very fixed in the English language, the sentence position of a word tells us what a word is functioning as. Adjectives can Occur in Three Positions 1) Before a noun (most common) Belinda darted behind a big rock. 2) After certain verbs my friends were right. 3) After certain nouns When the air feels hot enough, a few ants stretch their legs and antennae.

The Order of Adjectives *different types of adjectives occur in a certain order. *The exception to this is with adjectives of general description and those of physical state (size, shape, color), where their order may reversed. Examples: They own an enormous, long-handled cutting knife. They own a long-handled, enormous cutting knife.

Adjective order: opinion General description Size Shape Color Origin or type Material Use or type Noun

What can help ELLs: *Teach them that when there are more than two adjectives, a comma may be necessary to separate them, especially with….. opinion, general description, size, shape, or color. *We do not use commas between adjectives referring to place of origin or type.

Sample Sentences 1. The children admired the fierce Siberian tiger. 2. She wore a new sleeveless woolen dress. 3. That is an unusual oval frame. 4. They own an enormous, long-handled cutting knife. 5. Her aunt bought a beautiful, large, round, green china serving dish.

Special Types of Adjectives *Nouns Functioning as Adjectives one noun can come before another noun to modify it. Consider the following sentences: 1)The horse jumped over the stone wall. 2) The train station is on the next block. In these sentences, stone and train are functioning as adjectives because they are modifying the nouns they precede . When nouns function as adjectives, they lose their ability to take the plural inflection .nouns modifying other nouns do not change their class membership, only their function.

Learner difficulties *Adding the –s plural inflection to the modifying noun is an error that ESL/EFL learners may make. This is especially common if a plural inflection is required in their native language for adjectives modifying plural nouns. Sometimes less proficient ESL/EFL learners become confused by nouns that end in “s” but that are not plural such as news or linguistics

Special Types of Adjectives 2: Participial Adjectives Look at the following poem. All the words in ending in –ing are another special type of adjective, called participial adjectives. My world is made of things I like: creeping bugs, wiggling worms, leaping frogs, drifting seashells, shifting stones, singing birds, swimming fish, dancing butterflies, growing fruit, falling leaves, blooming flowers, shining sun, splashing rain, glittering stars, fluttering moths, and glowing moon. Thank you world for everything. [Ehlert, L. (2002

Learner difficulties *Learners, as well as some native speakers, often have difficulty recognizing participial adjectives as adjectives rather than as part of verb phrases. They may confuse an –ing, which is part of a verb phrase, with the –ing of a participial adjective: *Another difficulty ESL/EFL learners have with participial adjectives is distinguishing between those that have contrasting –ing and –ed forms.