Adjectives

Examples Henry and Claire are having dinner in a quiet restaurant. It’s a warm evening. The food is delicious. Henry is feeling romantic.

Use Adjectives are words like dark, warm, new, good that describe a noun. For example: Clair’s got a new car. (new describes the car.) This is dark coffee. (dark describes the coffee.) My dog is old. (old describes my dog.) The hamburger tastes good. (good describes the hamburger.)

Word Order There are two places where we can use an adjective: Before a noun Example: That is a fast car. After a linking verb Example: This food smells funny. Some linking verbs are: appear, be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, stay, taste.

Word Order It’s possible to use more adjectives together. Examples: It’s a quiet little restaurant. Mike was wearing a dirty old coat. We can also put words like very or quite before an adjective. Examples: It was a very dark night. Henry was feeling quite romantic.

Making Comparisons To make comparisons with short adjectives (e.g. cheap) we use adjective + er or est Example: This car is cheaper than mine, but that one is the cheapest.

Making Comparisons For long adjectives (e.g. expensive) we use more or most + adjective. Example: This car is more expensive than mine, but that one is the most expensive I’ve ever seen. Notes: One-syllable adjectives ending in ed use more and most as well. Some two-syllable adjectives use both er/est and more/most (e.g. narrow,pleasant, simple, useful, hopeless, etc.)

Making Comparisons Some adjectives have irregular forms. Some examples are: good-better-best bad-worse-worst far-farther-farthest

Making Comparisons Spelling (1) Words ending in a consonant + y have er, est. and the y becomes an i. Example: I’m happy, but he is happier. They are the happiest by far. Words ending in e just get r or st Example: My car is safe, but his car is safer. That car is the safest.

Making Comparisons Spelling (2) Words ending in a single vowel letter + a single consonant letter get a double consonant. Examples: Today is hot. Tomorrow is hotter. Yesterday was the hottest.

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