The Adjective. Meaning. Degrees of comparison. Order of adjectives

Theory:

Word Order

The use of adjectives is essential when trying to describe a noun or pronoun. Good writers and speakers are able to use adjectives to create clear, mental images for the reader or listener. In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun — for example, “He's a silly young fool,” or “She's a smart, energetic woman.” When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type.

Adjectives cannot be written in any order. There are rules, so you should use the following order:

1) Determiner or article
Determiners e.g. this, that, these, those, my, mine, your, yours, him, his, her, hers, they, their, Sam's ; or
Articles - a, an, the

2) Opinion adjective
e.g. polite, fun, cute, difficult, hard-working

3) Size, including adjectives, comparatives and superlatives
height; e.g. tall, short, high, low; taller, tallest
width; e.g. wide, narrow, thin, slim; wider, widest
length; e.g. long, short; longer, longest
volume; e.g. fat, huge; fatter, fattest

4) Shape
e.g. circular, oval, triangular, square, 5-sided, hexagonal, irregular

5) Age
e.g. new, young, adolescent, teenage, middle-aged, old, ancient

6) Colour
e.g. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, grey, black, black and white, light blue, dark red, pale blue, reddish brown, off-white, bright green, warm yellow

7) Nationality
e.g. Hong Kong, Chinese, English, American, Canadian, Japanese

8) Religion
e.g. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem, pagan, atheist

9) Material
e.g. wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, paper, silk

10) Noun used as an adjective
e.g. campus (as in 'campus activities')

11) The noun that the adjectives are describing.

Sentence structure:
Together the article or determiner, adjective(s) and noun(s) make a 'noun phrase'. Noun phrases can also have adverbs describing the adjectives; e.g. nearly circular; and can also have relative clauses, although these are not discussed on this page.

Style:
Although it is possible to write a sentence that uses all the categories; e.g. 'my beautiful, long, curving, new, pink, western, Christian, silk wedding dress', it is bad style as it is too long. Try to use less than five adjectives in a single list. Therefore you could say "Have you seen my beautiful new cream silk wedding dress? It's long and curving, and is in western Christian style."

How to remember the order
You can use the 'Roman room' memorization technique. This involves remembering a place that you know well, such as your home, and imagining walking through it, looking at things. 

1) Imagine that you arrive at the door of your home. On the door is the letter 'A', and you are greeted by someone who lives there. This helps you to remember the article 'A' or the determiner(s); e.g. my Mother's.
2) Imagine that you are happy to see each other. This helps you to remember the opinion adjective.
3) Imagine the size of your home: is it big, small, or long? This helps you to remember the size adjectives.

4) Imagine that you go into your home and you see an object. Remember the shape of the object.
5) Now imagine that you walk around your home; e.g. towards your room. Think of another object further from the door. Think of the age of that object; e.g. new or old.
6) Move on to another object, this time a colourful one. Remember what colour it is.
7) Move on to another object. This object should remind you of a foreign place; e.g. a picture of somewhere in China, or a souvenir from a holiday abroad. This is to help you remember nationality.
8) Next imagine moving to another object, this time a religious one. Maybe you have a place for worshipping your ancestors, or a statue of Buddha.
9) Next move to another object. This should be special because it is made of one material; e.g. a crystal ornament or a wooden statue.
10) Finally move to a place where there is an object that is described with 2 words, and the first is a noun; 

e.g. a book shelf. Imagine that this is the end of your journey around your flat.

Degrees of Comparison

The formation of the comparative and superlative depends on the number of syllables in the adjective:

One-syllable Adjectives

To form the comparative, we add -er to the end of the adjective.
To form the superlative, we add -est to the end of the adjective.

Adjective   Comparative   Superlative
small           smaller            the smallest
cold            colder             the coldest
light            lighter              the lightest
short           shorter           the shortest

Remember that comparatives are often followed by than.
· - London is bigger than Santiago.
· - Mike is taller than John but James is the tallest.

Two-syllable Adjectives ending in -Y

To form the comparative, we remove the -y and add -ier to the end of the adjective.
To form the superlative, we remove the -y and add -iest to the end of the adjective.

Adjective   Comparative   Superlative
crazy           crazier            the craziest
happy          happier          the happiest
early            earlier              the earliest

· - It was the happiest day of my life.
· - My joke was funnier than your one.

Adjectives with Two or more Syllables

For Adjectives with 2 syllables (that don't end in -y) and higher (3, 4 syllables etc), we use more for comparatives and the most for superlatives.

Adjective      Comparative                 Superlative
handsome     more handsome          the most handsome
nervous        more nervous               the most nervous
enthusiastic   more enthusiastic         the most enthusiastic

· - My girlfriend is more beautiful than yours.
· - Alex is more intelligent than you but I am the most intelligent.

Irregular Forms

Adjective      Comparative            Superlative
good                  better                   the best
bad                     worse                 the worst
far               further / farther      the furthest / farthest


· I am a better tennis player than you but Marcelo is the best.
· Steve is a worse liar than me but Adrian is the worst.

Note:

· Further / farther, furthest / farthest are all used for distance.
· Only Further / furthest are used to mean 'additional' or 'more advanced'.
· Puerto Montt is further / farther than Valdivia is from here (in Santiago).
· If you require further information, please contact reception.

Remember that the opposites of 'more' and 'most' are 'less' and 'least', respectively.

Exercises:

Elementary

Exercise 1

Read the questions, and choose the answer you think is correct.

Exercise 2

Type the correct noun phrase, putting the adjectives in order

Exercise 3

Choose the correct adjective to fill in the blank

Exercise 4

Complete the chart

Exercise 5

Fill in the comparative and superlative forms of the adjectives

Exercise 6

Write the correct comparative form for each adjective

Exercise 7

Type the comparatives in the boxes for the words below

Exercise 8

Choose the best answer

Exercise 9

Образуйте степени сравнения приведенных прилагательных и наречий

Exercise 10
Click on words to build sentences

Intermediate

Exercise 1

Select the correct order of the adjectives in these sentences

Exercise 2

Put the adjectives in a natural sounding word order

Exercise 3

Put in the adjective in bold from the first sentence into the second sentence in its correct form 

Exercise 4

Choose the best answer

Exercise 5

Choose the correct response: If both options can be used, choose "BOTH ARE OK"

Exercise 6

Write the appropriate form of the adjective in the brackets

Exercise 7

Choose the right form

Exercise 8
Choose the response that sounds more natural

Exercise 9
Choose the response that sounds more natural

Exercise 10
Choose the response that sounds more natural

Advanced

Exercise 1

Put the adjectives in a natural sounding word order

Exercise 2

Which of the following is correct?

Exercise 3

Correct the order of the adjectives and nouns in the following sentences

Exercise 4

Choose the right form

Exercise 5

Select the correct form

Exercise 6
Choose the correct answer

Exercise 7
Put the words in the correct order

Exercise 8
Choose the best variant

Exercise 9
Which is the usual order of adjectives?

Exercise 10
Are these adjectives in the natural order?


TEST
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