Adjectives: forms

Unlike in many other languages, adjectives in English do not change (agree) with the noun that they modify:

• All new foreign students are welcome to join the clubs and societies.
• Not: All new foreigns students …
• Every room was painted in different colours.
• Not: … in differents colours.

Identifying adjectives

There is no general rule for making adjectives. We know they are adjectives usually by what they do (their function) in a sentence. However, some word endings (suffixes) are typical of adjectives.

Suffix	Examples
-able, -ible	comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
-al, -ial	comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
-ful	beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-ic	classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ical	aeronautical, alphabetical, political
-ish	British, childish, Irish, foolish
-ive, -ative	active, alternative, creative, talkative
-less	endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
-eous, -ious, -ous	spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
-y	angry, busy, wealthy, windy

warning

Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:

• The economic policy of this government has failed.
• A diesel car is usually more economical than a petrol one.

See also

• Adjectives
• Classic or classical?
• Economic or economical?
• Historic or historical?

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.

Noun	Adjective
hero	heroic
wind	windy
child	childish
beauty	beautiful

Verb	Adjective
read	readable
talk	talkative
use	useful
like	likeable

• I hate windy days.
• San Francisco is a very hilly place.

Some words ending in -ly can be both adjectives and adverbs. These include daily, early, monthly, weekly, nightly, yearly:

• Adjective: She gets a weekly payment from her parents. (She gets money every week.)
• Adverb: I pay my rent weekly. (I pay my rent every week.)

Some words ending in -ly are only adjectives and not adverbs. These include: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lonely, lovely, oily, orderly, scholarly, silly, smelly, timely, ugly, woolly.

• We enjoyed the trip to America but it was a costly holiday.
• Oily fish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.

See also

• Word formation
• Adverbs
• Prefixes
• Suffixes

Prefixes

Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- change the meaning of adjectives. Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

un-	in-	ir-	im-	il-
fair – unfair	active – inactive	responsible – irresponsible	balance – imbalance	legal – illegal
happy – unhappy	appropriate – inappropriate	regular – irregular	polite – impolite	legible – illegible
sure – unsure	complete – incomplete	reducible – irreducible	possible – impossible	logical – illogical

See also

• Prefixes
• Suffixes

Adjectives: comparative and superlative

Many one-syllable adjectives have endings to show the comparative and superlative.

Base Form	Comparative	Superlative
fine	finer	finest
young	younger	youngest
small	smaller	smallest

Some two-syllable adjectives which end in an unstressed syllable also have these endings.

Base Form	Comparative	Superlative
easy	easier	easiest
funny	funnier	funniest
gentle	gentler	gentlest

However, we do not use these endings with two-syllable adjectives ending in a stressed syllable nor with longer adjectives with more than two syllables. The comparatives and superlatives of these adjectives are formed using more and most.

Base Form	Comparative	Superlative
complete	more complete Not: *completer	most complete Not: completest*
interesting	more interesting Not: *interestinger	most interesting Not: interestingest*

See also

• Comparative and superlative adjectives

Adjectives: with -ing and -ed (interesting, interested)

We use the -ing and -ed forms of regular and irregular verbs as adjectives:

-ing forms

Verb	Example
annoy	My brother is five and he’s so annoying.
amaze	The Grand Canyon is an amazing place.
boil	Be careful! That’s boiling water!
excite	This film is not very exciting, is it?

-ed forms

Verb	Example
bore	Why do teenagers always look bored?
pack	James Bond movies are always action-packed.
smoke	Not everyone likes smoked salmon.
make	My dress is hand-made. I really like it.
teach	My Master’s degree was a taught course.
excite	I feel excited about my new job.

Adjectives with -ing and -ed endings have different meanings.

-ing adjectives describe the effect	-ed adjectives describe how a person feels
The meeting was very boring. That was an exciting game. It was shocking to see what the storm had done to the house.	I felt bored at the meeting. We were really excited about the game. We were shocked to see what the storm had done to the house.

warning

Commonly confused pairs of adjectives ending in -ing and -ed are: interesting, interested; boring, bored; exciting, excited; embarrassing, embarrassed.