Adjectives

Adjectives

o   Adjective describes or modifies a noun.

o   Adjective adds something to the meaning of the noun.

o   An adjective is neither singular nor plural.

An adjective is a word, which is used to add something to the meaning of a noun or to qualify a noun.

Example :

Maria is an intelligent student.

I need much work.

Rashid ate four mangoes at a time.

Yesterday I bought that book.

In the above four sentences, the bold words intelligent, much, four, that show the description, quantity, number, and demonstration of the nouns student, work, mangoes and book.

Notice that these words add something to the meaning of the nouns that follow.

There are several types of adjective:

o   Descriptive or Qualitative Adjective/ Adjective of Quality.

o   Indefinite or Quantitative Adjective/ Adjective of Quantity

o   Numeral Adjective or Definite Adjective

o   Demonstrative Adjective

o   Possessive Adjective

o   Interrogative Adjective

o   Distributive Adjective

o   Proper Adjective

Descriptive or Qualitative Adjective:

This type of adjective describes the quality or state of a person or an object(Noun/Pronoun).

a)      Bangladesh is an agricultural country.

b)     We earn foreign currency by exporting manpower.

c)      Bangalee can sacrifice their lives with smiling face.

Here is a list of Qualitative Adjective:

absolute

active

agriculture

alternative

annual

available

basic

central

chemical

civil

commercial

conservative

cultural

daily

democratic

direct

domestic

double

due

east

eastern

economic

educational

empty

financial

foreign

free

full

general

historical

human

ideal

independent

industrial

inevitable

intellectual

internal

international

legal

local

magic

male

mental

military

modern

moral

natural

negative

northern

official

open

original

personal

physical

political

positive

possible

potential

professional

proper

public

raw

real

religious

right

royal

rural

scientific

single

social

solid

South

southern

straight

sufficient

theoretical

traditional

west

western

wrong

What is the actual cost of this machine?

He lives in the central part of the city.

Chittagong is a commercial city.

It is important to have mental peace.

Bangladesh is blessed with many natural resources.

Quantitative Adjective:

Such an adjective indicates the quantity of a material or abstract noun.

a)      The patient has to drink much milk.

b)     I need some iron pegs.

c)      We have little knowledge about his early life.

Much, little, a little, the little

Many, few, a few, the few

Some, whole, no, none, enough, sufficient, all, half etc. are Quantitative adjectives.

Numeral Adjective:

Some words indicate the number of objects or things of a of a Countable Noun. These words are called Numeral adjective.

Numeral adjectives are classified into Cardinal, Ordinal and Multiplicative.

Numeral adjectives at a glance:

Cardinal Numerals	Ordinal Numerals	Multiplicative Numerals
one	first	single
two	second	double, twofold
three	third	triple, threefold
four	fourth	quadruple, fourfold
five	fifth	fivefold

Demonstrative Adjective:

When Demonstrative pronouns are used as adjective then they are called Demonstrative Adjective.

Such misconduct is unusual.

This book is mine.

Those books are rare collection.

Possessive Adjective:

When the Adjectives are formed with possessive pronouns, they are called Possessive Adjective.

Example:

Possessive Pronoun

This book is mine.

That pen is yours.

Possessive Adjective

This is my book.

That is your book.

Interrogative Adjective:

When the Adjectives are formed with Interrogative Pronouns, they are called Interrogative Adjective.

Example:

What color do you like most?

Which pen did you buy?

Whose watch is this one?

Distributive Adjective:

When the Adjectives are formed with Distributive Pronouns, they are called Distributive Adjective.

Every student will join the picnic.

Each boy and each girl got a price.

Either boy did bad in the exam. (both)

Neither boy was present in the class.(none)

Proper Adjective:

If the adjectives are originated from Proper Nouns, they are called Proper Adjectives.

Let us have a look at the table:

Proper Nouns	Proper Adjectives	Examples of use
America	American	American aid
Asia	Asian	Asian highway
Bangladesh	Bangladeshi	Bangladeshi art
Britain	British	British goods
China	Chinese	Chinese food
Denmark	Danish	Danish milk
Egypt	Egyptian	Egyptian cotton
England	English	English language
India	Indian	Indian sari
Japan	Japanese	Japanese car
Pakistan	Pakistani	Pakistani wool
Russia	Russian	Russian tractor
France	French	French costume
Germany	German	German chancellor
Greece	Greek	Greek civilization

Exclamatory Adjective:

What a piece of work a man is!

How cold her brain is!

What nonsense!

Emphasizing Adjective:

This very person helped in my danger.

Mind your own business.

Relative Adjective:

We have presented which book you requested for.

This is which shirt you wanted.

You should make complete solution of the dispute.

Color Adjectives:

blue shirt, green field.

-ing and –ed Adjective:

The job is boring. He is bored with his job.

His job is interesting. He is interested in his job.

-ing adjectives tell about the job and –ed adjectives tell how somebody feels.

The most common Adjectives ending in ‘-ed’ and ending in ‘-ing’ are:

amazed/amazing

astonished/astonishing

depressed/depressing

excited/exciting

surprised/surprising

worried/worrying

amused/amusing

bored/boring

shocked/shocking

frightened/frightening

interested/interesting

tired/tiring

annoyed/annoying

confused/confusing

disgusted/disgusting

fascinated/fascinating

disappointed/disappointing

embarrassed/embarrassing

Identification of adjective:

al – national

ar- familiar

ary-elementary

ed-talented

en- written

esque-picturesque

ful- hopeful

ic-historic

ical-historical

ish—childish

istic-characteristic

less-helpless

like-childlike

ly-friendly

ous-famous

ward-backward

wide-worldwide

y—windy

able-admirable

ible-responsible

ent-intelligent

ant-important

ile-hostile

ing-boring

ive-attractive

ory-introductory

V+ant=N; serve+ant=servant N+ant=adj; importance+ant N+ly=adj; friend+ly=friendly adj+ly=adv; worldwide+ly=worldwidely

 

V+ant=N; serve+ant=servant

N+ant=adj; imp

Position of adjective:

1.adj+N  2.Lv+N  3.adv+adj   4.so+adj+that   5.so/as+adj+as  6.make/hold+O+adj

7.too+adj  8.adj+enough.

1.  He is a good man.                    

2.  Samira is poor. 

3.He is seriously ill.          

4.Rahim is so  weak   that he cannot walk.

                          -                          -

                          +                          +

5.He is as tall as she.

6.Education makes our life successful.

7.Samira is too poor to buy food.

8.She is rich enough to buy a car.