Adjectives can have comparative forms - - - (‘big bigger’, ‘nice nicer’, ‘noisy - and superlative forms noisier’, ‘young younger’) (‘biggest’, ‘nicest’, ‘noisiest’, Sometimes this change is indicated by the addition of and ‘youngest’). ‘-er’ ‘-est’, sometimes with an additional spelling change (e.g. sometimes ‘biggest’, ‘noisier’), not (e.g. With longer words, we use ‘younger’, ‘youngest’). ‘more’ (‘more colourful’, and A few adjectives ‘more enjoyable’) ‘most’ (‘most colourful’, ‘most enjoyable’), have their own comparative and superlative forms which do not conform to these patterns (e.g. - better - - worse - ‘good best’, ‘bad worst’). Adjective sequence When we use a string of adjectives, there is a generally accepted sequence. size colour origin material purpose noun the small purple German silk evening gown the large () () wooden () crate Notice that if only some of the categories are present, the order is usually retained, e.g. large wooden ‘the crate’. Adjective and preposition Many adjectives are followed by specific prepositions, e.g. ‘interested in’, on, etc. ‘keen ‘happy about’, Adjectives as nouns We can use some adjectives as if they were nouns, e.g. ‘the blind’, ‘the poor’, etc. (see also collective nouns on page 66). Adjective or adverb? Some words can be both adjectives and adverbs, depending on whether they modify nouns or verbs. When we say had a late is an adjective, ‘I lunch’, ‘late’
Adjectives can have comparative forms (‘big - bigger’, ‘nice - nicer’, ‘noisy - noisier’, ‘young - younger’) and superlative forms (‘biggest’, ‘nicest’, ‘noisiest’, ‘youngest’). Sometimes this change is indicated by the addition of ‘-er’ and ‘-est’, sometimes with an additional spelling change (e.g. ‘biggest’, ‘noisier’), sometimes not (e.g. ‘younger’, ‘youngest’). With longer words, we use ‘more’ (‘more colourful’, ‘more enjoyable’) and ‘most’ (‘most colourful’, ‘most enjoyable’), A few adjectives have their own comparative and superlative forms which do not conform to these patterns (e.g. ‘good - better - best’, ‘bad - worse - worst’). Adjective sequence When we use a string of adjectives, there is a generally accepted sequence. size colour origin material purpose noun the small purple German silk evening gown the large () () wooden () crate Notice that if only some of the categories are present, the order is usually retained, e.g. ‘the large wooden crate’. Adjective and preposition Many adjectives are followed by specific prepositions, e.g. ‘interested in’, ‘keen on, ‘happy about’, etc. Adjectives as nouns We can use some adjectives as if they were nouns, e.g. ‘the blind’, ‘the poor’, etc. (see also collective nouns on page 66). Adjective or adverb? Some words can be both adjectives and adverbs, depending on whether they modify nouns or verbs. When we say ‘I had a late lunch’, ‘late’ is an adjective,
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