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Introduction

Adjectives give us more information about people, places, animals and things. We
can often create adjectives from nouns, verbs and even other adjectives by adding
a prefix or a suffix.

Construction
We can use suffixes to change nouns and verbs into adjectives, or to change the
meaning of an adjective. Some suffixes have a general meaning whilst others
simply transform words into adjectives.

The suffix -less usually means without something whilst the suffix -ful usually
means to have something.
(with hope) hopeful hope hopeless (without hope)
The suffix -ish changes nouns and adjectives into adjectives that mean like
something.
Dont be childish. (like a child)
The jacket is a bluish colour. (like blue)

For materials we can add -en to nouns to create adjectives that mean made
of.

A wooden chair.
A woolen jumper.

Exceptions when adding a suffix


We dont normally add or take away letters, we simply add the suffix to the end of
the word. There are, however, some exceptions:

For words that have a short stressed vowel before the final consonant, we
double the final consonant.

sun sunny

We usually change y at the end of a word to i.


beauty beautiful

We drop an e from the end of word when the suffix begins with a vowel
(but: ee, oe, ye remain unchanged).

fortune fortunate
agree agreeable
We drop the final l before adding the suffix -ful to words that end in ll.
skill skilful

There are many more suffixes that we can use to create adjectives. The tables
below provide an overview of adjective formation using verbs and nouns.
Unfortunately, there are no rules to follow but we can always use a dictionary.

Adjectives from Nouns


suffix noun adjective example

-able comfort comfortable This chair is so comfortable.

-al brute brutal He lifted the car off the ground with brutal strength.

-ate passion passionate Ms Smith is a passionate teacher.

-en gold golden She wears a golden bracelet.

-ful beauty beautiful Look at those beautiful flowers.

-ible response responsible Angela is very responsible.

-ic history historic This town has many historic sites.

-ical alphabet alphabetical The names are in alphabetical order.

-ish child childish Dont be so childish.

-less home homeless If I dont find a new flat soon, Ill be homeless.

-ly day daily Anna goes for a daily run.

-some trouble troublesome She is experiencing a troublesome pregnancy.

-ous fame famous Who is the most famous person in the world?

-y wind windy A windy day.


Adjectives from Verbs
suffix verb adjective example

-able read readable The teachers handwriting was not very readable.

-ative inform informative The lecture was very informative.

-ed annoy annoyed an annoyed glance

-ing confusing confusing The question is confusing.

-tive produce productive Today has been very productive.

-ing or -ed?
Many adjectives for feelings end in both -ing and -ed.

We use adjectives that end in -ing are to describe the effect of people, things
or situations.

Ericas job is boring.

My mother is so embarrassing.

When we want describe how a person feels, we use adjectives that end in -
ed.
Erica is bored with her job.
Michael is confused by grammar.

I was embarrassed about the hole in my trousers.

Opposite Adjectives
dis-, in- and un-
Most adjectives in English have an opposite adjective: big/small, hot/cold,
tall/short, good/bad etc. However, we can also use prefixes to form the opposites
of many adjectives. The most common prefix for forming opposite adjectives
are un-, dis-, and in-. Some examples are listed in the table below.
prefix adjective opposite adjective example

lucky unlucky Jerry is a very unlucky person.


un-
comfortable uncomfortable This chair is uncomfortable.

honest dishonest Its dishonest to lie about something.


dis-
respectful disrespectful Janice was disrespectful to the teacher.

correct incorrect The answer is incorrect.


in-
humane inhumane Torture is inhumane.

il-, im- and ir-


The prefixes il, im and ir are only used before particular letters. il- comes before
words that start with l, im- comes before words that start with m or p and ir- comes
before words that start with r.

opposite
prefix adjective example
adjective

legal illegal Its illegal to bring fruit into this country.


il-
logical illogical His thought process was illogical.

patient impatient Matthew is an impatient man.


im-
mature immature My little sister is so immature.

regular irregular The verbs be, do and have are irregular.

ir-
Its irresponsible to drive if you have been
responsible irresponsible
drinking.

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