Tag: adjectives

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Structure: Word categories

This time in our structure help we talk about word categories in English. This is vital to understand why certain words are acceptable in some situations, while other words aren’t acceptable.

When we think about word categories some of the most common categories are; nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

Nouns can refer to people (or other creatures), places or things.
Examples: Peter, friend, cat, table, book.

Verbs are words that relate to actions or states.
Examples: work, eat, fly.

Adjectives are describing words.
Examples: big, fast, happy.

Adverbs are formed by a large group of words that is impossible to go through here. However, some of the most common adverbs are ones that express ‘how something happens’ (slowly, quickly, easily etc…) or ‘how often something happens’ (usually, normally, never, sometimes etc…).

Prepositions are words that connect parts of a sentence and show the relationship between them.
Examples: in, on, at, with etc…

A good student’s dictionary like the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English tells you the category of a word you search for. By knowing the category of a word you can more easily use it in sentences. This is also a good way to build vocabulary because words often have different forms; a verb, adjective and noun for example. By knowing each of these individual forms you are more easily able to use the correct one when necessary.

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Structure: ‘Superlative adjectives’

How to make superlative adjectives

Adjectives are put into four different categories before creating their comparative and superlative forms:

  1. one-syllable or short adjectives
  2. two or more syllable long adjectives
  3. adjectives that end with ‘y’
  4. irregular adjectives.

1. To make one-syllable or short adjectives into superlative adjectives we add ‘the’ before the adjective and ‘est’ to the end of the adjective.

  • short becomes the shortest
  • long becomes the longest

2. To make two or more syllable long adjectives into superlative adjective add ‘the most’ before the adjective.

  • comfortable becomes the most comfortable
  • impressive becomes the most impressive

3. To make adjectives that end with ‘y’ into superlative adjectives we add ‘the’ before the adjective, we remove ‘y’ at the end of the adjective and add ‘iest’.

  • easy becomes the easiest
  • heavy becomes the heaviest

4. To make irregular adjectives into superlative adjectives you just have to learn the superlative form. Fortunately they aren’t many.

  • good becomes the best
  • bad becomes the worst

Look at the diagram below for a summary of how we create the superlative forms from these different types of adjectives.

Diagram of how to form superlative adjectives.
Diagram of how to form superlative adjectives.

Activity

What sentences can you create using superlative adjectives? Try to write some using the four different categories of superlative adjectives.

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Structure: ‘Comparative adjectives’

How to make comparative adjectives

Adjectives are put into four different categories before creating their comparative forms:

  1. one-syllable or short adjectives
  2. two or more syllable long adjectives
  3. adjectives that end with ‘y’
  4. irregular adjectives.

1. To make one-syllable or short adjectives into comparative adjectives we add ‘er + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • short becomes shorter than
  • long becomes longer than

2. To make two or more syllable long adjectives into comparative adjective add ‘more’ before the adjective and ‘than’ after the adjective

  • comfortable becomes more comfortable than
  • impressive becomes more impressive than

3. To make adjectives that end with ‘y’ into comparative adjectives we remove ‘y’ at the end of the adjective and add ‘ier + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • easy becomes easier than
  • heavy becomes heavier than

4. To make irregular adjectives into comparative adjectives you just have to learn the comparative form. Fortunately they aren’t many and they use ‘than’ after the comparative form.

  • good becomes better than
  • bad becomes worse than

Look at the diagram below for a summary of how we create the comparative forms from these different types of adjectives.

Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.
Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.

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Structure: ‘-ed vs -ing adjectives’

This time in our structure help we talk about the difference between ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’ adjectives, so for example, the different between tired and tiring. There aren’t a lot of adjectives in English with two forms, but most of the adjectives with two forms are common so it’s important to know about them and their differences.

Continue reading Structure: ‘-ed vs -ing adjectives’
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Structure: ‘Word order with adjectives & nouns’

Fly High English - Structure

This time in our structure help we talk about the word order with adjectives and nouns. Which do we use first? This word order can be different in other languages so it’s important to study it in English to remember what forms are possible. As usual, there is more than one way to do this. Have a look at the diagram below and try to make your own sentences after you read the examples. Read the examples out loud to help you remember the word order.

Diagram of adjective & noun word order.
‘Adjective & noun word order’

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