Compound adjectives

What are compound adjectives?

A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives are joined together to modify the same noun. These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or ambiguity. For example:

1. Diana submitted a 6-page document.
2. She adopted a two-year-old cat.

   Compound adjectives – Exceptions

   Note that combining an adverb and an adjective does not create a compound adjective. No hyphen is required because it is already clear that the adverb modifies the adjective rather than the subsequent noun. For example:
   

   1. It was a terribly hot day.
   2. It is an amazingly good idea.

   In addition, you should not place a hyphen in a compound adjective if the adjectives are capitalized, such as when they are part of a title.
   

   Examples of compound adjectives

3. This is a four-foot table.
4. Daniella is a part-time worker.
5. This is an all-too-common error.
6. Beware of the green-eyed monster.
7. He is a cold-blooded man.
8. I love this brightly-lit room!
9. Danny’s dog is well-behaved.
10. You have to be open-minded about things.

    Order of adjectives

    How to order adjectives in English

    In many languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the adjective order in English is:

    1. Quantity or number
    2. Quality or opinion
    3. Size
    4. Age
    5. Shape
    6. Color
    7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
    8. Purpose or qualifier

    For example:
    

    1. I love that really big old green antique car that always parked at the end of the street.
    2. My sister adopted a beautiful big white bulldog.

    When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word and is placed between the two adjectives:
    

    1. The house is green and red.
    2. The library has old and new books.

    When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma between each of the coordinate adjectives:
    

    1. We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street.
    2. My friend lost a red, black and white watch.

    A comma is not placed between an adjective and the noun.
    
    
    

    Order of adjectives – examples

    Determiner	Quantity or number	Quality or opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Color	Proper adjective	Purpose or qualifier	Noun
    A		beautiful		old			Italian	sports	car
    The	three	beautiful	little			gold			plates
    An		amazing			heart-shaped	red and white			sofa

    More examples:
    
11. I love that really old big green antique car that always parked at the end of the street. [quality – age – size – color – proper adjective]
12. My sister has a big, beautiful, tan and white, bulldog. [size – quality – color – color]
13. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin]
14. A big square blue box. [dimension – shape – color]
15. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion – color – material]
16. Some slim new French trousers. [dimension – age – origin]
17. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin]
18. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color – material]

    Lists of adjectives

    Common adjectives

• Good
• New
• First
• Last
• Long
• great
• little
• own
• other
• old
• right
• big
• high
• different
• small
• large
• next
• early
• young
• important
• few
• public
• bad
• same
• able

  Appearance adjectives

  • adorable
  • beautiful
  • clean
  • drab
  • elegant
  • fancy
  • glamorous
  • handsome
  • long
  • magnificent
  • old-fashioned
  • plain
  • quaint
  • sparkling
  • ugliest
  • unsightly
  • wide-eyed

  Color adjectives

  • red
  • orange
  • yellow
  • green
  • blue
  • purple
  • gray
  • black
  • white

  Condition adjectives

  • alive
  • better
  • careful
  • clever
  • dead
  • easy
  • famous
  • gifted
  • helpful
  • important
  • inexpensive
  • mushy
  • odd
  • powerful
  • rich
  • shy
  • tender
  • uninterested
  • vast
  • wrong

  Personality adjectives – Positive

  • agreeable
  • brave
  • calm
  • delightful
  • eager
  • faithful
  • gentle
  • happy
  • jolly
  • kind
  • lively
  • nice
  • obedient
  • proud
  • relieved
  • silly
  • thankful
  • victorious
  • witty
  • zealous

  Personality adjectives – Negative

  • angry
  • bewildered
  • clumsy
  • defeated
  • embarrassed
  • fierce
  • grumpy
  • helpless
  • itchy
  • jealous
  • lazy
  • mysterious
  • nervous
  • obnoxious
  • panicky
  • repulsive
  • scary
  • thoughtless
  • uptight
  • worried

  Shape adjectives

  • broad
  • chubby
  • crooked
  • curved
  • deep
  • flat
  • high
  • hollow
  • low
  • narrow
  • round
  • shallow
  • skinny
  • square
  • steep
  • straight
  • wide

  Size adjectives

  • big
  • colossal
  • fat
  • gigantic
  • great
  • huge
  • immense
  • large
  • little
  • mammoth
  • massive
  • miniature
  • petite
  • puny
  • scrawny
  • short
  • small
  • tall
  • teeny
  • teeny-tiny
  • tiny

  Sound adjectives

  • cooing
  • deafening
  • faint
  • hissing
  • loud
  • melodic
  • noisy
  • purring
  • quiet
  • raspy
  • screeching
  • thundering
  • voiceless
  • whispering

  Time adjectives

  • ancient
  • brief
  • early
  • fast
  • late
  • long
  • modern
  • old
  • old-fashioned
  • quick
  • rapid
  • short
  • slow
  • swift
  • young

  Taste/touch adjectives

  • bitter
  • delicious
  • fresh
  • greasy
  • juicy
  • hot
  • icy
  • loose
  • melted
  • nutritious
  • prickly
  • rainy
  • rotten
  • salty
  • sticky
  • strong
  • sweet
  • tart
  • tasteless
  • uneven
  • weak
  • wet
  • wooden
  • yummy

  Touch adjectives

  • boiling
  • breeze
  • broken
  • bumpy
  • chilly
  • cold
  • cool
  • creepy
  • crooked
  • cuddly
  • curly
  • damaged
  • damp
  • dirty
  • dry
  • dusty
  • filthy
  • flaky
  • fluffy
  • freezing
  • hot
  • warm
  • wet

  Quantity adjectives

• abundant
• empty
• few
• full
• heavy
• light
• many
• numerous
• sparse
• substantial

  Examples of adjectives

  Typical adjective endings

• They live in a beautiful house.
• Lisa is wearing a sleeveless shirt today. This soup is not edible.
• She wore a beautiful dress.
• He writes meaningless letters.
• This shop is much nicer.
• She wore a beautiful dress.
• Ben is an adorable baby.
• Linda’s hair is gorgeous.
• This glass is breakable.
• I met a homeless person in NY.

  Denominal adjective examples

  1. A mathematical puzzle.
  2. A biological experiment.
  3. A wooden boat.
  4. I married an American woman.
  5. The Jewish community in NY is very big.
  6. Mary has a collection of expensive Russian dolls.
  7. In the winter you must wear heavy woollen clothes.
  8. The polar bear is listed as threatened.

  Order of adjective examples

  1. I love that really big old green antique car that is always parked at the end of the street. [quality – size – age – color – qualifier]
  2. My sister has a beautiful big white bulldog. [quality – size – color]
  3. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin]
  4. A big square blue box. [size – shape – color]
  5. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion – color – material]
  6. Some new slim French trousers. [age – shape – origin]
  7. My small new red sleeping bag. [size – age – color – purposee]
  8. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color – material]

  Comparing adjective examples

  1. This house is bigger than that one.
  2. This flower is more beautiful than that.
  3. He is taller than Mr. Hulas.
  4. He is more intelligent than this boy.
  5. Jonathan is the most handsome man on campus.
  6. This is the prettiest dress in the window.
  7. I lost my most comfortable shoes.
  8. My job is worse than yours.

  Compound adjectives examples

  1. This is a four-foot table.
  2. Daniella is a part-time worker.
  3. This is an all-too-common error.
  4. Beware of the green-eyed monster.
  5. He is a cold-blooded man.
  6. We saw a man-eating shark!
  7. Danny’s dog is well-behaved.
  8. You have to be open-minded about things.

  Adjectival phrase examples

• Susan is really clever.
• The doctor is very late.
• My sister is fond of animals.
• I am happy to meet you.
• The kids are ready to go.
• Don’t be afraid of the dark.
• Tony lost his dark brown briefcase.
• He’s an extraordinary looking man.

Comparing adjectives

Forming comparative adjectives

As well as serving as modifying words like beautiful and big, adjectives are also used for indicating the position on a scale of comparison. The lowest point on the scale is known as the absolute form, the middle point is known as the comparative form, and the highest point is known as the superlative form. Here are some examples:

Absolute	Comparative	Superlative
This book is long.	This book is longer than that book.	This is the longest book.
The airport is far.	The airport is farther than the train station.	This is the farthest airport.
My mom is a good cook.	My mom is a better cook than your mom.	My mom is the best cook.

The comparative form

When two objects or persons are being compared, the comparative form of the adjective is used. The comparative adjective can be formed in two ways:

1. Adding –er to the absolute form of the adjective.
2. Adding the word more before the adjective.

For example:

1. My essay is longer than yours.
2. She is more beautiful than her sister.

Here are the rules for choosing and forming the right form:

Add	When	Example	Forming and Exceptions
–er	Words of one syllable	This is a longer book.	Words ending with ‘e‘, add ‘r‘ to the end of the word (e.g., lame → lamer). Words with one vowel and one consonant at the end, double the consonant and add –er to the end of the word (e.g., big → bigger). Words with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end, add –er to the end of the word (e.g., hard → harder).
–er	Words of two syllables ending with ‘y‘	This doll is prettier.	Change ‘y‘ to ‘i‘, and add –er to the end of the word.
more	Words of two syllables not ending with ‘y‘	He is more charming than his friend.	Insert more before the adjective
more	Three syllable words or longer	This is a more powerful cable.	Insert more before the adjective

When comparing two things, the word than is positioned between the adjective and the thing being compared. For example:

1. Apples are tastier than oranges.
2. This painting is more interesting than that painting.

Superlatives

The superlative is used to say what thing or person has the most of a particular quality within a group or of its kind. The superlative can be formed in two ways:

1. Adding –est to the absolute form of the adjective.
2. Adding the word most before the adjective.

For example:

1. This is the most beautiful dress I have ever seen.
2. The biggest table in the room.

Here are the rules for choosing and forming the right form:

Add	When	Example	Forming and Exceptions
–est	Words of one syllable	This is the longest book.	Words ending with ‘e‘, add ‘st‘ to the end of the word (e.g., large → largest). Words with one vowel and one consonant at the end, double the consonant and add –est to the end of the word (e.g., big → biggest). Words with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end, add –est to the end of the word (e.g., blue → bluest).
–est	Words of two syllables ending with ‘y‘	This doll is the prettiest.	Change ‘y‘ to ‘i‘, and add –est to the end of the word.
most	Words of two syllables not ending with ‘y‘	He is the most charming boy at school.	Insert most before the adjective
most	Three syllable words or longer	This is the most powerful story.	Insert most before the adjective

Superlatives are usually preceded by the word the.

 

Positive form

The positive form is used in cases where there are no differences between the two compared things or persons. To form the positive, we use the word as before and after the absolute form of the adjective. For example:

1. Danny is as smart as Phillip.
2. She is as beautiful as her older sister.

This can also be applied in a negative context to indicate that the compared objects are not similar:

1. Danny is not as smart as Phillip.
2. She is not as beautiful as her older sister.

Exceptions (irregular forms)

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Absolute	Comparative	Superlative
Good	Better	Best
Bad	Worse	Worst
Little	Less	Least
Much/many	More	Most

Examples of comparing adjectives

1. This house is bigger than that one.
2. This flower is more beautiful than that.
3. He is taller than Mr. Hulas.
4. He is more intelligent than this boy.
5. Jonathan is the most handsome man on campus.
6. This is the prettiest dress in the window.
7. I lost my most comfortable shoes.
8. My job is worse than yours.

Denominal adjectives

What are denominal adjectives?

Denominal adjectives (sometimes called denominal adjectives) are adjectives derived from nouns. For example:

1. A mathematical puzzle. (a puzzle based on mathematics)
2. A biological experiment. (an experiment in biology)
3. A wooden boat. (a boat made of wood)Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. They commonly describe something in terms of nationality, religious affiliation, or culture. Like proper nouns, proper adjectives have their first letter capitalized. For example:
   
4. I married a Russian woman.
5. The Jewish community in NY is very large.

Adjectives of this type should be carefully distinguished from adjectives denoting nationalities (nominal adjectives). For example:

1. Denominal Adjective: The French people are noted for their wines.
2. Nominal Adjective: The French are noted for their wines.

or:

1. Denominal Adjective: The poor people are more vulnerable.
2. Nominal Adjective: The poor are getting poorer.

Examples of denominal adjectives

1. A mathematical puzzle.
2. A biological experiment.
3. A wooden boat.
4. I married an American woman.
5. The Jewish community in NY is very big.
6. Mary has a collection of expensive Russian dolls.
7. In the winter you must wear heavy woolen clothes.
8. The polar bear is listed as threatened.

Forming adjectives

Typical adjective endings

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:

1. -able/-ible understandable, capable, readable, incredible
2. -al mathematical, functional, influential, chemical
3. -ful beautiful, bashful, helpful, harmful
4. -ic artistic, manic, rustic, terrific
5. -ive submissive, intuitive, inventive, attractive
6. -less sleeveless, hopeless, groundless, restless
7. -ous gorgeous, dangerous, adventurous, fabulousSometimes when adding these endings changes have to be made. Here are some rules for forming adjectives and their exceptions:
   

   Add	Exceptions	Word	Adjective
   -al	If ending with an ‘e‘, drop it	Nature Function	Natural Functional
   -y	If ending with an ‘e‘, drop it	Ice Oil	Icy Oily
   -ful	If ending with a ‘y‘, replace with an ‘i‘	Beauty Peace	Beautiful Peaceful
   -ous/-ious	If ending with a ‘y‘, drop it	Mystery Danger	Mysterious Dangerous
   -ic	If ending with a ‘y‘, drop it	History Rust	Historic Rustic

   

   Forming adjectives from nouns and verbs

   Adjectives can be formed from different words. They can be formed from nouns:
   

   Noun	Adjective
   accident	accidental
   danger	dangerous
   length	long
   star	starry
   wind	windy

   From verbs:
   

   Verb	Adjective
   enjoy	enjoyable
   help	helpful
   obey	obedient
   play	playful
   talk	talkative

   Or even from other adjectives:
   

   Adjective	Adjective
   comic	comical
   correct	corrective
   elder	elderly
   red	reddish
   sick	sickly

   Examples of forming adjectives

• Our house color is a kind of yellow. → We live in a yellowish house.
• He often acts like a child. → He often acts in a childish way.
• The event was a big success. → We enjoyed a successful event.
• We enjoyed the sound of the drum’s rhythm. → We enjoyed the drum’s rhythmic sound.
• She adopted a dog without a home. → She adopted a homeless dog.
• Look out, that plant is poison. → Look out for that poisonous plant.
• It looks like it will rain today. → It looks like we’ll have rainy weather today.
• She always acts with courtesy. → She always behaves in a courteous manner.
• Her hair is pretty. → She has the prettiest hair.
• We go for a walk each day. → We go for a daily walk.

Adjectives

What is an adjective?

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive, and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.

Adjective Examples

 

In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

1. They live in a big, beautiful
2. Since it’s a hot day, Lisa is wearing a sleeveless
3. The mountaintops are covered in sparkling
4. On her birthday, Brenda received an antique vase filled with fragrant

Types of Adjectives

Remember that adjectives can modify as well as describe other words, and you’ll find it much easier to identify different types of adjectives when you see them.

Articles

There are only three articles, and all of them are adjectives: a, an, and the. Because they are used to discuss non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles. For example:

• I’d like a
• Let’s go on an

Neither one of these sentences names a specific banana or a certain adventure. Without more clarification, any banana or adventure will do.
The word the is called the definite article. It’s the only definite article, and it is used to indicate very specific people or things:

• Please give me a banana. I’d like the one with the green stem.
• Let’s go on an adventure. The Grand Canyon mule ride sounds perfect!

Possessive Adjectives

As the name indicates, possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession. They are:

• My
• Your
• His
• Her
• Its
• Our
• Their

Possessive adjectives also function as possessive pronouns.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific people, animals, or things. These, those, this and that are demonstrative adjectives.

• These books belong on that
• This movie is my favorite.
• Please put those cookies on the blue plate.

Coordinate Adjectives

Coordinate adjectives are separated with commas or the word and, and appear one after another to modify the same noun. The adjectives in the phrase bright, sunny day and long and dark night are coordinate adjectives. In phrases with more than two coordinate adjectives, the word and always appears before the last one; for example: The sign had big, bold, and bright letters.
Be careful, because some adjectives that appear in a series are not coordinate. In the phrase green delivery truck, the words green and delivery are not separated by a comma because green modifies the phrase delivery truck. To eliminate confusion when determining whether a pair or group of adjectives is coordinate, just insert the word and between them. If and works, then the adjectives are coordinate and need to be separated with a comma.

Numbers Adjectives

When they’re used in sentences, numbers are almost always adjectives. You can tell that a number is an adjective when it answers the question “How many?”

• The stagecoach was pulled by a team of six
• He ate 23 hotdogs during the contest, and was sick afterwards.

Interrogative Adjectives

There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what, and whose. Like all other types of adjectives, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these words are used to ask questions.

• Which option sounds best to you?
• What time should we go?
• Whose socks are those?

 Indefinite Adjectives

Like the articles a and an, indefinite adjectives are used to discuss non-specific things. You might recognize them, since they’re formed from indefinite pronouns. The most common indefinite adjectives are any, many, no, several, and few.

• Do we have any peanut butter?
• Grandfather has been retired for many
• There are no bananas in the fruit bowl.
• I usually read the first few pages of a book before I buy it.
• We looked at several cars before deciding on the best one for our family.

Attributive Adjectives

Attributive adjectives talk about specific traits, qualities, or features – in other words, they are used to discuss attributes. There are different kinds of attributive adjectives:

• Observation adjectives such as real, perfect, best, interesting, beautiful or cheapest can indicate value or talk about subjective measures.
• Size and shape adjectives talk about measurable, objective qualities including specific physical properties. Some examples include small, large, square, round, poor, wealthy, slow and
• Age adjectives denote specific ages in numbers, as well as general ages. Examples are old, young, new, five-year-old, and
• Color adjectives are exactly what they sound like – they’re adjectives that indicate color. Examples include pink, yellow, blue, and
• Origin adjectives indicate the source of the noun, whether it’s a person, place, animal or thing. Examples include American, Canadian, Mexican, French.
• Material adjectives denote what something is made of. Some examples include cotton, gold, wool, and
• Qualifier adjectives are often regarded as part of a noun. They make nouns more specific; examples include log cabin, luxury car, and pillow cover.

Conjunctive adverbs

What is a conjunctive adverb?

Conjunctive adverbs are parts of speech that are used to connect one clause to another. They are also used to show sequence, contrast, cause and effect, and other relationships.

Like other adverbs, conjunctive adverbs may be moved around in the sentence or clause in which they appear. This is just one of the things you’ll need to remember; additional rules for using conjunctive adverbs follow:

• Always use a period or semicolon before the conjunctive adverb when separating two independent clauses. Conjunctive adverbs are not strong enough to join independent clauses without supporting punctuation.
• Use a comma if a conjunction such as and, but, or, or so appears between the conjunctive adverb and the first clause.
• Use a comma behind conjunctive adverbs when they appear at the beginning of a sentence’s second clause. The only exception to this rule is that no comma is necessary if the adverb is a single syllable.
• If a conjunctive adverb appears in the middle of a clause, it should be enclosed in commas most of the time. This is not an absolute rule and does not normally apply to short clauses. 
•  Some examples of conjunctive adverbs are:
  
  

   

  
  

  1. in addition
  2. for example
  3. however
  4. therefore
  5. on the contrary
  6. hence
  7. in fact
  8. otherwise
  9. as a result
  10. indeed
  11. still
  12. thus
  13. on the other hand
  14. furthermore
  15. instead
  16. incidentally
  17. after all
  18. finally
  19. likewise
  20. meanwhile
  21. consequently

Examples of Conjunctive adverbs

The conjunctive adverbs in the following examples are in bold for easy identification.

1. Jeremy kept talking in class; therefore, he got in trouble.
2. She went into the store; however, she didn’t find anything she wanted to buy.
3. I like you a lot; in fact, I think we should be best friends.
4. Your dog got into my yard; in addition, he dug up my petunias.
5. You’re my friend; nonetheless, I feel like you’re taking advantage of me.
6. My car payments are high; on the other hand, I really enjoy driving such a nice vehicle.

Coordinating Conjunctions

What is a coordinating conjunction?

 Coordinating conjunctions coordinate or join two or more sentences, main clauses, words, or other parts of speech which are of the same syntactic importance. Also known as coordinators, coordinating conjunctions are used to give equal emphasis to a pair of main clauses.

 

Coordinating Conjunction Rules

As there are only seven of these words, there are just a few rules for using coordinating conjunctions correctly:

1. It’s a good idea to use the mnemonic “FANBOYS” to memorize coordinating conjunctions so you’ll never forget them. They are:
   • F = for
   • A = and
   • N = nor
   • B = but
   • O = or
   • Y = yet
   • S = so
2. Coordinating conjunctions always connect phrases, words, and clauses. For example: This batch of mushroom stew is savory and delicious.
3. Some instructors warn that starting a sentence with a coordinating conjunction is incorrect. Mostly, this is because they are attempting to help prevent you from writing fragments rather than complete sentences; sometimes though, it’s just a personal preference. The fact is, you can begin sentences with coordinating conjunctions as long as you follow these three rules for doing so:
   • Ensure that the coordinating conjunction is immediately followed by a main clause
   • Don’t use coordinating conjunctions to begin all of your sentences. Do so only when it makes your writing more effective.
   • Although commas typically follow coordinating conjunctions used in areas other than the beginning of a sentence, they should not be used after coordinating conjunctions used to open sentences unless an interrupter immediately follows.   
   
   
   

Examples of Coordinating Conjunctions

In the following examples, the coordinating conjunctions have been italicized for easy identification.

1. You can eat your cake with a spoon or fork.
2. My dog enjoys being bathed but hates getting his nails trimmed.
3. Bill refuses to eat peas, nor will he touch carrots.
4. I hate to waste a drop of gas, for it is very expensive these days.