# English in Use/Adjectives


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An **adjective** is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally
expresses quality: as, A wise man; a new book; you two are diligent.
Adjectives may be divided into six classes; namely, common, proper,
numeral, pronominal, participial, and compound.

A **common** adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting
quality or situation: as, *good, bad, peaceful, warlike, eastern,
western, outer, inner*.

A **proper** adjective is an adjective formed from a proper name: as,
*American, English, Platonic, Genoese*.

A **numeral** adjective is an adjective that expresses a definite
number: as, *one, two, three, four, five, six*, etc.

A **pronominal** adjective is a definitive word which may either
accompany its noun, or represent it understood: as,

-   \"All join to guard what each desires to gain.\"---Pope.

That is,

-   \"All men join to guard what each man desires to gain.\"

A **participial** adjective is one that has the form of a participle,
but differs from it by rejecting the idea of time: as,

-   \"An amusing story,\"
-   \"A lying divination.\"

A **compound** adjective is one that consists of two or more words
joined together, either by the hyphen or solidly: as, *nut-brown,
laughter-loving, four-footed; threefold, lordlike, lovesick*.

**Cardinal**: *one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two*, etc.

**Ordinal**: *first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth,
twenty-first, twenty-second*, etc.

**Multiplicative**: *single or alone, double or twofold, triple or
threefold, quadruple or fourfold, quintuple or fivefold, sextuple or
sixfold, septuple or sevenfold, octuple or eightfold*, etc.

All that occur above decuple or tenfold, are written with a hyphen, and
are usually of round numbers only: as, *thirty-fold, sixty-fold,
hundred-fold*.

## Adjectives ending in ing and ed

## Adjectives word order

In English, multiple adjectives should follow a certain pattern as
follows:

1.  opinion (e.g. lovely, fantastic)
2.  size (e.g. tiny, large)
3.  most other qualities (e.g. warm, tight)
4.  age (e.g. new, young)
5.  colour (e.g. red, beige)
6.  pattern (e.g. stripy, plain)
7.  nationality (e.g. Spanish, foreign)
8.  material (e.g. silk, cotton)

Although you generally shouldn\'t use more than 2 or 3 adjectives
together it is possible to make a sentence like this:

-   \"I just bought a lovely, large, warm, new, red, stripey, foreign,
    cotton sweater.\"

## Modifications

Adjectives have, commonly, no modifications but the forms of comparison.
Comparison is a variation of the adjective, to express quality in
different degrees: as, *hard, harder, hardest; soft, softer, softest*.

There are three degrees of comparison; the positive, the comparative,
and the superlative.

The *\'positive degree* is that which is expressed by the adjective in
its simple form: as,

-   \"An elephant is large; a mouse, small; a lion, fierce, active,
    bold, and strong.\"

The **comparative degree** is that which is more or less than something
contrasted with it: as,

-   \"A whale is larger than an elephant; a mouse is a much smaller
    animal than a rat.\"

The **superlative degree** is that which is most or least of all
included with it: as,

-   \"The whale is the largest of the animals that inhabit this globe;
    the mouse is the smallest of all beasts.\"---Dr. Johnson.

Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different
degrees, cannot be compared: as, *two, second, all, every, immortal,
infinite*.

Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are
compared by means of adverbs: as, *fruitful, more fruitful, most
fruitful; fruitful, less fruitful, least fruitful*.

## Regular comparison

Adjectives are regularly compared, when the comparative degree is
expressed by adding *er*, and the superlative, by adding *est* to them:
as, *great, greater, greatest; mild, milder, mildest*.

In the variation of adjectives, final consonants are doubled, final *e*
is omitted, and final *y* is changed to *i*, agreeably to the rules for
spelling: as, *hot, hotter, hottest; wide, wider, widest; happy,
happier, happiest*.

The regular method of comparison belongs almost exclusively to
monosyllables, with dissyllables ending in *w* or *y*, and such others
as receive it and still have but one syllable after the accent: as,
*fierce, fiercer, fiercest; narrow, narrower, narrowest; gloomy,
gloomier, gloomiest; serene, serener, serenest; noble, nobler, noblest;
gentle, gentler, gentlest*.

## Comparison by adverbs

The two degrees of superiority may also be expressed with precisely the
same import as above, by prefixing to the adjective the adverbs *more*
and *most*: as, *wise, more wise, most wise; famous, more famous, most
famous; amiable, more amiable, most amiable*.

The degrees of inferiority are expressed, in like manner, by the adverbs
*less* and *least*: as, *wise, less wise, least wise; famous, less
famous, least famous; amiable, less amiable, least amiable*. The regular
method of comparison has, properly speaking, no degrees of this kind.

Nearly all adjectives that admit of different degrees, may be compared
by means of the adverbs; but, for short words, the regular method is
generally preferable: as, *quick, quicker, quickest*; rather than,
*quick, more quick, most quick*.

## Irregular comparison

The following adjectives are compared irregularly: *good, better, best;
bad, evil, or ill, worse, worst; little, less, least; much, more, most;
many, more, most*.

## A short syntax

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns, as \"Worldly enjoyments,\"
except the following cases: an intervening verb, as \"To err is human,\"
arithmetical numbers, as \"Four hundred and fifty-six men,\" an abstract
adjective, as \"Being sublime,\" and an adjective as abstract noun, as
\"Sensations of sublime.\"

An adjective is placed immediately before noun, as \"Vain man,\" except
the following cases: pronouns, as \"They left me weary,\" other words,
as \"A mind conscious of right,\" an action, as \"Virtue renders life
happy,\" admiration, as \"Goodness infinite,\" a verb, as \"Truth stands
independent,\" a prefix *a*, as afraid, the nature of a participle, as
\"The time then present,\" poetry, as \"Isles atlantic,\" technical
usage, as \"Notary public,\" an adjective, as \"A being infinitely
wise,\" several adjectives, as \"A woman, modest, sensible, and
virtuous,\" empathy, as \"Weighty is the anger,\" an adjective in
predicate, as \"We call the boy good,\" and an adjective as adverb, as
\"Particularly\".

## References

-   A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain
    English grammar \"The Grammar of English
    Grammars\" by Goold Brown,
    1851.

## See also

-   The Wikipedia article on Adjective

fr:Enseignement de
l\'anglais/Adjectifs
