Adjective (original) (raw)

In the English language, an adjective is a part of speech which can be thought of as a "describing word". An adjective modifies a noun in a similar way to a determiner. In some sentences, past participles are used as adjectives.

In the examples, the adjective is highlighted in bold.

In the first set of examples the adjective simply describes a noun. In the later examples the adjective forms a predicate. Some adjectives in English, such as "my" or "bonkers" can not be used both ways.

In English, adjectives come before the noun they describe. In French, they usually come after the noun.

An adjectival phrase is a phrase with an adjective as its head. (e.g. full of toys) . Adjectival phrases may occur as premodifiers to a noun (a bin full of toys), or as predicatives to a verb. (the bin is full of toys.)

Comparison of adjectives

Many adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. In English grammar, these are formed in one of two ways: either by suffixes (big, bigger, biggest) or by the use of the grammatical particles more and most. Some adjectives in English have suppletive forms in their comparison, such as good, better, best.

Which English adjectives are compared by which means is a complex matter of English idiom. Generally, shorter adjectives, Anglo-Saxon words, and shorter, fully domesticated French words (e.g. noble) use the suffixes. Longer words, especially those derived from Greek and Latin, require more and most. A fair number of words, especially longer adjectives that end in Anglo-Saxon derivative suffixes like -ly, can take either form.

Grammatical prescriptivists frequently object to phrases such as more perfect, on the grounds that being perfect is a quality that by definition admits to no comparison. Most speakers of English understand the phrase to mean more nearly perfect, however, and dismiss the prescriptivists' objection as pedantry.

Non-standard adjectives in English

Following is a list of English adjectives that are non-standard in that they are not derived from the same root as the corresponding noun, or they are based on the same root but in a way that is non-intuitive even to a native English speaker. In some cases, the non-standard adjective is merely an alternative to a standard one. For example, for an adjective form of 'charity' we could say 'eleemosynary', though in most cases 'charitable' would work just as well. Also some of the adjectives have a similar noun form, which acts as an alternative noun.

Here is the list in the format:

The list, sorted by adjectives:

See also grammar