Adjectives CHAPTER 4

Read this description of a hotel and underline all the adjectives you find. Then answer the
questions below.

This comfortable hotel with its pleasant gardens is ideal for people who want a quiet holiday, yet it
is only a short distance from the highly popular attractions of the area. There are lovely views from
every room. The atmosphere is very friendly, and the staff are always helpful. A holiday here is very
good value for money. You can eat your meals at the hotel, where the food tastes marvellous. Or
you can of course try some of the excellent local restaurants.

Do adjectives change their form in the singular and plural?

Do they always come before the noun they modify?

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF ADJECTIVES

The main function of adjectives is to describe/qualify nouns. In English, adjectives cannot be

pluralized.
e.g. a cheap watch – cheap watches / an important decision-many important decisions.

Adjectives can occur in ATTRIBUTIVE function, i.e. they can premodify a noun, appearing between
the determiner and the head of the noun phrase:
an ugly painting – the round table – an atomic scientist
Adjectives can also occur in PREDICATIVE function, i.e. they can function as subject complement or
as object complement.
They come after the verbs: be, look, smell, sound, seem, feel, taste, appear, become, get, stay, etc.
He seems careless. (Cs) I find him careless. (Co)

Adjectives can also occur in POSTPOSITIVE function, i.e. they can postmodify a noun coming
right after it.*
Compare: *
This topic will not be
dealt with in the
She asked a proper question. (Attributive) Introductory Course.
The question proper was not answered. (Postpositive)

There are opinion adjectives and fact adjectives. Opinion adjectives such as smart, bad, nice,
etc. show what a person thinks of somebody or something. Fact or descriptive adjectives
such as short, big, old, etc. give us factual information about age, size, colour, material, etc.
Opinion adjectives go before fact adjectives.

e.g. a handsome young man

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Adjectives
When there are two or more adjectives in a sentence, they usually go in the following order:

GROUP EXAMPLES
OPINION wonderful, nice, great, awful, terrible,
ADJECTIVES horrible, comfortable, etc.
SIZE
large, small, long, short, tall, etc.
(how big?)
AGE
new, old, etc.
(how old?)
SHAPE/STYLE Round, rectangular, etc.
FACT COLOUR red, blue, dark, black, etc.
ADJECTIVES ORIGIN
American, British, French
(where from?)
MATERIAL Stone, plastic, steel, paper, etc.
(made of?) Some of these are nouns.
TYPE/CLASSIFYING an electric kettle, political matters,
(what kind?) road transport
PURPOSE
a bread knife, a bath towel
(what for?)

We do not usually use a long list of adjectives before a single noun. A noun is usually
described by one, two or three adjectives at the most.
Here are some examples.
an expensive Italian leather bag (opinion, origin, material)
a small green insect (size, colour)
a beautiful wooden picture frame (opinion, material, purpose)
Japanese industrial designers (origin, type)

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS OF ADJECTIVES

We use comparative adjectives to compare one person or thing with another or with the
same person or thing at another time. After a comparative adjective, you often use ‘than’.
e.g. She was much older than me.
I am happier than I have ever been.
You use a superlative to say that one person or thing has more of a quality than others in a
group or others of that kind.
e.g. Tokyo is Japan’s largest city.
64
He was the tallest person there.
 Chapter 4
TYPES OF COMPARISONS
1. COMPARATIVE DEGREE
SUPERIORITY is expressed by means of er and more
e.g. Anna is more elegant than her sister.

EQUALITY. We use as + adjective + as to show that two people or things are similar in some way.
e.g. Paul is as old as Richard.
Alison isn’t as/so clever as Cynthia. (negative + so/as +adjective+as)

INFERIORITY is used to express the opposite of more…than.

LESS + ADJECTIVE + THAN

e.g. This film is less exciting than the other one we saw.
(The other one we saw was more exciting than this one.)

2. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE
SUPERIORITY
We use THE + SUPERLATIVE FORM + OF/IN to compare one person or thing with more than
one person or thing in the same group. We use IN when we talk about places.
e.g. Alec is the tallest of all.
New York is the most exciting city in the USA.

INFERIORITY is used to express the opposite of “the most…”.

THE LEAST + ADJECTIVE

e.g. Physics is the least interesting course I’ve ever studied at high school.
Prepositions after superlatives (from Swan, M., 1995)
After superlatives, we do not usually use of with a singular word referring to a place or group.
I'm the happiest man in the world (NOT of the world)
She's the fastest player in the team (NOT of the team) [But it could also be "on the team"]
But of can be used before plurals, and before singular quantifiers like lot and bunch.
She's the fastest player of them all.
He's the best of the lot.

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Adjectives
RULES
ONE-SYLLABLE ADJECTIVES
They usually have the small smaller the smallest
er, est ending warm warmer the warmest
Adjectives ending in e nice nicer the nicest
add only r and st Also: brave, fine, safe, large, pure.
Words ending in a hot hotter the hottest
single vowel letter + a Also: fit, sad, thin, wet, etc.
single consonant letter
double the consonant
TWO-SYLLABLE ADJECTIVES

Adjectives ending in angry angrier the angriest

consonant + y change Also: busy, dirty, easy, funny, heavy, lovely, pretty, silly,
to ier and est tidy, etc.

Some words have er narrow narrower the narrowest

and est OR more and more narrow the most narrow
most Also: clever, common, cruel, gentle, polite, quiet, friendly,
lovely.
Adjectives ending in useful more useful the most useful
ful or less, ing or ed Also: careful, helpful, hopeless, bored /boring, willing,
take more and most annoyed/annoying, surprised/surprising
Many other two- serious more serious the most serious
syllable adjectives Also: afraid, certain, correct, eager, exact, famous, foolish,
have more and most frequent, modern, nervous, normal, recent

THREE-SYLLABLE ADJECTIVES AND LONGER ONES

We use more and most exciting more exciting the most exciting
Also: interesting, elegant, reliable, expensive

IRREGULAR COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

good better best
bad worse worst
much/many/a lot of* more most
little* less least
far further/farther furthest/farthest
* these are
determiners or
pronouns but not
adjectives

66
 Activities
1- Fill in the gaps with the correct adjective from the list. Then say whether the adjectives
are in attributive or predicative function.

loud, warm, narrow, dark, hot, strong, tired, old, comfortable, bright, long

It was a cold, 1) ____________________ night. There was a

2) ____________________wind blowing and it was starting to rain. James was
driving home after a 3) ____________________day at work and he was very
4)____________________The road he was driving along was
5) ____________________and winding, but it was the quickest way home.
Suddenly, there was a 6) ____________________flash of lightning and a
7) ____________________crash of thunder as the storm broke. James’ car was

8) ____________________but he put his foot down because he wanted to get

home quickly. He wanted to sit in his 9) ____________________chair by the
10) ____________________ fire and drink a cup of 11) ____________________
coffee.

2- Use the following adjectives attributively and predicatively. The sentences must be of at
least 8 words.

dark arrogant
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
lively gorgeous
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
sensitive magnificent
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
boring amazing
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
significant sensible
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
_________________________________________ _________________________________________
incredible
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
67
Activities
4- Are the adjectives in these phrases in the normal order?

1- a long hot day ...YES… 6- the worst British air disaster…………..

2- a large black dog ………… 7- a personal great triumph……………
3- a tall handsome young man ……….. 8- a weekly cash payment ……………
4- a political serious force………………
9- the French film industry …………………….
5- a long difficult journey……………….

5- Put the words in brackets in the right word order.

NOT A DOG’S DINNER!! 1….Expensive Italian leather handmade shoes (shoes / leather / Italian /
expensive / handmade): these are my pride and joy. I own a/an (old / beautiful / pair)
2_____________________________________ - or I did until yesterday, when I
discovered that one of the shoes was missing. I had left the shoes on my (doorstep / back)
3_____________________________________ to do some gardening. My neighbour has a
(dog / friendly / black) 4_____________________________________ called Sam. When I
saw that one of my shoes had disappeared, I knew that Sam had taken it. I can’t say he behaved
badly. He just behaved like a dog. Leather looks good and tastes good! I unwillingly gave Sam the
(remaining / Italian / shoe) 5_____________________________________ and then
followed him. I not only found one (Italian / unchewed / shoe)
6_____________________________________ but also a pile of things Sam had been
borrowing, including my wife’s (slippers / fur-lined / red) 7……………………………………….., which
Sam had tried to have for dinner!

6- Arrange the modifiers in the correct order.

1. high/ a-an / old/ wall/ brick/ derelict.

______________________________________________________
2. rugs/ wool/ a / few/ square.
______________________________________________________
3. black/ several/ floors/ tile.
______________________________________________________
4. low/ windows/ glass/ many.
______________________________________________________
5. Japanese/ a / set/ porcelain.
______________________________________________________

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 Activities
6. cheap/ beds/ four/ metal.
______________________________________________________
7. old/ rubber/ a lot of/ tyres.
______________________________________________________
8. table/ strong/ a /wooden.
______________________________________________________
9. some/ young/ students/ Italian.
______________________________________________________
10. stone/ funny/ a(n)/ old/ house.
_____________________________________________________
11. red/ many/ big/ apples/ Argentinian.
______________________________________________________
12. Chinese/ lovely/ airhostess/ a-an.
______________________________________________________
13. noisy/ a-an /city/ grey/ enormous.
______________________________________________________
14. cosy/ well- ordered/ a / house.
______________________________________________________
15. old/ Tudor/ a(n)/ house/ farm.
______________________________________________________
16. fine/ lady/ old/ a(n).
______________________________________________________
17. garden/ French/ small/ a/ magnificent.
______________________________________________________
18. gold/ a(n)/ unusual/ ring.
______________________________________________________
19. leather/ several/ of/ gloves/ black/ pairs.
______________________________________________________
20. European/ sad/ old/ film/ a(n).
______________________________________________________

7- Read the sentences below and say which type of comparison is being used in each case.

1- John is as handsome as his father. …Comparison of equality……..

2- Neil’s brother isn’t as mischievous as Neil.…………………………...
3- Granny’s home is more comfortable than mine ……………………
4- The bus wasn’t as fast as the train.……………………………………
5- That was the best film I have ever seen. ………………………
6- Shopping at a supermarket is cheaper than going to local shops .......…
7- Jean’s mother is as generous as Jean. …………………………
8- Henry was the biggest of the group. …………………………
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Activities
8- Give the comparative form of the adjectives in these phrases and use the phrases in the
sentences below.

a good idea a big house a good job

a young man a healthy climate

1- California certainly has_______________________ New York.

2- I’m getting too old. This is a job for _______________________
3- When the children get a bit older we’ll really
need_______________________
4- I’m sure it won’t work. Can’t you come up with
_______________________ ?
5- Perhaps we could afford it if I could get_______________________

9- Complete these sentences using an adjective in the superlative degree in each one.

1- I’ve never heard a more ridiculous story.

That’s ____________________________________ I’ve ever heard.
2- We had never stayed in a more expensive hotel.
It was____________________________________ we had ever stayed
in. 3- I had never had such a tiring journey before.
It was____________________________________ I had ever had.
4- I’ve never had nearly such a tasty meal before.
That was__________________________________ I have ever had.
5- It’s been years since I saw a game as good as that.
That’s__________________________________ I’ve seen for years.

10- Fill in the blanks with the comparative or superlative form of the adjectives in brackets.

1. He was _________________________ (bad) referee we’ve ever had.

2. I think swimming is _________________________ (relaxing) jogging.
3. The new sports centre is much _________________________ (good) the old one.
4. It was _________________________ (big) crowd of the season.
5. I’m much _________________________ (fit) I used to be.
6. One of _________________________ (easy) sports to do is cycling.
7. Cross- country skiing is _________________________ (tiring) normal skiing.

70
 Activities
8. It was _________________________ (exciting) match we’ve ever seen.
9. I’m not _________________________ (tall) as Kerry.
10. The University of Salamanca is _________________________ (old) university in Spain.

11. The film was definitely ________________________ (exciting) I thought it would be.
12. You look terrible and your cough sounds _________________________ (bad) yesterday.
13. Tina‘s test was _________________________ (good) her sister’s.
14. My schooldays were certainly not _________________________ (happy) days of my life.
15. This new armchair is a lot _________________________ (comfortable) our old one.
16. The book certainly isn’t _________________________ (good) as the film.

17. Is Paul _________________________ (thin) he was before the holidays?

18. There’s nothing _________________________ (boring) doing homework on a sunny evening.

11- Write meaningful grammatical sentences using the key ideas given in each case.

1- Meg / intelligent / her sister

2- The countryside / quiet / the city
3- A CD / expensive / a DVD
4- Swimming / good for your health / running
5- Tom’s essay / good / in his class
6- Today / foggy / day of the year
7- My secretary / efficient / yours. They are both good at organising things.

8- Children nowadays / noisy / they used to be.

9- Our new house / big / the one we used to live in. We are not comfortable now.

10- John’s father / handsome / John.

12- Write meaningful grammatical sentences using the adjectives given below as
indicated. The sentences must be of at least 8 words.

1. funny ( comparative degree: superiority)

_________________________________________________________
2. interesting (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
3. old (comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
71
Activities
4. lively (comparative degree: equality)
_________________________________________________________
5. hopeless (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
6. narrow (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
7. humble (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
8. scruffy (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
9. famous (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
10. simple (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
11. clever ( comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
12. secure (comparative degree: equality)
_________________________________________________________
13. childish (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
14. good (comparative degree: equality)
_________________________________________________________
15. quiet (comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
16. intelligent (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
17. appealing (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
18. foggy (comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
19. annoyed (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
20. bad ( superlative degree)
72 _________________________________________________________
Adverbs and Adverbials CHAPTER 5
ADVERBS
In order to understand the nature of adverbials, there are some concepts about adverbs
that should be considered. Adverbs are single words that generally add information
about the circumstances of an event or situation. Adverbs have two major roles. They can be
modifiers or adverbials.

An adverb can modify an adjective or another adverb.

This is slightly larger than the calculated value.

I really couldn’t keep him in my apartment right now.

An adverb can also function as an adverbial. In this case, it completes the meaning of verbs
providing information about the time, place, manner, among other type of information.

He nodded and smiled warmly.

ADVERBIALS
From the point of view of structure, an adverbial can be formed by the following elements:

STRUCTURE EXAMPLE
An adverb He seldom talks to me.
An adverb phrase The children acted very calmly.
A prepositional phrase Large cushions lay on the floor.
A noun phrase I’m going to handle this my way.
An adverbial clause I first visited this place when I was a child.

From a semantic point of view, we can divide adverbials into three major classes:
Circumstance adverbials, Stance adverbials and Linking adverbials. Circumstance
adverbials generally give us additional information about the time, place, or manner of the
action or state described in the clause. Stance adverbials add speakers’ comments or
opinions about what they are saying. Linking adverbials show logico-semantic relationships
between ideas in a text.

We had a party at home.

Fortunately, the game was cancelled. Surprisingly, no one turned up!

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Adverbs and Adverbials

Circumstance adverbials5 are the most common adverbials. They generally answer questions
such as: Where? When? How? How much? How long? How often?

-Where did you arrange to meet him? -When did you first meet him?
-I arranged to meet him outside the bank. -I first met him last Saturday.

- How long did you wait for him? -How often do you visit your parents?
-I waited for half an hour but he didn't arrive. -Once a week, usually.

POSITION OF CIRCUMSTANCE ADVERBIALS

There are three possible positions for adverbials in a sentence:

 Initial position (before the subject)

 Mid position (between the subject and the verb or immediately after be as a main verb)

 End position (at the end of the clause).

At this level we will
focus on the use of
We have been living here in this house for over twenty years.
circumstance
adverbials primarily.
We were sleeping peacefully in our beds when the earthquake struck.

They played happily together in the garden the whole afternoon.

From the examples above, we can see that the most common positionfor circumstance
adverbials is at the end of the sentence. Place adverbials (here in this house) come before
time adverbials (for over twenty years). Manner adverbials (peacefully) come before place
adverbials (in our beds).

How long have you been here? Not long. We arrived about five minutes ago.

I chewed the food slowly because it hadn't been cooked very well.

She was standing at her window, looking out at her children who were playing in the garden.

This order can be altered for the sake of emphasis or cohesion, though.

He enthusiastically sang in class yesterday.

She moved to London in 1994. Three years later, she wrote her first novel.
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 Chapter 5
Adverbials of time can have initial position when we want to show a contrast with a previous
reference to time.

The weather will stay fine today, but tomorrow it will rain.
Initially, his condition remained stable, but over the last few weeks it has deteriorated.

Adverbials of indefinite frequency (often one-word adverbs) are usually placed in mid-
position in the sentence. Placing them before the subject is sometimes also possible.
Adverbials of definite frequency (often prepositional phrases) are placed in end-position and
before adverbials of time.

I always call on my younger sister every time I go to London.

I never see my elder sister, but occasionally I call my younger sister.

Yes, I see her from time to time. We get together once in a blue moon.

Paul goes to the cinema on Mondays after work.

Note that when auxiliary verbs are used, frequency adverbs normally go between the
auxiliary verb and the main verb:

My boss often travels to Malaysia and Singapore but I've never been there.

Adverbials of place/direction usually come immediately after verbs denoting movement.

Helen travelled to Spain by plane last year.

When two adverbials of the same type are placed together, the smallest (the shortest, the most
specific, the most exact) comes first.

Andrew sat for that exam at 8 o’clock, on November 23rd last year.
We live in a beautiful house on the outskirts of the city.

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Adverbs and Adverbials

COMPARISON OF ADVERBS
The rules used for the
Some generalities are: comparison of
adjectives apply to
We form the comparative and superlative of most adverbs with more and the comparison of
most. adverbs too.
Carefully more carefully (the) most carefully
Quickly more quickly (the) most quickly
Quietly more quietly (the) most quietly

They drive more carefully when they have children in the car.

We form the comparative and superlative (superiority) of some adverbs adding –er or -est.

fast faster (the) fastest

soon sooner (the) soonest
high higher (the) highest
Also: near, long, late, early, hard

I got up the earliest this morning.

There are some irregular adverbs:

Well better (the) best

Far farther/further (the) farthest/furthest

Badly worse (the) worst

Susan works better than Paul.

76
 Activities
1- Rewrite the sentences placing the words in brackets in a suitable order.

1. Kathy answered the question in the test (yesterday/ correctly)

_________________________________________________________
2. She enjoys (very much/ with her friends/ dancing)
_________________________________________________________
3. I believe they will come (firmly/ on time)
_________________________________________________________
4. He was born (in Santa Fe/ in the morning/ at two/ last Monday)
_________________________________________________________
5. They walked (last night/ quickly/ to the theatre)
_________________________________________________________
6. I go (to the bank/ in the morning/ usually)
_________________________________________________________
7. He won the game (at the party/ easily)
_________________________________________________________
8. Ken plays football (every weekend/ enthusiastically/ in the mornings)
_________________________________________________________
9. Why did you come (yesterday/ home/ so late)?
_________________________________________________________
10. I’ve been walking (all morning/ round the park)
_________________________________________________________
11. I’m going (for a few days/ next week/ to London)
_________________________________________________________
12. I’ll meet you (outside the town-hall/ at 7 PM/ tomorrow afternoon/ on the steps)
_________________________________________________________
13. Put it (at 6 o’clock/ in the dining room/ silently)
_________________________________________________________
14. We see her (at church/ sometimes/ at weekends)
_________________________________________________________
15. They drove (quickly/ home/ last night)
_________________________________________________________
16. The ship was sailing (without problems/ North/ on June 24th)
_________________________________________________________
17. Hand it to me (with your right hand/ carefully)
_________________________________________________________
18. She sat down (calmly/ late that night/ in the gallery)
_________________________________________________________ 77
Activities
2- Fill in the blanks with the comparative or superlative form of the adverbs in brackets.

1. Could you come a little ________________________ (early)?

2. He arrived ________________________ (late) than his boss.
3. Instead of slowing down, he drove ________________________ (fast).
4. He did his test ________________________ (easily) the one before.
5. She drives ________________________ (badly) I on the motorway.
6. Try and come ________________________ (early) tomorrow.
7. He ran ________________________ (quickly) all the others.
8. Peter works ________________________ (hard) of all his colleagues.
9. ________________________ (early) I can come is 10 o’clock.
10. He did ________________________ (badly) in the examination.
11. Some animals need ________________________ (highly) developed sense cells than human
beings to survive.
12. Lucy runs ________________________ (fast) in the team.
13. We travelled ________________________ (comfortably) by plane as we did by train.
14. Susan dances ________________________ (well) of all the girls in the ballet.

3- Write meaningful grammatical sentences using the adverbs as indicated. The

sentences must be of at least 8 words.

1. often (comparative degree: superiority)

_________________________________________________________
2. clearly (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
3. well (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
4. respectfully (comparative degree: equality)
_________________________________________________________
5. fluently (comparative degree: inferiority)
_________________________________________________________
6. hard (comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
7. quickly (comparative degree: superiority)
_________________________________________________________
8. enthusiastically (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
9. early (superlative degree)
_________________________________________________________
10. efficiently (comparative degree: inferiority)
78 ______________________________________________________