Adjectives

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

A small old blue car

Adjectives

Goals

•  You know what an adjective is.
• You can create adjectives from nouns.
• You know what order adjectives appear in.

What is an adjective?

Take a look at the following sentences:

They live in a beautiful house.

I bought a very nice dress.

Do you have a big car?

This glass is breakable.

I am not very old.

What is an adjective?

Take a look at the following sentences:

They live in a beautiful house.

I bought a very nice dress.

Do you have a big car?

This glass is breakable.

I am not very old.

• The yellow words are what we call an adjective.

What is an adjective in Dutch?

Now that you know what an adjective is:

1. For the next 5 sentences, write down the adjectives in the sentence
2. Then write down what we use adjectives for. 

I met a homeless person in New York.

She wore a beautiful new dress.

Their wooden boat is pink.

My sister has a beautiful big white bulldog.

The old Italian restaurant is great.

What do we use adjectives for? Which word class (noun, verb, etc...) does an adjective change?

Creating adjectives (1)

So now we know that adjectives change the meaning of nouns:

She wore a red dress.

The word red says something about the noun dress, telling us what the dress looks like.

However, you can also create adjectives from nouns.

Creating adjectives (2)

Adjectives can be created from nouns, examples:

• Comfort -> Comfortable
• Accident -> Accidental
• Danger -> Dangerous
• Oil -> Oily
• Peace -> Peaceful

You most likely already know most of these words, they are quite common.

Which is the adjective?

1. Inventive
2. Invent
3. Invented

Which is the adjective

1. Happiness
2. Happily
3. Happy

Which is the adjective?

1. Laziness
2. Lazy
3. Lazily

Creating adjectives (3)

Some common adjective endings are:

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, fabulous

Turn the following words into adjectives:
magic, fun, friend, fame, music, belief, effect.

Adjectives come in this order: 

Opinion	Size	Shape	Condition	Age	Colour	Pattern	Origin	Material	Purpose
Pretty	Big	Round	Broken	Old	Red	Striped	Dutch	Leather	Driving

Put the adjectives in the right order:
old, handsome, big

Which is the correct order of adjectives?

1. These new, chunky, black shoes hurt my feet.
2. These black, chunky, new shoes hurt my feet.

Which is the correct order of adjectives?

1. We listened to a Russian 200-year-old exciting symphony.
2. We listened to an exciting, 200-year-old Russian symphony.

Which is the correct order of adjectives?

1. I picked up the yellow three tallest flowers for my banquet.
2. I picked the three tallest yellow flowers for my bouquet.

What is the correct order of adjectives?

1. size opinion shape age colour material
2. age opinion size shape colour material
3. opinion size shape age colour material
4. material opinion size shape age colour

What is the correct order of adjectives?

1. Our teacher is an old mean person
2. Our teacher is a mean old person

Which order of adjectives is correct?

1. Stephen King is my favourite horror American writer
2. Stephen King is my American favourite horror writer
3. Stephen King is my favourite American horror writer

Opinion

Condition

Shape

Age

Origin

Pattern

Colour

Lovely

Ancient

Broken

Delicious

Flowered

American

Purple

Oval

Change the nouns into adjectives and put them in the right order in the sentence:
I have a (new, beauty) couch and it's very (comfort).

Have we reached our goals?

• You know what an adjective is.
• You can create adjectives from nouns.
• You know what order adjectives appear in.