The Adjective

In English, adjectives are normally placed before nouns (young woman) and have the same
form in the singular and in the plural (young woman, young women) and in both the masculine
and the feminine (young woman, young man).

An adjective can also determine certain verbs such as get, seem, appear, look, feel, sound, taste
etc:
His condition is getting worse.
The procedure sounds difficult, but once you learn it, it will seem easy.
The medicine tastes awful.

Derived and Compound Adjectives

a. Derivation

Prefixes:
- are mainly used to express the opposite:
- dis- (regarded → disregarded)
- il- (legal → illegal)
- ir- (rational → irrational)
- in- (capable → incapable)
- im- (patient → impatient)
- un- (pleasant → unpleasant)
- a- (symptomatic → asymptomatic). But: sleep → asleep – is not.

Suffixes:
• Nouns to adjectives:
- able (comfort → comfortable)
- al (person → personal)
- ary (element → elementary)
- en (wood → wooden)
- ful (care → careful)
- less (hope → hopeless)
- ic (glycaemia → glycaemic)
- ical (poet → poetical)
- ly (friend → friendly)
- ous (courage → courageous)
- y (wit → witty)

• Verb to adjective:
- ing (interest → interesting)
- ant (please → pleasant)
- ent (compete → competent)

• Adjective to adjective:
- ish (red → reddish)
b. Compound adjectives
- adjective + adjective: dark blue, light green.
- noun + adjective: navy-blue, stone-cold, ankle-deep, crystal-clear.
- adjective + noun: silky-smooth, full-length, full-size.
- noun + present participle: record-breaking, fire-spitting, mouth-watering.
- adjective + present participle: good-looking, long-lasting.
- adverb + present participle: hard-working, forward-thinking, everlasting.
- noun + past participle: snow-covered.
- adverb + past participle: well-known, ill-bred, brightly-lit.
- adverb + adjective: hyperglycaemic, evergreen, overconfident.
- adjective + past participle: long-legged, old-fashioned, short-haired.
- numeral + noun: two-minute, thirty-page, five-year-old.

➢ Don't use –s at the end of the compound adjectives with numbers:

- We should take a five-minutes break. (not correct)
- We should take a five-minute break. (correct)

➢ Use a hyphen when the compound adjective is placed before the determined noun:
- We entered a brightly-lit house.
- But: The house was brightly lit.

Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:

- The economic policy of hospital management has started to bear fruit.
- Going to work by bus proves to be more economical than going by car.
- The discovery of penicillin was a historic moment for medicine.
- She loves reading historical books.

- This is a classic Chevrolet from 1957.

- She takes classes of classical and modern ballet.

Adjective Order
- fact adjectives (objective qualities) give us information about the noun described (size, age,
colour).
- opinion adjectives (subjective qualities) express the speaker's opinion regarding the noun
described.
- opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives:
The nurse was a nice (opinion), young (fact) lady.

- when there are two or more fact adjectives describing a noun, the order is as follows:
1. Size/length
2. Shape/width
3. Age
4. Colour
5. Nationality
6. Material

- A short, old man.

- A small, rectangular flap.
- A small, old, white latex pair of gloves
 - A big, round, new, black and white picture.

- generally, the adjective order in English is:

1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
4. Temperature
5. Age
6. Shape
7. Colour
8. Nationality, material
9. Purpose or qualifier

- She had ten really big old round purple antique chairs.
- She bought five delicious tiny hot fresh round white chocolate cookies.

- when two or more adjectives are from the same group, we use commas and and:
- The blouse is white and black.
- There are green, red, blue and white dresses in the shop.
 Comparison of Adjectives
a. Comparative

- inferiority: less... than

The outburst of flu is less severe than the doctors expected.
- equality: as... as
The patient's injury is as painful as it was before giving him the painkiller.
- superiority:
- -er... than (for one-syllable adjectives)
The female pelvis is larger and wider than the male pelvis.
- -er/more... than (for two-syllable adjectives)
The cardiovascular problem is easier than we suspected.
His illness is more serious than you think.
- more... than (adjectives of three or more syllables)
Making the right diagnosis was more difficult than I thought.

Comparison modifiers
- before the comparative of adjectives, you can use: a (little) bit, a little, much, a lot,
far.
The solution to the problem is far more difficult than we estimated.
The patient's condition is a little better today.

- we can use two comparatives together:

It is becoming more and more difficult to deal with all emergency cases today.
Admission to this hospital is twice as expensive than to the other hospitals.

b. The Superlative
- the ...-est (one-syllable adjectives)
The number of cancer cases is the highest in the last five years.
- the least ...
His reaction was the least fast.

- the ...-est / the most (two-syllable adjectives)

- the least ...
Exercise EKG is one of the commonest / most common tests in clinical practice.
This procedure is the least simple of all we have learnt today.

- the most ... (adjectives of two or more syllables)

Knowledge and experience are the most important thing for a doctor.
- the least ...
This is the least difficult surgical operation I have performed in years.

c. Irregular Forms of Adjectives

- good, better, the best

- bad, worse, the worst
- much, more, most
- little, less, least
- far, farther/further, the farthest/furthest
- late, later, latest
- late, latter, –
- late, – , last
- old, older/elder, oldest/eldest

Exercises

I. Form adjectives with the help of negative prefixes:

fortunate, human, logical, regular, necessary, reliable, dissoluble, legible, visible, relevant,
mobile, practical, mature, sanitary, aware, invasive, hygienic.

II. Choose the correct form of the adjectives in brackets to complete the sentences:

1. The number of animals used for (experimenting / experimental) and other (scientifical /
scientific) purposes has decreased.
2. His message is so (confusing / confused), that I didn't know what to say.
3. Clinical trials are very useful in (medic / medical) research.
4. (Pathologic / pathological) secondary headaches require brain imaging for an accurate
diagnosis.
5. She has a (pathologic / pathological) fear of worms.
6. It is a chilly, (crisp / crispy) evening.
7. The cough syrup is effective, but not very (tasteful / tasty).
8. The (logical / logic) solution would be the surgical approach.
9. We need an (electric / electrical) generator to store the bacterial samples in optimum
condition.
10. The presence of such medical conditions as (chemic / chemical) or (electric / electrical)
burns may increase the risk factor considerably.

III. Select the correct order of the adjectives in parentheses:

1. The dining room has _______________ tables. (square eight wooden small).
2. I bought _______________ utensils at the antique shop. (some silver Victorian charming)
3. We need to buy _______________ sleeping bags for the trip. (black comfortable five thick)
4. He is selling a _______________ car. (small old black nice racing Italian)
5. She was wearing a pair of _______________ shoes. (running big ugly leather red new
American).