Form of Adjectives

Rules

1. Adjectives are invariable:
They do not change their form depending on the gender or number of the noun.

A hot potato

Some hot potatoes

2. To emphasise or strengthen the meaning of an adjective use 'very' or 'really':

A very hot potato

Some really hot potatoes.

(BUT see also Modifiers/Adverbs)

Position of adjectives

a) Usually in front of a noun: A beautiful girl.
b) After verbs like "to be", "to seem" , "to look", "to taste":

Examples

• The girl is beautiful
• You look tired
• This meat tastes funny.

c) After the noun: in some fixed expressions:

Examples

• The Princess Royal
• The President elect
• a court martial

d) After the noun with the adjectives involved, present, concerned:

Examples

1. I want to see the people involved/concerned (= the people who have something to do with the matter)
2. Here is a list of the people present (= the people who were in the building or at the meeting)

Be careful! When these adjectives are used before the noun they have a different meaning:

• An involved discussion = detailed, complex
• A concerned father = worried, anxious
• The present situation = current, happening now

Function of Adjectives

Adjectives can:

Describe feelings or qualities:

Examples

• He is a lonely man
• They are honest people

Give nationality or origin:

Examples

• Pierre is French
• This clock is German
• Our house is Victorian

Tell more about a thing's characteristics:

Examples

• A wooden table.
• The knife is sharp.

Tell us about age:

Examples

• He's young man
• My coat is very old

Tell us about size and measurement:

Examples

• John tall man.
• This is a very long film.

Tell us about colour:

Examples

• Paul wore a red shirt.
• The sunset was crimson and gold.

Tell us about material/what something is made of:

Examples

• It was a wooden table
• She wore a cotton dress

Tell us about shape:

Examples

• A rectangular box
• A square envelope

Express a judgement or a value:

Examples

• A fantastic film
• Grammar is boring.  
•  Order of Adjectives

• Rules

  Where a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the adjective. The usual order is:
  Value/opinion, Size, Age/Temperature, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material
  

  Value/opinion	delicious, lovely, charming
  Size	small, huge, tiny
  Age/Temperature	old, hot, young
  Shape	round, square, rectangular
  Colour	red, blonde, black
  Origin	Swedish, Victorian, Chinese
  Material	plastic, wooden, silver

  Examples:

  • a lovely old red post-box
  • some small round plastic tables
  • some charming small silver ornaments
   

Uses of Noun

Nouns are words you use to talk about people, places, and things.

Singular
This is a book.
This is a singular noun. That means that it stands for one of something.

Plural
And these are books.
This is a plural noun. That means that it stands for more than one of something.

English usually forms the plural by adding an "s" to the singular noun. Sometimes, though, the plural looks like a completely different word:

This is a child. (singular)

And these are children. (plural)

There is a man. (singular)

There are some men. (plural)

There aren’t that many words in English that form the plural this way. It’s much more common to form the plural by adding "s."

Here are some more examples of English nouns:

the car	the house	a girl
the cars	the houses	girls

 

Count and Non count Nouns

Count nouns are nouns that can be counted (e.g., a book, two friends, three cars, etc.). A count noun may be preceded by a or an in the singular; it takes a final -s or -es in the plural. Noncount (or mass) nouns refer to things that cannot be counted (e.g., money, rain, snow, butter, wind, air, clothing, etc.). Noncount nouns are not preceded by a or an and have no plural form. COMMON NONCOUNT NOUNS advice weather equipment news water jewelry information music postage work money luggage Some nouns can be both count and noncount nouns: --We drank some wine. (Noncount) --We ordered three wines. (Count) (It is implicit that three different wines were ordered.)