How to Use Adjectives in English - English Grammar Course

Hi, I’m Daniel.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn about using adjectives in English.

You’ll see basic information about English adjectives, what they do, and how you can

use them.

Then, you’ll see some more details about different types of adjectives and what they

mean.

Before we start, have you visited our website: Oxford Online English dot com?

If you want to improve your English, there are free video lessons as well as listening

lessons.

We also have a large selection of professional teachers who can help you to improve your

English in online classes.

But now, let’s get back to the lesson.

First, a question: what do adjectives do?

Adjectives describe nouns—they add information to a noun or noun phrase.

For example: ‘The sea was blue and clear.’

The adjectives—‘blue’ and ‘clear’—add information to the noun—‘sea’.

Adjectives can be used in many ways, but there are two common patterns.

First, you can put adjectives directly before the noun they describe, like this: ‘red

high-heeled shoes’.

‘A reliable friend.’

‘He gave me an expensive Italian leather wallet.’

Secondly, you can use a linking verb plus an adjective after a noun, like this: ‘She

felt happy.’

‘It’s sunny.’

‘He seems quiet today.’

By the way, what are ‘linking verbs’?

Linking verbs add information to a subject.

Common linking verbs include ‘be’, ‘seem’, ‘become’, ‘feel’ and ‘appear’,

although there are many others.

You don’t need to worry about this right now.

Remember the basic point: adjectives can go before a noun, or after it.

This will become more important later in the lesson—keep watching to find out why!

Here’s another question for you: how can you find the adjectives in a sentence?

What do adjectives look like?

There’s no simple answer to this question.

With all parts of speech, it’s better to look at full sentences and think about context

and meaning.

Let’s do a quick test!

Here are five sentences.

Can you find the adjective or adjectives in each one?

Pause the video if you need more time to think.

You’ll see the answers in a few seconds.

Ready?

Here are the answers.

You can see a few useful points here.

Firstly, adjectives don’t look similar to each other.

Adjectives can have many different endings, and they can even end with -ly, like many

adverbs do.

Secondly, adjectives also have different forms.

For example, many adjectives have comparative forms, like ‘good-better’, or superlative

forms, like ‘hard-hardest’.

Thirdly, some adjectives are compound, meaning they’re made from two or more other words.

This is common with numbers, as in ‘a 25-year-old man’.

Now, you know some of the basics about adjectives and how to use them.

Let’s go into more detail about different types of adjectives.

Look at four sentences.

Two are right, and two are wrong.

Can you see which sentences are correct?

Do you know why the other two sentences are incorrect?

Pause the video if you need more time to think about it.

Ready?

Let’s look together.

Sentences one and four are correct.

Two and three are incorrect.

Did you get the right answers?

And, can you explain why sentences two and three are incorrect?

To explain this, you need to know about an important idea: gradability.

Some adjectives are gradable.

That means they can have different levels.

For example, ‘nice’ and ‘interesting’ are gradable.

Something can be more interesting, or less interesting.

There are different levels of ‘interesting’.

Some adjectives are ungradable.

That means that they’re binary—either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

For example, ‘unique’ is ungradable.

Either something is unique, or it isn’t.

You can’t have different levels of uniqueness.

It’s a yes-or-no property.

Ungradable adjectives have two types.

Firstly, there are words with a strong meaning, like ‘delicious’, ‘exhausted’ or ‘furious’.

Secondly, there are words with an absolute meaning, like ‘unique’, ‘true’ or

‘possible’.

When we talk about ungradable adjectives, we mean both of these types.

What does this mean for you?

Well, there are two important rules you should know.

First, you can’t make comparatives from ungradable adjectives.

You can’t say ‘more delicious’.

You can’t say ‘truer’ or ‘most possible’.

Secondly, if you want to emphasise an adjective by adding a word like ‘very’, ‘really’

or ‘absolutely’ before it, you need to use different words for gradable and ungradable

adjectives.

‘Very’ is used with gradable adjectives.

So, you can say ‘very beautiful’, ‘very cold’ or ‘very funny’, but you can’t

say ‘very gorgeous’, ‘very freezing’ or ‘very hilarious’.

You can’t say ‘very freezing’, but what *can* you say?

With ungradable adjectives, use ‘absolutely’; you can say ‘absolutely freezing’, ‘absolutely

exhausted’ or ‘absolutely unique’.

What if you’re not sure?

Use ‘really’, which can be used with both gradable and ungradable adjectives.

So, you can say ‘really cold’ or ‘really freezing’.

They’re both fine!

Understanding the difference between gradable and ungradable adjectives is important if

you want to use adjectives correctly in English.

There’s also one more important point you should know.

Let’s look!

You heard in part one that adjectives can go before the noun, or after the noun if you

use a linking verb.

So, are these sentences correct, or not?

As always, pause the video if you want to think about it for longer.

Ready?

Here’s the answer.

All three sentences are incorrect; none of them are possible.

Do you know why?

Many adjectives can be used either before or after the noun they describe.

For example, you can say ‘the car is new’ or ‘the new car’.

Both are possible, and it doesn’t change the meaning.

However, some adjectives can only be used in one position: either before or after the

noun.

That’s the problem with the three sentences you saw just now.

‘Asleep’ can only be used after the noun it describes.

You can say ‘The cat is asleep on the wall’, but you can’t say ‘an asleep cat’.

‘Main’ and ‘elder’ are examples of adjectives which can *only* go before the

noun.

So, you could say ‘This is the main problem’ or ‘He is my elder brother.’

Now, let’s do a test.

Look at six adjectives:

Here’s the question: can these adjectives

be used before the noun, after the noun, or in both positions?

To do this, try making sentences with the six adjectives, or go to an online dictionary,

such as the Cambridge dictionary or Longman, and find example sentences.

When you make sentences, try saying them out loud.

Use your instinct.

Does it sound strange or wrong?

It probably is.

Pause the video and do the test.

You’ll see the answers in a few seconds!

Ready?

Let’s check together.

‘Alone’ can only be used after the noun it describes.

For example: ‘He was alone for most of the summer.’

‘Ill’ is also generally used after the noun it describes.

For example: ‘I didn’t work yesterday because my daughter was ill.’

‘Complete’ can be used in both positions.

For example: ‘It was a complete disaster!’

Or, ‘The first stage of the work is now complete.’

‘Only’ is used before the noun.

For example: ‘The only way to do it is to do it yourself.’

‘Unhappy’ can be used in both positions.

For example: ‘They had an unhappy marriage,’ or ‘He didn’t enjoy the last year of school

and was often unhappy.’

Finally, ‘afraid’ is only used after the noun.

For example: ‘I was afraid of the dark when I was a child.’

So, you’re probably thinking: how do I know?

How do I know whether an adjective can be used before or after a noun?

It’s a good question.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer.

Dictionaries don’t usually include this information.

However, we have good news!

Most adjectives can be used in both positions.

Also, for most adjectives which can’t, you already know the answer.

For example, remember the sentence, ‘The problem is main’?

Most of you knew that this sentence sounded wrong.

Your instincts can be helpful!

Anyhow, now you know about gradability and adjective position.

There’s a reason we’ve shown you these two topics, because our last idea depends

on these points.

You know that adjectives can be gradable or ungradable, or that they can go before or

after the noun, but in some cases, the same adjective can be used in different ways with

different meanings.

For example, look at these two sentences: ‘She handled the situation in a very professional

way.’

‘She’s a professional tennis player.’

Both these sentences use the adjective ‘professional’, but in different ways.

Can you see the difference?

In the first sentence, ‘professional’ is used as a gradable adjective, and it means

something like ‘effective’ or ‘competent’.

In the second sentence, ‘professional’ is ungradable: it means that playing tennis

is her job, and she makes money from it.

Let’s do another example: ‘Jerome was present at the meeting.’

‘The present situation looks more hopeful than it has for several months.’

What about here?

Can you explain the difference between these two uses of ‘present’?

In the first sentence, ‘present’ is used after the noun, with a linking verb.

It means that Jerome was there.

In the second sentence, ‘present’ is used before the noun, and it means ‘relating

to now’.

So, in this case, the adjective has different meanings in different positions.

To be clear, this isn’t flexible.

You can’t choose to use ‘present’ before a noun to mean ‘there’.

If you use ‘present’ before a noun, then it means ‘relating to now’.

So, what should you take away from this?

What do you need to focus on?

We aren’t showing you these points because you need to learn lists of all the gradable

and ungradable adjectives.

This lesson gives you tools to help you understand adjectives more deeply.

The most important point is that adjectives don’t follow one simple set of rules.

Like with all vocabulary, you need to use context to understand what an adjective means

in a sentence.

Next—and this is also a general point—one word doesn’t have one meaning.

With adjectives, whether a word is gradable or not can make a difference.

Where an adjective is used can make a difference.

You can’t simply rely on a dictionary or a translator.

Again, you need to understand the context to understand the words.

Do you find anything especially confusing about using English adjectives and adverbs?

We’re sure you aren’t alone!

Share your ideas in the comments, and maybe you’ll get some help.

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!