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.
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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!