English

ADJECTIVE
S

Contents
*Introduction
*Different forms of Adjectives
*Examples
*Activity
*Exercises

What are Adjectives?

Adjectives are used to qualify nouns.
e.g. John is a lazy boy.
This is a big house.
Hong Kong is a busy
city.

Can you describe yourselves or

your friends with adjectives?
careless

friendly

good
fat
interesting
ugly

lazy

beautiful

tall
boring

bad
naughty

useless

clever

unfriendly

unhappy
lovely
thin
careful

happy hardworking
polite
handsome
lonely
short
helpful
shy

Can you classify the adjectives used?

beautiful
helpful
careful
unfriendly
unhappy

helpless

friendly

careless

lovely

interesting

lonely

boring

good, bad, tall,

short, fat, thin,
lazy, shy, ugly,
polite, clever,
handsome, happy

hardworking
crying
running

Adjectives in Past Participle Form

Type 1:

Type 2:

Regular

Irregular

Past Participle
verb form

Past Participle verb

form

= Showing or feeling of

= Make or cause to be

Examples: Adjectives in
Past Participle Form
Regular:
surprise. surprised
interest...interested
excite..excited
frighten..frightened
crowd.crowded
tire.tired
injure.injured
boil .boiled
bore.bored
cookcooked
*worryworried

Irregular:
breakbroken
fallfallen
writewritten
steal.stolen
give.given
seeseen
drivedriven
speak...spoken
forget..forgotten
*sellsold
*loselost

A crowded flower market

A broken vase

Adjectives in Present Participle Form

Verb + ing form

= 1. Causing the feeling of

2. Showing a continuous status

Examples: Adjectives in
Present Participle Form
Regular:
Irregular:
interestinteresting
surprisesurprising
fall...falling
exciteexciting
fly....flying
boil...boiling
tiretiring
relax.relaxing
runrunning
worry...worrying
work hardhardworking
satisfy....satisfying
cry.....crying
die.dying
burn...burning
disappoint.disappointing

A crying boy
A shopping centre

A hardworking farmer

A swimming lesson

Fallen leaves

Falling leaves

What is the difference between these two

adjectives?

Boiling water

Boiled water

What is the difference between these two

adjectives?

Adjectives formed by adding

suffixes to nouns
1. Noun + ful

3. Noun + able or
ible

= full of something /
having the quality of
something

= able to do something/
showing qualities of
something

2. Noun + less

4. Noun + y

= without something

= full of something

Examples: Noun + ful / less

Noun + ful:
care.careful
help.helpful
hope....hopeful
power..powerful
colour.colourful
use...useful
cheer...cheerful
fear..fearful
meaningmeaningful
success.successful
beauty..beautiful

Noun + less
carecareless
helphelpless
hope..hopeless
power.powerless
colourcolourless
use.useless
cheer.cheerless
fearfearless
meaning.meaningless
doubt.doubtless

Beautiful flowers

Colourful fruits

A careful girl

A careless boy

Compare these two adjectives.

careless = ?

careless = not careful /

without care

Helpful children

A helpless beggar

Compare these two adjectives.

helpless
=?

helpless = needing others help /

A meaningful sentence

a meaningless sentence

A successful man

A successless man

NO!

An unsuccessful man

Examples: noun + able / ible

enjoy.enjoyable

responseresponsible

comfortcomfortable

sense..sensible

reason...reasonable

horror..horrible

agree.agreeable
move.movable
value.valuable
believe...believable
forget....forgettable

A comfortable home

Examples: noun + y
wind.windy

health..healthy

cloudcloudy

wealth.wealthy

snow.snowy

luck.lucky

rain..rainy

greedgreedy

sunsunny

sleep.sleepy

noise.noisy

rock.rocky

taste.tasty

sand.sandy

saltsalty

bloodbloody

cream..creamy

speedspeedy

Tasty food
A dirty city

A noisy place

A rainy day

A windy day

A sunny day

Adjectives formed by adding

prefixes to adjectives
1. un + adjective
2. dis + adjective
3. in + adjective
4. im + adjective
5. ir + adjective
6. il

+ adjective

7. non + adjective

= NOT + adjective
(opposite in meaning)

Examples: un + adjectives
happy..unhappy

usual.unusual

tidy.untidy

healthy..unhealthy

able.unable

helpful..unhelpful

kindunkind

comfortableuncomfortable

lucky.unlucky

forgettable.unforgettable

fair.unfair

friendly..unfriendly

likely.unlikely

cookeduncooked

lockedunlocked

important...unimportant

seen.unseen

reasonable..unreasonable

equal..unequal

attractive.unattractive

A tidy room

An untidy room

A happy family

An unhappy girl

They feel comfortable. They feel uncomfortable.

Healthy sports activities

Unhealthy snacks

An easy word

An uneasy word

NO!

A difficult word

Examples: dis + adjectives

honest..dishonest
able..disabled
obedient...disobedient
satisfieddissatisfied
orderly..disorderly
continuous.discontinuous
advantageousdisadvantageous

Examples: in + adjectives
direct.indirect
active.inactive
correct...incorrect
Complete...incomplete
famous...infamous
convenient.inconvenient
considerateinconsiderate
dependent..independent

A question in direct speech

A question in indirect speech

A correct sentence

An incorrect sentence

Examples: im + adjectives
Polite...impolite
Possible...impossible
Perfect....imperfect
Patient....impatient
Balanced....imbalanced
Mature...immature
Measurable....immeasurable

A possible wish

An impossible wish

Examples: ir + adjectives
regular...irregular
responsible.irresponsible
relevant..irrelevant
removable..irremovable
replaceable.irreplaceable

Regular

Irregular

MTR service

mini-bus service

Examples: il + adjectives
legal..illegal
logical..illogical
literate.illiterate

A logical sentence

An illogical sentence

Examples: non + adjectives

stop.non-stop
violentnon-violent
smoking.non-smoking
verbalnon-verbal

Adjectives formed by adding the

suffix ly to nouns / adjectives
Noun + ly

or

Adjective + ly

= having the quality of

Examples: Adjectives formed by

adding ly to nouns / adjectives
*Noun + ly

*Adjective + ly

lovelovely

live..lively

friend.friendly

like..likely

order.orderly

lone.lonely

Lovely monkeys

The friendly
Santa Claus

Activity: Describe this picture with adjectives

On a windy day, a horrible
fire broke out in a locked
building. The responsible
firemen came at once and
found a helpless and
frightened girl who was
shouting from a broken
window. With the help of
some useful tools, the
firemen saved the crying girl.
They had done a wonderful
job. It was impossible for the
girl to forget this
unforgettable experience.

Story-writing Exercise 1
Our English teacher gives us dictations every week. Sometimes,
the teacher asks us to study for the dictations beforehand, but
sometimes we do not have to. That means some are ___________
dictations and some are ______________ dictations.
However, my classmates are bad students. Some of them tell lies.
They are ____________________.
Some of them do not obey the teachers. They are _____________.
Some of them always sleep in class. It seems that they always feel
_____________________.
Some of them always throw rubbish. So, the classroom is very
_______________.
Some of them shout loudly in class. They are very __________.
In this examination, most of them get poor results. Their teachers
and parents feel ________________________ at their performance.

Story-writing Exercise 2
Once, there was an old man. He was very rich, but he wanted
more and more money. He was really ___________________.
He had a son, but he always beated him up. He was ___________
to his son.
It rained heavily one day. The old man travelled with his son in a
car on this _________________ day.
When the old man was driving, he did not look at the traffic
lights which had turned red and so the car crashed in a lorry. He
was very ___________________.
His son fell into a river. He could not swim and he felt
___________________ because he needed help.
Luckily, a man who always helped others saved him. He was a
______________________ man. The son was really _______________
because he did not die.

However, the old man was trapped in the car. He was going to
die. The son had no hope that his father would live. He felt
_________________.
At this time, the man came to help again. He used some tools to
open the door of the cars. The tools were very __________________.
At last, the kind man saved the old man who was taken to
hospital.