Types of Adjectives and teaching adjectives in language classrooms

1. By: Sujjey, Shareef & Fai
ADJECTIVES

2. CONTENTS
 In the ghetto
 What are adjectives?
 Regular comparatives & superlatives
 Irregular comparatives & superlatives
 Adjectives with ‘more’ & ‘most’
 Adjectives that cannot be comparative or
superlative
 I.T crowd

3. WHAT ARE ADJECTIVES?
 An adjective is a word that describes.
Adjectives convey a sense of which, what
kind, or how many/much. Adjectives describe
nouns or pronouns.
 Examples:
 Shaahi has a beautiful daughter. (what kind)
 Zamna scored a million goals. (how many)
 Rifa likes chocolate milkshake. (what kind)

4. REGULAR COMPARATIVES &
SUPERLATIVES
 Regular comparative adjectives have the –er
suffixed.
 Regular superlatives have the –est suffixed.
Short
Shorter
Nash Shortest
Shaf
Josh
Tallest Taller Tall

5. MORE REGULAR COMPARATIVE &
SUPERLATIVE EXAMPLES
Positive Comparative Superlative
Big Bigger Biggest
Slow Slower Slowest
Fast Faster Fastest
Quick Quicker Quickest
 What about the following examples?
Positive Comparative Superlative
Good Gooder Goodest
Bad Bader Baddest

6. IRREGULAR COMPARATIVES &
SUPERLATIVES
 Irregular comparatives and superlatives
change their form/spelling completely! They
are neither suffixed with –er nor –est.
Zaki Maary Rozy

7. MORE IRREGULAR COMPARATIVE &
SUPERLATIVE EXAMPLES
Positive Comparative Superlative
Good Better Best
Bad Worse Worst
Some More Most
Little Less Least
Far Further Furthest

8. ADJECTIVES WITH ‘MORE’ &
‘MOST’
 When the adjective has three or more
syllables, then ‘more’ & ‘most’ are added in
front of the word to form the comparative &
superlative forms respectively.
Positive Comparative Superlative
Beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful
Intelligent More intelligent Most intelligent
Straightforward More straightforward Most straightforward

9. ADJECTIVES THAT CANNOT BE
COMPARATIVE OR SUPERLATIVE
 1. Some adjectives cannot be compared
because the positive (simplest) form
expresses the only degree possible.
 Examples:
perfect, unique, fatal, universal, dead, wrong, s
traight, blind, final, vertical, right, left

10. Continued…
 2. Verbs functioning as adjectives
E.g. fly ---> flying machine.
colour (v) ---> colour paper
 3. Nouns functioning as adjectives
E.g. Tree---> tree diagram
Grammar ---> grammar book
 4. Pronouns functioning as adjectives
E.g. this ---> I like this book.
his ---> I have his iPhone.

11. References
 Thornbury, S. (2007). About language: Tasks
for teachers of English. Cambridge: CUP.
 Parrott, M. (2010). Grammar for English
Language Teachers. Cambridge: CUP.