Adjectives in English

(Use of adjectives in English grammar)

Table of contents – adjectives

On this page you will find the following:

What are adjectives and how are they used?

Adjectives are words that describe a noun or a pronoun in more detail, thereby providing more information about the characteristics of a person, an animal or a thing. Regardless of the word they modify, they always keep the same form and are, therefore, unchangeable.

They usually precede their antecedent. Compare some possible uses in sentences:

Adjectives describe the word they refer to (antecedent) more detailed, which means they modify it:
- Such a word can be a noun …:
  - “She has a young cat.”
    - In this statement, the adjective ‘young’ attributes further information to the noun ‘cat’.
- … or a pronoun:
  - “Peter bought a car. It’s a new one.”
    - Likewise, ‘new’ refers to the pronoun here, or, more precisely, the prop-word ‘one’ and describes it in more detail.
Moreover, adjectives are not inflected (declined) in English, which makes it easier for learners of English as a foreign language:
- “An old man is sitting on a wooden bench. He has a beautiful view of the valley.”
  - The noun ‘man’ is in the singular; ‘old’ is used.
- “Two old men are sitting on a wooden bench …”
  - The noun ‘men’ is in the plural; however, ‘old’ retains its form and is not changed or adapted to the word it refers to.

Where do adjectives stand in a sentence?

In English sentences, adjectives are usually placed before their antecedent (the word they modify). Nevertheless, they may also appear elsewhere in the sentence. Such a position happens especially after verbs such as ‘be, seem, get, become’ and ‘appear’, and after verbs that describe the senses such as ‘feel, taste, look, sound’ and ‘smell’:

In most cases, adjectives come before the word they modify (noun or pronoun):
- “Mike has got a well-paid job.”
  - In this statement, the noun ‘job’ goes directly after the adjective ‘well-paid’.
If the verbs ‘be, seem, get, become’ or ‘appear’ are used, the adjective follows them:
- “I am careful.”
  - The adjective ‘careful’ follows the form of ‘to be’ (am) directly.
- “His mother seems very nice.”
- “The meeting is getting more and more interesting.”
  - This sentence shows that several additional words can be located between the verb and the adjective.
The adjective also follows verbs that express the perception of the senses (sense verbs) such as ‘feel, taste, look, sound, smell’:
- “Do you feel tired?”
- “That cake tastes delicious!”
- “She looks good in her new outfit.”
  - Careful: After ‘look’, no adverb is possible, which means ‘… looks well’ would be wrong.
- “That doesn’t sound very exciting.”
Attention: Occasionally, adjectives are utilised in conjunction with articles. In these cases, however, they are no longer adjectives but nouns. Such use often occurs with nationalities and with groups of people:
- “The British like tea.”
  - In this statement, ‘the British’ stands for the whole group of Britons.
- “This area is where the rich live.”
  - ‘the rich’ denotes a whole community here and serves as a noun.

Particularities of adjectives ending in ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’

In English, it is sometimes possible to form adjectives from verbs, resulting in participles. To create such participles, the ending (suffix) ‘-ing’ (present participle) or ‘-ed’ (past participle) is added to the respective verb stem or root. The resulting adjectives can then be used in different ways.

Basically, adjectives ending in ‘-ing’ describe the characteristic of someone or something. In contrast, adjectives ending in ‘-ed’ describe the effect on someone. The following examples of adjective pairs illustrate the difference (for more details, read the distinction between ‘interesting’ and ‘interested’):
- Difference between ‘boring’ and ‘bored’:
  - “The lecture was boring.”
    - The ing-adjective qualifies the noun ‘lecture’ here by giving more details about it.
  - “She was very bored (by the lecture).”
    - In this statement, the ed-adjective refers to the person ‘she’ and describes her current state or feeling, which the lecture caused.
- Difference between ‘interesting’ and ‘interested’:
  - “What he said was very interesting.”
  - “I was very interested in what he said.”
- Difference between ‘exciting’ and ‘excited’:
  - “Skydiving must be very exciting.”
  - “He is very excited because he is going to skydive.”
- Difference between ‘surprising’ and ‘surprised’:
  - “It was not a surprising statement.”
  - “I wasn’t surprised by the statement.”

Further explanations related to ‘Adjectives’

The following explanations relate to the topic ‘Use of adjectives in English grammar’ and could therefore be helpful too: