Formation of Adjectives: Understanding Descriptive Words

The words that add a description to a sentence and alter nouns are known as Adjectives.

The words that describe a name, place, person, animal, thing or that depicts the number of the noun are known as adjectives which mean added to.

Adjectives are one of the important parts of speech. It could be any single or compound word that modifies the noun.

Let’s see below how adjectives are formed?

Formation of Adjectives

Adjectives can be formed from nouns, verbs, and other adjectives.

1) Formation of Adjectives From Nouns:

We can form adjectives from nouns by adding suffixes to a noun.

The Adjectives that are formed by adding -y or -al or -ial as a suffix are given below in the table. If the noun has an ‘e’ in the ending, it is removed and -y or -al or -ial is added as a suffix to the noun to form an adjective. 

Adjectives formed by adding -lyor -ish or -ic as a suffix to nouns are given below in the table. If the noun has a ‘y’ in the ending, it is removed and the suffix is added to form an adjective.

Adjectives formed by adding -ous or -some or -able or -full as a suffix to nouns are given below in the table.

Examples of some of the adjectives formed from nouns used in the sentences:

•  It was very childish of her to behave like that in front of the audience. 

• My younger brother is the most troublesome of the lot.

2) Formation of Adjectives from Verbs:

Suffixes like ‘-y’ , ‘-able’ , ‘-ous’ , ‘-al’ , ‘-ful’ , ‘-ic’ , ‘-less’ , ‘-ing’ and ‘-ive’ can be added  to verbs to form adjectives.

Some examples of adjectives formed from verbs used in sentences:

• Switzerland is a very scenic place.

• Arvind is a very annoying person.

3) Formation of Adjectives from Other Adjectives:

An adjective is formed from another adjective by adding a suffix like ‘-ly’ , ‘-ive’ , ‘-al’ , ‘-ish’ , ‘-ier’ , ‘-est’.

Some examples of adjectives formed from another adjective are used in the sentences below:

• The sky was reddish in the evening.

• My brother is funnier than I expected him to be.

Formation of Compound Adjectives:

When two or more adjectives join together to modify the same noun they are known as compound adjectives. They are separated with a hyphen.

The two words used to form a compound adjective can be a combination of

• Number + noun

• Adjective + noun

• Noun + adjective 

• Noun + present/past participle

• Adjective + past participle

Below are a few examples of compound adjectives used in sentences:

• Arvind is going on a two-week vacation.

• They stay in a twenty-story building.

• It was a last-minute plan.

• There was a ten-minute delay in the meeting.

Spelling Guidelines

We don't usually add or remove letters; instead, we simply put the suffix to the end of the word. There are, however, several exceptions:

In words with a short stressed vowel before the last consonant, we double the final consonant.

As an example, consider the phrase "sunny."

A -y at the end of a word becomes a -i.

Example: abundant bountiful bountiful bountiful bountiful

When a suffix begins with a vowel, the -e at the end of the word is lost, but the -ee, -oe, and -ye remain unaffected.

As an example, consider the phrase "fortune" and "lucky."

acceptable agreement

To nouns ending in –ll, a -l is omitted before adding the suffix –full.

Skilful is an example of skill.

An adjective (abbreviated adj) is a term in linguistics that modifies a noun or noun phrase or characterizes its referent. Its semantic role is to alter the information provided by the noun.

Adjectives have always been regarded as one of the primary components of speech in the English language, but they were formerly classified with nouns.

Certain words that were formerly categorised as adjectives, like this, my, and so on, are now classified as determiners.

Usage Patterns

Depending on the language, an adjective can either precede or follow a related noun on a prepositive or postpositive basis. The pre- or post-position of an adjective in a specific instance of its occurrence can be influenced by structural, contextual, and stylistic issues. Adjective occurrences in English can be divided into one of three categories:

1. Prepositive adjectives, also known as "attributive adjectives," appear as an antecedent within a noun phrase. For example, "I put my happy kids in the car," where happy appears as an antecedent inside the noun phrase "my happy kids" and so works as a prepositive adjective.

2. Postpositive adjectives can appear: (a) immediately following a noun within a noun phrase, such as "I took a short drive around with my happy kids"; (b) as a copula or other linking mechanism following a corresponding noun or pronoun, such as "My kids are happy," where happiness is a predicate adjective (see also: Predicative expression, Subject complement); or (c) as an appositive adjective within a noun phrase, such as, "My Kids, (who are)happy to go cruising, are in the back seat."

3. Nominalized adjectives that serve as nouns One method is to remove a noun from an adjective-noun noun phrase, leaving behind a nominalization. Happy is a nominalized adjective, short for "happy one" or "cheerful book," in the statement "I read two books to them; he chose the sad book, while she loved the happy." Another example is the phrase "out with the old, in with the new," where "the old" refers to "that which is old" or "everything that is old," and "the new" refers to "that which is new." In such circumstances, the adjective might also serve as a mass noun (as in the preceding example). In English, it may also be used as a plural count noun to refer to a collective group, as in "The meek will inherit the Earth," where "the meek" refers to "those who are meek" or "those who are meek."

Distribution 

Adjectives are a component of speech (word class) in the majority of languages. In certain languages, words that perform the semantic role of adjectives are classified alongside other words, such as nouns or verbs. "Ford" is certainly a noun in the phrase "a Ford automobile," but its function is adjectival: it modifies "car." Adjectives can act as nouns in some languages, such as the Spanish phrase "uno rojo," which means "a red (one)."

In terms of "confusion" with verbs, a language may have a verb that means "to be huge," and then use an attributive verb construction comparable to "big-being house" to convey what English calls a "big home." 

Another technique to communicate comparison is to use the terms "more" and "most." However, there are no clear criteria for determining which meaning is accurate for any particular adjective. In general, shorter adjectives and those from Anglo-Saxon accept the suffixes, whereas longer adjectives and those from French, Latin, or Greek do not—but the sound of the word can occasionally be decisive.

Solved Questions 

1) From the following set of nouns, verbs, and adjectives forms of the words, identify the adjective:

• Achieve, achievement, achievable

• Evaporate, evaporating, evaporation

• Glorious, glory, glorify

• Enthuse, enthusiasm, enthusiastic

Answers: The adjectives from the following set of nouns are 

• Achievable

• Evaporating

• Glorious

• Enthusiastic

2) From the set of words below, identify the adjective and the noun it is made from:

• Cease

• Enumerate

• Challenging

Answer: The adjective is challenging formed from the noun challenge.