Macmillan English Grammar

He's asleep.

He appears tobe asleep.

adjectives

Adjectives describe things. They generally come in front of nouns. They have one form and do not

change for singular and piurai or before masculine and feminine nouns.

This subject can be interesting. Hilary Clinton is famous.

They can appear on their own without a noun after some verbs:be, look, seem, appear, become, get

This seems interesting. You're becoming difficu/t It's getting hot

Sameadjectives egalive, alike, ashamed, alone, asleep, awake, afraid, can anly be used afterbe, seem,

appear to, look.

He's not awake.

He looks afraid.

order of adjectives

When we use more than one adjective, we use this generai arder. Note that a noun can do the work of

an adjective.

opinion / quality

size

age

shape

temperature

colour

where it comes from

what it is made of

what it is for

famous, interesting

smal/, large

old

round, square

hot, cold

red, blue

Spanish, !talian

glas5, metal

football

I

afamous old football stadium asmali round metal object

Avoid using more than three adjectives tagether.

gradable adjectives and intensifiers

Same adjectives, eg thase that describe age, size, beauty, can be measured ar graded, and are called

gradable. We can use intensifiers egvery, extremely with them.

This tree is extremely old. It'savery beautiful painting.

This problem 15extremely difficu/t I feel very unhappy.

Other adjectives cannat be graded because the qualities they describe are either present ar absent.

This painting is superb. This problem 15impossible.

We cannat sayTRis painting is very superb.

We cannat make camparative farms af nan-gradable adjectives. Far example, we cannat say

TRis problem is more impossible tRan tRat one.

We can use the intensifiersreally, absolutely wit h nan-gradable adjectives.

Thl5 painting is real/y superb. This problem is absolutely impossible.

Typical nan-gradable adjectives include: microscopic, enarmaU5, freezing, boiling, wonderful, terrible,

excellent, perfect

adjectives end ing in-edand-ing

Sameadjectives have twa farms, ane ending in-edand ane in-ing.

Are you interested in painting?

Yes. I think Paula Rego's paintings are interesting.

Something is:

Someone feels:

interesting, baring, frightening, surprising, canfusing etc

interested, bored, frightened, surprised, confused etc

)

G

You can see from the painting that the girl is really frightened.