Formation of Adjectives

18th August 2020

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Formation of Adjectives

It is very important to know the formation of Adjectives. The adjectives can be formed from the nouns, the verbs and other adjectives by adding prefixes and suffixes.

Common suffixes used to form adjectives:

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added at the end of a word to make a new word. Suffix changes a word from one part of speech to another like a noun to an adjective.

Suffix	Adjectives
-able	solvable, comfortable, readable, believable, reliable, agreeable, passable, expandable, remarkable, laughable, payable
-ible	accessible, incredible, invisible, accessible, flexible, forcible, permissible, sensible,
-al, -ial	professional, structural, national, legal, normal, industrial, presidential
-ical	comical, musical, political, aeronautical, alphabetical
-ant	important, relevant, pleasant, resistant, reliant, vacant, ignorant, compliant
-ent	dependent, excellent, urgent, dependent, different, confident, equivalent
-ed	bored, interested, fascinated, amused, relaxed, excited, surprised, confused, overwhelmed
-ic	generic, archaic, idealistic, historic, classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ing	boring, interesting, fascinating
-ish	newish, reddish, childish, foolish, British, Irish
-ful	helpful, colorful, useful, beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-less	endless, priceless, timeless, worthless, careless, useless, hopeless
-eous/-ious/ -ous	spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, adventurous, courageous, advantageous, famous, judicious, melodious
-ive	active, alternative, creative, talkative, festive, cooperative, sensitive
-y	angry, busy, healthy, windy, hairy, imaginary, glossy
-ly	earthly, endearingly, kindly, timely, maturely
-ory	introductory, advisory, anticipatory, compensatory

Common prefixes used to form adjectives:

A prefix is a letter or group of letters placed at the beginning of a word to modify or change its meaning.

Prefix	Adjectives
im-	imperfect, impolite, imbalance, impossible
ir-	irrelevant, irrational, irresponsible, irregular, irreducible
il-	illegal, illegible, illogical
in-	inconvenient, inactive, incomplete, inappropriate,
un-	unfair, unsure, unusual, unhappy, uninterested, unpleasant
dis-	dishonest, disloyal, dissimilar, disabled
ultra-, super-, -hyper-	ultra-compact, ultrasound, hyperactive
inter-	international, interdisciplinary
trans-	transatlantic, transmarine

Forming adjectives from Nouns:

Noun	Adjective	Noun	Adjective	Noun	Adjective
distress	distressed	hero	heroic	vision	visionary
spite	spiteful	wind	windy	inability	unable
provision	provisional	child	childish	testimony	testimonial
hazard	hazardous	beauty	beautiful	difficulty	difficult
truth	truthful	efficiency	efficient	tribe	tribal
effort	effortless	effusion	effusive	hostility	hostile
man	manly	human	humanly	subordination	subordinate
courage	courageous	sense	senseless	attitude	attitudinal
storm	stormy	laugh	laughable	truism	truistic
envy	envious	king	kingly	recreation	recreational
advise	advisory	access	accessible	imagery	imaginative
girl	girlish	danger	dangerous	tragedy	tragic
gold	golden	length	lengthy	creation	creative

Forming adjectives from Verbs:

Verb	Adjective	Verb	Adjective
absorb	absorbed	read	readable
bereave	bereaved	talk	talkative
captivated	captivating	use	useful
care	careless	like	likable
fascinate	fascinated	manipulate	manipulative
grieve	grievous	thank	thankful
enjoy	enjoyable	hate	hateful
help	helpful	laugh	laughable
tickle	ticklish	adjust	adjustable
tire	tireless	annoy	annoying
judge	judgemental	differ	different
forget	forgetful	see	scenic
shake	shakeable	speed	speedy

Formation of Adjectives from other Adjectives:

Adjective	Adjective	Adjective	Adjective
three	threesome	easy	easier
green	greenish	funny	funnier
weak	weakly	gentle	gentlest
red	redden	fine	finest
legal	illegal	logical	illogical
patient	impatient	mature	immature
regular	irregular	responsible	irresponsible
honest	dishonest	comfortable	uncomfortable

Points to Focus:

Sometimes, we get confused with

-ing adjectives and -ed adjectives.

–ing adjectives – They describe the effect

-ed adjectives – They describe how a person feels

His speech bored the audience. So they started clapping before it ended.
His speech was very boring
I am very much interested in his speech.
His speech is very interesting.
We were shocked to hear the news.
It was very shocking news