Formation of Adjectives

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
- Proper Adjectives
- Adjectives of Quality (Qualitative Adjectives/Descriptive Adjectives)
- Adjectives of Quantity (Quantitative Adjectives)
- Adjectives of Number (Numeral Adjectives)
- Demonstrative Adjectives
- Interrogative Adjectives
- Distributive Adjectives
- Possessive Adjectives (Pronominal)
- Emphasizing Adjectives
- Exclamatory Adjectives
- Participle Adjectives
- Relative Adjectives
- Compound Adjectives