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Formation of Adjectives
English Formation of Adjectives

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What are Adjectives?

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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 modi"es 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 su#xes to a noun.
 
The Adjectives that are formed by adding -
y or -al or -ial as a su#x 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 su#x to the noun to form an
adjective. 
 
Noun
Su#x Adjective
(example)

Luck Lucky 

Hair  Hairy
-y
Storm Stormy

Length Lengthy

Accident  Accidental
-al
Nature  Natural

Magic Magical 

Commerce Commercial 
-ial
Finance Financial

 
Adjectives formed by adding -lyor -ish or -
ic as a su#x to nouns are given below in
the table. If the noun has a ‘y’ in the
ending, it is removed and the su#x is
added to form an adjective.
 
Noun
Su#x Adjective
(example)

Man Manly

-ly Human Humanly

King Kingly

Girl Girlish

-ish Child Childish

Book Bookish

Tragedy  Tragic
-ic
Artist Artistic

 
Adjectives formed by adding -ous or -some
or -able or -full as a su#x to nouns are
given below in the table.
 
Noun
Su#x Rules Adjective
(example)

-If the
noun
ends in
‘y’,
remove
it
Mysterious
Mystery
-If the
noun
ends in
-ous  ‘e’, Famous
remove Fame
it

Miracle  Miraculous
-If the
word
ends
with ‘-
cle’ it is
replaced
by ‘-cul’

-
- Trouble  Troublesome
some

Question Questionable 
-able  -
Laugh Laughable 

-If the
noun is
ending
-ful with ‘- Beauty  Beautiful
ty’,
replace
it with i

 
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:

Su#xes like ‘-y’ , ‘-able’ , ‘-ous’ , ‘-al’ , ‘-ful’ , ‘-

ic’ , ‘-less’ , ‘-ing’ and ‘-ive’ can be added  to
verbs to form adjectives.
 
Su#x Verb  Adjective

-y speed speedy

read readable

enjoy enjoyable
-able
shake  shakeable

laugh laughable

-ous  continue continuous

-al judge judgemental

hate hateful

-ful help helpful

forget forgetful

-ic see scenic

-less tire tireless

create creative
-ive
talk talkative

annoy annoying
-ing
amuse amusing

 
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 su#x like ‘-ly’ , ‘-ive’ ,
‘-al’ , ‘-ish’ , ‘-ier’ , ‘-est’.

Su#x Adjective Adjective

-ly weak weakly

-ive correct corrective

-al comic comical

green greenish
-ish
red reddish

easy easier
-it
funny funnier

-est "ne "nest

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 su#x 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
"nal 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 su#x begins with a vowel, the -e
at the end of the word is lost, but the -ee, -
oe, and -ye remain una$ected.
 
As an example, consider the phrase
"fortune" and "lucky."
 
acceptable agreement
 
To nouns ending in –ll, a -l is omitted
before adding the su#x –full.
Skilful is an example of skill.
 
An adjective (abbreviated adj) is a term in
linguistics that modi"es 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 classi"ed with nouns.
 
Certain words that were formerly
categorised as adjectives, like this, my,
and so on, are now classi"ed 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 speci"c instance of its
occurrence can be in%uenced 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
classi"ed 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 modi"es "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 su#xes, 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.

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FAQs on Formation of Adjectives

1. How are Adjectives Formed?

Words that describe or modify nouns and add a
description to the sentence are called adjectives.
Adjectives can be formed from nouns, verbs, and
other adjectives. Nouns, verbs, and other
adjectives can be combined to produce adjectives.
We can build adjectives from nouns by adding
su#xes to the noun. If the noun ends with an 'e,'
it is eliminated, and -y, -al, or -it is added as a
su#x to produce an adjective.
 
Example: Sita is very beautiful and intelligent.

2. How are Adjectives formed from

Verbs?

3. What are the adjective rules?

4. What are the 13 types of Adjectives in

English?

5. What's the connection between verbs

and adjectives?

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