DEFINITION:
Words modifying nouns or pronouns, usually giving
a characteristic of them:-A good / tall / handsome / young man
CHARACTERISTICS:
They are invariable, that is, they have neither
plural nor gender differentiation:- one black house - two black houses
- one black horse - two black horses
POSITION:
ATTRIBUTIVE: They go before the nouns or
pronouns they modify.- good dog - enormous grey elephant
PREDICATIVE: They can be used without nouns or
pronouns when employed after the verb.
- The film IS long and boring
- Virtual reality SEEMS real- You LOOK beautiful today
ADJECTIVES are essential to describe people.
Thus, when describing a person we could refer to:
1) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE (We usually employ TO
BE): What does he look like?He is tall. They are athletic. I am short.
2) PERSONALITY (We usually employ TO BE): What is he like?
She is kind. You are generous. We are
intelligent
3) A PERSON'S SPECIFIC PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC
(We usually employ HAVE GOT):
He has got long red hair. They have got big
broad noses. You have got round blue eyes.
ORDER:
ARTICLE + OPINION
+ SIZE / AGE + SHAPE + COLOUR + ORIGIN + MATERIAL + PURPOSE + NOUN (OSASCOMP)- OPINION: handy, simple, ugly, precious
- SIZE: small, tiny, large, big
- AGE: old, young, middle-aged, modern
- SHAPE: round, square
- COLOUR: dark, black, shiny, light
- ORIGIN: British, foreign, Turkish
- MATERIAL: plastic, wooden, electrical
- PURPOSE: industrial, technological
A strange middle-aged American writer
Some big red English plastic shoes
