Adjectives

1
Adjectives

• Describe nouns and pronouns.
• An adjective can come before the word it
  describes
• A lively student and a tired teacher.
• Or it can come after
• The coffee was hot and the cake was delicious.

2
Comparatives

• To compare two nouns or pronouns
• This book is old, but that one is older.
• That woman is beautiful, but this one is more
  beautiful.

3
Superlatives

• To compare three or more
• My car is old my neighbours is older, but my
  husbands is the oldest.
• Maths is interesting literature is more
  interesting, but linguistics is the most
  interesting.

4
NOTE FOR SWEDES

• The Swedish absolute comparative is unusual in
  English.
• En bättre middag a rather good dinner
• En mindre summa pengar a small amount of money

5
Later or latter?

• Later is the normal form.
• Is there a later bus?
• Latter is more formal and used to show order.
• The latter half of term.

6
Last or latest?

• Last refers to the final one.
• Many people believe The Tempest to be
  Shakespeares last play.
• Latest refers to the most recent.
• The Naming of the Dead is Ian Rankins latest
  novel.

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Modifiers

• You can put one of these before most
  adjectives
• very, enormously, extremely, terribly, most,
  surprisingly, too, much too, unusually
• fairly, rather, pretty
• a little, a bit, somewhat

8
Enough

• Note that enough comes after the adjective
• Is your coffee strong enough?
• Have I explained this well enough?

9
Fill in the missing word!

• Some Swedish phrases require an extra word in
  English
• Guess what Ive been doing during the past few
  weeks!
• Hes got his own flat in town.
• This example is much longer than the previous
  one.

10
Before or after?

• Some adjectives can come before or after the
  noun they refer to, but with a change in meaning.
  
• The present students (nuvarande)
• The students present (närvarande)

11

• The concerned parents (bekymrade)
• The parents concerned (berörda)
• The responsible teacher (ansvarskännande)
• The teacher responsible (ansvarige)

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The good, the bad and the ugly!

• Some adjectives can be used as nouns. These
  are called substantive adjectives.
• In the plural, in a general sense, they refer
  to everyone in a category
• The unemployed demand work.

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• In the singular, when we are specific, we have
  to add a noun
• The unemployed man claimed benefit.

14

• In the singular, in a general sense, we refer to
  abstract phenomena
• Ive always been interested in the unknown.

15

• In some phrases we have to add a word, such as
  thing or part
• The important thing is to do your best.
• The sad part of it is that I really liked her.

16
Some adjectives have become nouns

• These take the s plural and can have the
  (in)definite article
• The blacks, the whites, the reds, the Greens
• The Conservatives, the Liberals
• A drunk, a friendly, an international

17
Nationality adjectives

• Always begin with a capital letter!
• In some cases, where the connection to
  nationality is not obvious, we can use small
  letters
• french fries, go dutch, swede, china

18
The English The Englishmen?

• In a general sense, referring to the nation, we
  use the form the English
• The Scots beat the English at Wembley.

19

• When we refer to specific people we use the form
  the Englishmen
• The Englishmen at the conference went home early.

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Order of adjectives

• When using two or more adjectives, note the word
  order
• Subjective opinion size age form colour
  origin material NOUN
• A charming, little, old, square, red, Swedish,
  wooden cottage.