How many adjectives are there in English? | Studio English
In this article, we will answer any questions regarding the adjectives in English language, in an easy way to make you love learning.
Many people think that learning a new language is difficult and they give up at the beginning of the road. However, learning the English language is not hard, actually, it’s one of the easiest languages to learn if you follow the right method and stay persistent. What we seek from this article is to show you how easy it easy and encourage you to keep learning. So, let’s get started.
What does adjective mean in English?
If you search for the meaning of the word adjective in dictionaries you will find it defined as: “a word naming an attribute of a noun, such as sweet, red, or technical.” Or “a word that describes a noun or pronoun: “Big”, “boring”, “purple”, and “obvious” are all adjectives.”
As we understand from its definition an adjective is a word used to describe a noun and here are some examples to clarify it more.
- The car is pretty.
- The grass is green.
- The glass is shiny.
- The sky is blue.
- The fire is red.
In the above examples, the adjectives came after the verb, it could also come before the noun like the following examples:
- A beautiful car.
- An amazing movie.
- A big tree.
We can use more than one adjective in English in the same sentence, Like:
- A beautiful young woman.
How many adjectives in the English language?
One of the most asked questions is, how many adjectives in English? The answer is that there are about 4,800 adjectives in the English language.
How many adjectives are there in English grammar?
There are around 4800 Adjectives in English
What are the different Adjective Forms?
Some adjectives end with particular endings like:
- -able/-ible: washable, credible
- -ish/-like: childish, childlike
- -ful/-less: careful, careless
- -ous: dangerous, harmonious
- -y: dirty, pretty
But most of them don’t follow that rule.
Other adjectives are used for comparison or as superlative. Like the following examples:
- big, bigger, biggest
- good, better, best
- beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
How many irregular adjectives are there in English?
First, let’s understand what is meant by irregular adjectives. Irregular adjectives are the ones that don’t follow the rule of adding -er/-est or more/most. They are somewhat confusing to many people.
There are a small number of irregular adjectives that are used to make comparative and superlative forms. The normal ones follow the rule of adding er/-est or use more/most, like
Big, bigger, biggest
Expensive, more expensive, most expensive
Irregular adjectives use completely different forms. Note, however, that some adjectives can be both regular and irregular, sometimes with a slight change in meaning. The most important irregular adjectives are listed in the table below.
| adjective | comparative | superlative | example sentence |
| good | better | the best | Tara is the best athlete in the school. |
| well | better | the best | He is still in hospital, but he is better than he was last week. |
| bad | worse | the worst | You are the worst driver I have ever known. |
| far | further | the furthest | My car is the furthest one. |
| farther | the farthest | My car is the farther one. | |
| old (when talking about the family) | elder | the eldest | he is my elder brother. |
| old (generally) | older | the oldest | Your teacher is older than my teacher. |
What are the possessive adjectives in English?
The possessive adjective is added to the noun to identify the owner of something. For example, when someone says john lost his way home. The word his refers to john to clarify that he is the one who got lost.
Stacy put her books on the table. From this example, the word her refers to that the books belonging to Stacy. Possessive adjectives is also used to clarify the relation that people have with something or someone. For example, Vince and Helena are with their parents. The word their here doesn’t mean that the parents belong to them but what they represent to them.
Here’s a List of possessive adjectives:
The most used possessive adjectives are:
- my
- your
- her
- his
- its
- our
- their
- whose
here are some easy examples:
- She likes your hat.
- I think her dog has eaten my gerbil.
- My computer is not working as fast as it worked in the beginning.
- Our father told us not to quarrel with anyone.
- Your cycle has been stolen yesterday.
- Your child is not doing well in school.
- We are concerned about his performance.
- The students of class seven submitted their assignments.
- I could not understand her intentions.
- Her thoughts are too complex.
- My mind stops working when I think about that.
- Stop messing with my hair.
- I cannot believe that you broke my glasses.
- I don’t want to see his shadow again.
- She made her life miserable by pessimism.
- Their favorite teacher did not come yesterday.
- Will you mind opening my drawer and looking into it?
- I walked for 4 hours and now I cannot feel my legs.
- She could not identify his motives.
What is an adjective clause in English grammar?
Adjective clause or as some call it relative clause is used to modify a noun or pronoun and its dependencies. They are used to tell which one or what kind, and they always come after the noun they modify. Here are some examples.
- There is the mountain that we are going to climb.
- My blue tennis shoes, which used to be my mom’s, were under the bed.
- Daniel, who was late again today, sits next to me in English.
Dependent clauses are used to combine sentences, like the above example “Daniel, who was late again today, sits next to me in English.”
The first sentence is “Daniel was late again today” and the second is “Daniel sits next to me in English” and the word who is used to combine them.
A relative adjective clause starts with a relative pronoun (that, which, who, whom, whose) to connect the clause to the noun or pronoun that it is used to modify. The use of relative adj is for showing the relation between the clause and the antecedent.
In the above example “There is the mountain that we are going to climb. The Antecedent is the mountain, and the clause is we are going to climb and the word that is what connects them.
In the sentence “My blue tennis shoes, which used to be my mom’s, were under the bed.” The Antecedent is shoes, and the dependent clause is used to be my mom’s and the word which is used to connect them.
- These are the students who are going.
- These are the students Who are going.
Those are the students for whom I bought the tickets.
Those are the students. I bought the tickets for whom.
Sometimes there is no need to use the relative pronoun as it is understood from the sentence, for example.
- Have you seen the book I lost?
- Have you seen the book [that] I lost?
- The teacher I had in fifth grade really inspired me.
- The teacher [whom] I had in fifth grade really inspired me.
It is better to put the preposition before the pronoun in formal English, as the proposition is a part of the dependent clause.
- This movie was the sequel we had been waiting for. (Informal)
- This movie was the sequel, which we had been waiting for. (Informal)
- This movie was the sequel for which we had been waiting. (Formal)
- Do you know the actor Shelly is talking about? (Informal)
- Do you know the actor that Shelly is talking about? (Informal)
- Do you know the actor about whom Shelly is talking? (Formal)
Also, the adj clauses can start with relative adverbs like where, when, and why, to connect the dependent clause to a sentence noun. And it is used to modify the verb. Here are some examples:
- That is the bench where you and I were supposed to meet.
- Six o’clock was the time when we were supposed to be there.
- That is the reason why I couldn’t meet you.
Other Examples of Adjective Clauses:
The flowers that we picked up last week have died.
My friend, who has glasses, wasn’t at school today.
The boy, who claimed to have a broken arm, caught the ball.
Bobby’s cat that ate the mouse had a stomachache.
The robber who broke into my house is in court today.
How to form adjectives in English?
English adjectives can be formed from nouns, verbs, and other adjectives.
1-Forming Adjectives from Nouns
The first way to form adjectives English is by adding suffixes to nouns like adding -y or -al or -ial and keep in mind that if the noun is ending with an ‘e’ you will remove it and add -y or -al or -ial to the noun to form the adjective.
| Noun | Adjective |
| accident | accidental |
| danger | dangerous |
| length | long |
| star | starry |
| wind | windy |
| luck | lucky |
| hair | hairy |
| storm | stormy |
| nature | natural |
| magic | magical |
| commerce | commercial |
You could also form adjective English by adding -lyor -ish or -ic to the noun and if the noun ends with ‘y’ remove it and add -lyor -ish or -ic.
| Noun | Adjective |
| man | manly |
| human | humanly |
| girl | girlish |
| child | childish |
| artist | artistic |
2- From verbs
You can add the Suffixes like ‘-y’ , ‘-able’ , ‘-ous’ , ‘-al’ , ‘-ful’ , ‘-ic’ , ‘-less’ , ‘-ing’ and ‘-ive’ to verbs to form adjectif in English.
| Verb | Adjective |
| enjoy | enjoyable |
| help | helpful |
| obey | obedient |
| play | playful |
| talk | talkative |
3- Formation of Adjectives from Other Adjectives
To form an adjective from another adjective just add a suffix like ‘-ly’ , ‘-ive’ , ‘-al’ , ‘-ish’ , ‘-ier’ , ‘-est’.
| Adjective | Adjective |
| comic | comical |
| correct | corrective |
| elder | elderly |
| red | reddish |
| sick | sickly |
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