Forming Adjectives in English

Today’s post will deal with another aspect of word transformation (or word formation). In this case I will focus on how to form adjectives. Just as with other aspects of the English language, there are certain patterns that can be followed in order to form new adjectives from existing words. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how to form adjectives in English, with a focus on some of the most common patterns.

What are adjectives?

Adjectives are words that modify and describe nouns. An adjective is a type of word that complements the noun and provides more information about it, either by specifying general qualities, detailing particular characteristics that are inherent to it, or by delimiting its scope.

How do we form adjectives?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a general rule which you can follow to form adjectives. In many cases, in fact, these adjectives don’t even derive from another word. For instance, adjectives like red, small or flat, are not formed through any particular word formation process.

Therefore, in this post we will focus only on those which are formed through a process that can be explained; in this case: suffixation. 

But firstly, let’s take a look at the typical adjective suffixes and some examples:

Now, we’ll see some adjectives (including some from above) and how they were formed. Please note how some spelling changes take place in many cases.

Forming Adjectives from Nouns

In the following table, you can see the different methods to form adjectives from nouns, including the suffixes, the inherent meaning of the suffix, the nouns and their transformation into adjectives. 

Now let’s see some examples of sentences with both noun and adjective forms:

Forming Adjectives from Verbs

Here’s a cool table with the suffixes that some verbs take and their transformation into adjectives. I’ve also added the intrinsic meaning of the suffix, which helps to understand the meaning of the final adjective after the transformation. 

Now let’s see some examples of sentences with both noun and adjective forms:

Forming Adjectives from Verbs with -ed/-ing

Another way to form adjectives from verbs is to use the past or present participles of the verbs, that is, their -ed or -ing forms. For instance:

Remember that adjectives ending in -ed are used when the subject feels some way, whereas -ing adjectives are used when the subject produces the feeling. For more info about these adjectives visit this previous post, where this point is explained in more depth.

Forming Adjectives from Other Adjectives

There are several possibilities to form adjectives from other adjectives. Let’s see a couple of cases. 

Comparatives and Superlatives (suffixation)

The most common way to form an adjective from another adjective is when we use comparatives or superlatives from one-syllable adjectives or two-syllable adjectives ending in -y. 

Remember that the ending suffixes for these are -er and -est respectively, and that some spelling rules may apply (double the final consonant, change the -y for -i, etc.). For example:

This TV is very big, but mine’s bigger.

He’s extremely happy. He’s probably the happiest person I know.

Prefixation

Also, adjectives can be modified by adding a prefix to them. For instance:

• possible → impossible
• regular → irregular
• logical → illogical
• etc.

However, we will see these in a future post, so keep an eye out for it.

Warning: Adjectives Ending in -ic/-ical

In the first table (Adjectives from Nouns), we have seen some adjectives that could have these two endings: -ic or -ical. However, it must be said that their meanings usually vary. 

This difference is not the same for all of them, so whenever you come across a pair like economic/economical or historic/historical, make sure you learn the difference by looking them up in a dictionary. For the moment, I’m going to leave you with a couple of links so you learn some pairs:

• Classic or Classical?
• Economic or Economical?
• Historic or Historical?

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I’ll see you in the next post. Until then, don’t forget to keep smiling!