How To Change Words Into Adjectives

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. If you'd like, you can read about forming nouns in a previous post.

ADJECTIVE FORMATION

Adjectives are words that modify nouns and, unfortunately, there isn't a general rule which you can follow to form them. 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 suffixation. Therefore, in this post we will obviously focus on those which are formed through suffixation. But firstly, let's take a look at the typical adjective suffixes and some examples:

(via dictionary.cambridge.org)

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:

1. Adjectives from Nouns

adjectives from nouns

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

John loves going onadventures. –> John's a very adventurous person.

You're behaving like a child! –> Don't be so childish!

The creature had a body like a worm. –> The creature had a wormlike body.

The list seemed to have no end. –> The list seemed to be endless.

2. Adjectives from Verbs

adjectives from verbs

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

She obeys the teacher. –> She is obedient to the teacher.

We enjoyed the weekend very much. –> The weekend was very enjoyable.

Mary talks too much, doesn't she? –> Mary's very talkative, isn't she?

3. Adjectives from Verbs: -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:

to amuse –> amused (past participle) / amusing (present participle)

to interest –> interested / interesting

to surprise –> surprised / surprising

Remember that adjectives ending in "-ed" are used when the subjectfeels, whereas "-ing" adjectives are used when the subjectproduces the feeling. For more info about these adjectives visit this previous post, where this point is explained in more depth.

3. Adjectives from Adjectives

There are several possibilities to form adjectives from other adjectives. The most common is when we formcomparativesorsuperlatives from one-syllable adjectives or two-syllable adjectives ending in "-y". Remember that the endings for these are "-er" and "-est" respectively, and that some spelling rules my 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.

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 (1. 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 likeeconomic/ economical orhistoric/historical, make sure you learn the different 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?

For further information, check out these sources where I found plenty of the information for this post:

Ginger Software
Cambridge Dictionary
Grammar-Quizzes

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