Formation of adjectives

ADJECTIVE

A. Adjectives formed with suffixes

Many adjectives are formed from other parts of speech by adding different suffixes, the most common of which are:

-able comfortable, reliable

-ible sensible, visible

-ant elegant, arrogant

-ent innocent, intelligent

-al cultural, medical

-ic atomic heroic

-ish foolish, childish

-ive attractive, expensive

-ful useful, careful

-less useless, helpless

-ly friendly, deadly

-ous dangerous, curious

-y dirty, dusty

B. Adjectives formed with prefixes

Some prefixes give the adjectives the opposite meaning.

A prefix (e.g. im -) added to an adjective generally has a negative effect:

I think it’s impossible to solve the problem.

un- uncooked, unimaginable

in- incapable, inhuman

il- illegal, illegible

im- immoral, impractical

dis- dishonest, disagreeable

ir- irresponsible, irregular

counter- counterproductive

anti- antisocial

non- non-violent

Some prefixes give a strong clue to meaning:

inter- between groups - intercontinental

pre- before - prehistoric

hyper- to a large degree - hypersensitive

auto- independent - automatic

ultra- very extreme - ultramodern

uni- one - unilateral

bi- two - bilingual

Compound adjectives

Compound adjectives are made up of two or more words, usually written with hyphens between them. They may be qualitative, classifying or colour adjectives. Normally they have double stress: `dark-`blue, `black-`bearded.

These are the most common and least restricted patterns for forming compound adjectives.

· adjective or number plus noun plus “-ed”, e.g. grey-haired, one-sided

· adjective or adverb plus past participle, e.g. low-paid, well-behaved

· adjective, adverb, or noun plus present participle, e.g. good-looking, long-lasting

These are less common and more restricted patterns for forming compound adjectives:

· noun plus past participle, wind-blown

· noun plus adjective, e.g. trouble-free

· adjective plus noun, e.g. deep-sea, present-day

· past participle plus adverb, e.g. run-down

· number plus singular count noun, e.g. five-page

Here are some examples of compound qualitative adjectives:

absent-minded, easy-going, good-tempered, light-hearted, narrow-minded, etc.

Here are some examples of compound classifying adjectives:

audio-visual, brand-new, first-class, high-heeled, left-handed, north-east

Here are some examples of compound colour adjectives:

bottle-green, ice-blue, sky-blue, snow-white

A few compound adjectives are made up of more than two words. Compound adjectives of two or more words are often written with hyphens when they are used in front of nouns and without hyphens when they are used as the compliment of a link verb.

.... a down-to-earth approach, life-and-death decisions

Their act is out of date.

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