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Adjective Formation
1. Adjectives From Nouns
| Suffix | Noun | Adjective | More Examples |
| -able | comfort | comfortable | accountable, memorable, understandable |
| -al | nature | natural | brutal, foundational, magical, logical, normal |
| -ate | passion | passionate | accurate, corporate, fortunate |
| -en | gold | golden | silken, wooden, woollen, silken |
| -etic | energy | energetic | genetic, magnetic, enthusiastic |
| -ful | colour | colourful | beautiful, painful, peaceful, thoughtful, successful |
| -ible | response | responsible | accessible, horrible, sensible, terrible |
| -ic | history | historic | athletic, catastrophic, heroic, poetic, scientific |
| -ical | alphabet | alphabetical | economical, historical, identical |
| -ish | child | childish | foolish, selfish, greenish, girlish |
| -less | home | homeless | careless, doubtless, jobless, motionless |
| -ly | day | daily | friendly, lovely, monthly, manly |
| -ous | fame | famous | advantageous, disastrous, religious, suspicious |
| -y | wind | windy | bloody, chilly, dirty, easy, rainy, sunny, wealthy, healthy |
| -like | woman | woman-like | animal – like, woman – like, childlike, moon – like, honey – like |
| -some | trouble | troublesome | adventuresome, lonesome, awesome, fearsome, wearisome, worrisome |
| a- | sleep | asleep | afloat, alike, apart, alight, alive, afloat, alike, alive |
2. Adjectives from Verbs
| Suffix | Verb | Adjective | More Examples |
| -able | read | readable | adaptable, believable, forgettable, reliable |
| -ative | talk | talkative | conservative, informative, communicative |
| -ive | attract | attractive | active, creative, negative, relative |
| -ed* | annoy | annoyed | confused, embarrassed, excited |
| -ing* | annoy | annoying | confusing, embarrassing, exciting |
| -ful | help | helpful | harmful, hopeful, playful, useful |
Adjective or Adverb?
a) Some words ending in -ly are purely adjectives:
• That’s a lovely dress.
• He’s a friendly guy.
b) Some words ending in -ly are solely adverbs:
• He ran quickly.
• The teacher speaks slowly.
c) And some words ending in -ly are both:
• A weekly meeting. (adjective)
• We update the website weekly. (adverb)
Practice
3. Adjectives with -ed or -ing:
Some adjectives formed from verbs can have two possible endings: -ed or -ing.
- confuse – confused/confusing
- bore – bored/boring
| -ed adjectives describe a person’s feelings | -ing adjectives describe the thing or person that causes a feeling |
| · Erica is bored at work. | · Erica’s job is boring. |
Practice
4. Adjectives with -ful/-less
| Noun | Verb | Adjective |
| care | care | careful/careless |
| harm | harm | harmful/harmless |
| help | help | (un)helpful/helpless |
| hope | hope | hopeful/hopeless |
| pain | pain | painful/painless |
| power | power | powerful/powerless |
| use | use | useful/useless |
| thought | think | thoughtful/thoughtless |
| taste | taste | tasteful/tasteless |
The adjectives in this table take -ful or -less, but not both.
| Noun | Verb | Adjective |
| count | count | countless/countable |
| end | end | endless |
| home | – | homeless |
| peace | – | peaceful |
| play | play | playful |
| price | price | priceless |
| success | succeed | (un)successful |
| truth | – | (un)truthful/(un)true |
| worth | worth | worthless |
Practice
