Adjectives - Forms

Identifying adjectives

There is no general rule for making adjectives. We know they are adjectives usually by what they do (their function) in a sentence. However, some word endings (suffixes) are typical of adjectives.

suffix	examples
-able, -ible	comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
-al, -ial	comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
-ful	beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
-ic	classic, economic, heroic, romantic
-ical	aeronautical, alphabetical, political
-ish	British, childish, Irish, foolish
-ive, -ative	active, alternative, creative, talkative
-less	endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
-eous, -ious, -ous	spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
-y	angry, busy, wealthy, windy

Warning:
Adjectives ending in -ic and -ical often have different meanings:

Electric and electrical
What is the difference between 'comic' and 'comical'?
What is the difference between 'classic' and 'classical'?
What is the difference between economical and economic?

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.

noun	adjective
hero	heroic
wind	windy
child	childish
beauty	beautiful

---

verb	adjective
read	readable
talk	talkative
use	useful
like	likeable

-ly

Some words ending in -ly can be both adjectives and adverbs. These include:

• daily
• early
• monthly
• weekly
• nightly
• yearly

Adjective:
She gets a weekly payment from her parents.

Adverb:
I pay my rent weekly.

Some words ending in -ly are only adjectives and not adverbs. These include:

• costly
• cowardly
• deadly
• friendly
• likely
• lonely
• lovely
• oily
• orderly
• scholarly
• silly
• smelly
• timely
• ugly
• woolly

We enjoyed the trip to America but it was a costly holiday.

Oily fish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.

Prefixes

Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- change the meaning of adjectives. Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

un-

• fair – unfair
• happy – unhappy
• sure – unsure

in-

• active – inactive
• appropriate – inappropriate
• complete – incomplete

ir-

• responsible – irresponsible
• regular – irregular
• reducible – irreducible

im-

• balance – imbalance
• polite – impolite
• possible – impossible

il-

• legal – illegal
• legible – illegible
• logical – illogical

Adjectives: with -ing and -ed

-ing adjectives	-ed adjectives
-ing adjectives describe the effect	-ed adjectives describe how a person feels
The meeting was very boring.	I felt bored at the meeting.
That was an exciting game.	We were really excited about the game.
It was shocking to see what the storm had done to the house.	We were shocked to see what the storm had done to the house.