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▌5. Position of Adjectives
Adjectives generally appear in two places in a sentence:
1. Attributive Position: Before the noun.
• Example: "He wrote a professional email."
2. Predicative Position: After a linking verb (like be, seem, feel, look).
• Example: "The commitment is binding."
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▌6. Formation of Adjectives (Suffixes)
Many adjectives are formed by adding suffixes to nouns or verbs:
• -ful: hope $⟶$ hopeful
• -less: care $⟶$ careless
• -able/-ible: response $⟶$ responsible
• -ish: child $⟶$ childish
• -al: finance $⟶$ financial
• -ic: history $⟶$ historic
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▌7. Compound Adjectives
When two or more words work together to modify a noun, they are often hyphenated, especially when
they appear before the noun.
• Examples:
• A 750-gram loaf.
• A swap-free account.
• A step-by-step guide.
• An interest-free loan.
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▌8. Common Pitfalls and Rules
▍A. Adjectives vs. Adverbs
Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs.
• Incorrect: "He speaks good." (Good is an adjective).
• Correct: "He speaks well." (Well is an adverb).
• Correct: "He has good English."
▍B. The "Unique" Adjective Rule
Some adjectives cannot be compared because they represent an absolute state.
• Incorrect: "This is the most unique grave."
• Correct: "This is a unique grave." (Something is either unique or it isn't).
▍C. Nouns Acting as Adjectives
Sometimes a noun is used to describe another noun. In this case, the first noun acts as an adjective and
is usually singular.
• Example: reference letter (not references letter), bank manager (not banks manager).
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▌9. Practice Exercise
1. Reorder these adjectives: (Iraqi, two, ancient, beautiful) graves.
2. Change to comparative: "This bread recipe is good than the last one."
3. Identify the adjective type: "I have some concerns about the forex market."
4. Create a compound adjective: A loan that does not have interest is an _________ loan.
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▌10. Summary for Revision
• Adjectives add detail to nouns.
• Follow the order: Opinion $⟶$ Size $⟶$ Age $⟶$ Shape $⟶$ Color $⟶$ Origin $⟶$ Material
$⟶$ Purpose.
• Use -er/more for two things; -est/most for three or more.
• Proper Adjectives (like Hausa or Islamic) must always be capitalized.
• Compound Adjectives before a noun usually need a hyph