Moulay Ismail University

School of Arts and Humanities,

French Studies
Course: Langue 2 - Semester 2
Teachers: Ms. Ouidad Infi (GRs. 1, 2, 3, 4) ; Ms. Soukaina Oulaich (GRs. 5, 6, 7, 8)

Lesson 3: Adjectives
Outline:
I. Adjectives in English
II. Order of Adjectives
III. Comparison
IV. Exercises

I. Adjectives in English
Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns (people, places, things, or animals) or
pronouns. They describe the noun by telling us its size, shape, age, color, etc.

There are different types of adjectives in the English language:

1) Numeric: six, twenty, one hundred and one

2) Quantitative: more, many, few, some, much, any, half, more than enough
3) Qualitative: color, size, smell, taste
4) Distributive: each, every, either, neither
5) Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
6) Interrogative: which, what, whose These were covered in S1
7) Demonstrative: this, that, these, those.

 Adjectives in English have only one form, which is used with singular and plural,
masculine and feminine nouns.
o a good boy, good boys
o a good girl, good girls No change occurs to the adjective

 The only exceptions are the demonstrative adjectives this and that, which change to
these and those before plural nouns:
o This cat, these cats - that chair, those chairs

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  Adjectives in English usually come before their nouns:
Ex : o They have a beautiful house.
o We saw a very exciting film last night.

 Adjectives also come after the verbs (link verbs): be, look, seem, appear, smell, sound,
taste, feel.
o Their house is beautiful.
Ex :
o That film looks interesting.

II. Order of Adjectives

When a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the
adjective. The usual order is:

Value/opinion delicious, lovely, charming, beautiful, happy, stubborn,

…
Size small, tiny, huge, large, big, little
Age/Temperature old , young, hot, cold
Shape round, square, rectangular, long, short
Color red, blonde, black, yellow, pink, white …
Origin Moroccan, Swedish, Chinese, …
Material plastic, wooden, silver, gold, iron, glass, paper, silk …

Ex : o a lovely old red post-box

o some small round plastic tables
o some charming small silver ornaments

NOTE! As you may notice, nothing is used to separate the adjectives which describe the
same noun.

 However, if the noun is described by two or more adjectives of color, then ‘and’ is used to
separate the last two of them.
o a black and white T-shirt. (2 adjs.)
o a red, white, and blue flag. (3 adjs.)

III. Comparison
There are three degrees of comparison: Positive, Comparative, and Superlative.

1. Positive

The positive form means no comparison is made. The adjective mainly describes the noun
attached to it and no change is applied to the adjective.

o My uncle is bald.
o His head is big.
o Said is a tall boy.

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  For example, the first sentence only explains that my uncle is bald. He is not compared
to anyone. Same thing for the other sentences.

In addition, we can use this form to compare attributes of two nouns.

 When the two nouns have equal attributes, we use as + adjective describing the
attribute + as:
o Salma is as nice as Hasnae.
o I am as hungry as you are.
 When the two nouns don’t have equal attributes, we use not as + adjective describing
the attribute + as:
o Your coffee is not as good as the coffee my mother makes.

2. Comparative

This form is used when we want to compare two nouns, to describe how one person or thing
is when compared to another person or thing.

Two things to keep in mind when changing an adjective into a comparative form:

 If it’s a one-syllable adjective, we add –er to the positive form of the adjective then
add ‘than’ after the adjective.
o bright → brighter o old → older
o small → smaller o strong → stronger
o old → older o short → shorter
o tall → taller o big → bigger

Ex : - My sister is taller than me.

- My car is bigger than yours (your car).
- The student turned out to be smarter than expected.

Remark!  For adjectives ending with –e, ‘r’ is added to make the comparative form.
o wise → wiser, large → larger, nice → nicer, fine → finer, brave →
braver, white → whiter
 For adjectives ending with –y, the –y is removed and replaced with –ier to
make the comparative form.
o lazy → lazier, pretty → prettier, crazy → crazier, heavy →heavier,
holy → holier, wealthy → wealthier, lovely → lovelier
 For adjectives ending with –er, we still add another –er to make the
comparative form.
o clever → cleverer

 If it’s an adjective of two or more syllables, the comparative form is constructed by

putting ‘more’ before the adjective followed by ‘than’.
o interesting → more interesting than

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 o beautiful → more beautiful than
o charming → more charming than
o intelligent → more intelligent than

Ex : - Lina is more charming than her sister.

- French is more difficult than English.
- The movie we watched yesterday was far more interesting than the one we are
watching now.

3. Superlative

This form is used when we want to compare more than two nouns. The word ‘the’ is used
before the superlative adjective.

 For a one-syllable adjective, we add –est to the positive form of the adjective.
o bright → brightest o old → oldest
o small → smallest o strong → strongest
o old → oldest o short → shortest
o tall → tallest o big → biggest

Ex : - She is the tallest one in the family.

- It was the happiest day of my life.
- Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

Same thing as we did earlier with the comparative form, some exceptions to keep in mind
with the superlative form as well.

Remark!  For adjectives ending with –e, ‘st’ is added to make the superlative form.
o wise → wisest, large → largest, nice → nicest, fine → finest, brave →
bravest, white → whitest
 For adjectives ending with –y, the –y is removed and replaced with –iest to
make the superlative form.
o lazy → laziest, pretty → prettiest, crazy → craziest, heavy →heaviest,
holy → holiest, wealthy → wealthiest, lovely → loveliest
 For adjectives ending with –er, we still add another –est to make the
superlative form.
o clever → cleverest,

 For adjective of two or more syllables, the superlative form is constructed by putting
‘most’ before the adjective.
o interesting → the most interesting
o beautiful → the most beautiful
o charming → the most charming
o intelligent → the most intelligent

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 Ex : - She’s the most intelligent student in the whole school.
- Ahmed was the most cheerful person in the office.
- That is the most foolish thing he has ever done.

Be careful! Don’t forget the word ‘the’ before the superlative adjective.

NOTE: If a one-syllable adjective ends with consonant + vowel + consonant, we double the
last consonant before adding –er or -est. Ex: big → bigger → biggest, fat → fatter → fattest,
thin → thinner → thinnest, hot → hotter → hottest, sad → sadder → saddest

Exceptions! There are what are called ‘irregular adjectives’. For these adjectives, the rules
mentioned above don’t apply to them. They change to different words.

Positive Comparative Superlative

Good better the best
Bad worse the worst
Little less the least
Many more the most
Much more the most
Far further the furthest (of distance and time)
farther the farthest (of distance only)
Old older the oldest (of people and things)
elder the eldest (of people only)

Ex : o That’s the best film I have ever seen.

o This is the least expensive sweater in the store.
o This sweater is less expensive than that one.
o I ran pretty far yesterday, but I ran even farther today.

 The words ‘elder’ and ‘the eldest’ are chiefly used for comparisons within a family.
o My elder brother/sister
o His eldest boy/girl/nephew

Note: The word ‘than’ is never put after ‘elder’. If we want to make comparisons in terms
of age, it’s better to use older.

o He is older than I am.

IV. Exercises

1. Complete the following sentences using the appropriate form of the adjective given
in the brackets.

a. He is __________ than his neighbors.

rich richer richest

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b. The brides were much younger than the grooms.
young younger youngest

c. Shakespeare is the _______________ playwright in English.

great greater greatest

d. The offer was too_________ to be true.

good better best

e. The pain was ________ than he could bear.

much more most

f. The __________ thing of all was that his son was rude to him.
bad worse worst

g. The mother couldn’t believe how _____________ her son was.

intelligent more intelligent most intelligent

2. Use the correct order to describe the nouns.

a. a ________________ car
a black new a new black

b. an ___________________ book
an interesting old an old interesting

c. ______________________ food
delicious Moroccan Moroccan delicious

d. a __________________ cat
an old silly a silly old

e. a _________________________ truck
an American big red a big red American a red big American

f. a _____________________ girl
a Japanese tall a tall Japanese

g. a _____________________________ cake
a chocolate delicious a round delicious a delicious round
round chocolate chocolate

h. some _________________ oranges

great big big great

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i. a ____________________ guitar
an electronic new a new electronic

3. Complete the sentences with either the comparative or the superlative form of the
adjectives in brackets.
a. My sister thinks she’s _________________ (intelligent) than me, but I don’t agree!
b. Avatar is probably ________________ (bad) film I’ve seen!
c. What is ______________ (cold) month of the year in England?
d. Do you think the Harry Potter films are ____________ (good) than the books?
e. Who is _________________ (powerful) person in your country?
f. I think Men in Black 1 was _____________ (funny) than Men in Black 3.
g. Is Angelina Jolie___________ (old) than Sandra Bullock?
h. John is ______________ (nice) person that I know.

ANSWERS
Exercise 1:

a. He is richer than his neighbors.

rich richer X richest

b. The brides were much younger than the grooms.

young younger X youngest

c. Shakespeare is the greatest playwright in English.

great greater greatest X

d. The offer was too good to be true.

good X better best

e. The pain was more than he could bear.

much more X most

f. The worst thing of all was that his son was rude to him.
bad worse worst X

g. The mother couldn’t believe how intelligent her son was.

intelligent X more intelligent most intelligent

Exercise 2:

j. a new black car

a black new a new black X

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k. an interesting old book
an interesting old X an old interesting

l. delicious Moroccan food

delicious Moroccan X Moroccan delicious

m. a silly old cat

an old silly a silly old X

n. a big red American truck

an American big red a big red American X a red big American

o. a tall Japanese girl

a Japanese tall a tall Japanese X

p. a delicious round chocolate cake

a chocolate delicious a round delicious a delicious round X
round chocolate chocolate

q. some great big oranges

some great big X some big great

r. a new electronic guitar

an electronic new a new electronic X

Exercise 3:

a. My sister thinks she’s more intelligent (intelligent) than me, but I don’t agree!
b. Avatar is probably the worst (bad) film I’ve seen!
c. What is the coldest (cold) month of the year in England?
d. Do you think the Harry Potter films are better (good) than the books?
e. Who is the most powerful (powerful) person in your country?
f. I think Men in Black 1 was funnier (funny) than Men in Black 3.
g. Is Angelina Jolie older (old) than Sandra Bullock?
h. John is the nicest (nice) person that I know.

If you need any help or clarification, please contact us:

Contact information:
 Ms. Ouidad Infi : [email protected]
 Ms. Soukaina Oulaich : [email protected]