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• Ana Maria Del Castillo-Olivares Miranda

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Adjectives and adverbs C1 Adjectives: Adjectives give more information about a noun. Their form does not change for singular and plural nouns, or for male and female. A young girl and two young boys came to the party

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Adjectives in English usually come before the noun (a big town, a blue car) – attributive position When there are two or more adjectives before a noun they are usually not separated by and, except when the last two are adjectives of colour (a big square box, a tall young man / a black and white cap). We can use adjectives after the verbs: to be, appear, become, get, fell, look, seem and taste (linking verbs) –predicative position. The lambs are lovely When we put more than one adjective after a verb we separate the last two with and. The fight was long and tiring Adjectives always come after indefinite pronouns (Indefinite pronouns are words which replace nouns without specifying which noun they replace. Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something)

Comparison: There are 3 degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative:   

Positive: dark, tall, useful Comparative: darker, taller, more useful Superlative. The darkest, the tallest, the most useful

 One-syllable regular adjectives form their comparatives and superlative adding –er and –est to the positive form: bright, brighter, brightest new, newer, newest *If the adjective ends in vowel + consonant the final letter is

doubled: slim, slimmer, slimmest Other common examples are: sad, big, thin, fat, hot, wet. *If the adjective ends in –e, add –r and –st late, later, latest

 3 or more syllable adjectives form their comparative adding more and (the) most. Interesting, more interesting, the most interesting  Most adjectives of 2 syllables form their comparative and superlative adding more and (the) most. careful, more careful, the most careful casual, more casual, the most casual *2 syllable adjectives ending in consonant+y are formed like this: dirty, dirtier, dirtiest Other common ones are: angry, busy, easy, funny, happy, heavy, silly, tiny  Some common adjectives have both forms simple, simpler/more simple, simplest/the most simple

Irregular comparisons 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Good, better, the best Bad, worse, the worst Little, less, the least Many, more, the most Much, more, the most Far, further/farther, the furthest/farthest Old, older/elder, oldest/eldest

COMPARISONS OF ADJECTIVES 1. Comparative adjectives We use them to compare 2 things. When we use a comparative adjective in front of a noun or a pronoun we add than. The new blocks are much higherthanthe old buildings He makes fewer mistakes thanyou Our prices are betterthanhis 2. Superlative adjectives a. We use superlative adjectives to compare more than 2 things. We use the, or a possessive adjective (my, your, his…) before the superlative form. Blue whales are the largest whales. b. After superlatives we use in before singular nouns and of before plural nouns The blue whale is the largest creature in the world The blue whale is the largest of the whales 3. To say thigs are equal: As…. As(tan….como) Not as…. As(no tan…como) Used to compare two things or people. For the second one we can also use not so…. As As soon as, as much as, as long as, as many as, as well as A boy of 16 is often as tall as his father Your coffee is not as good as the coffee my mother makes or Your coffee is not so good as my mother’s We make the comparison more emphatic with just This café is just as bad as the last one We can modify this type of comparison with nearly or quite Motor bikes aren’t nearly so expensive as cars My phone isn’t quite as good as yours. 4. Thins which occur together the…..the => to express that one thing is consequence of the other the more you study, the better grades you will obtain 5. Progressive comparison We can describe how something increases or decreases in intensity by repeating more or the same comparative adjective, with and in between both forms. He became more and more daring Her visits became rarer and rarer 6. no + comparativeadjective:

Running is no better for you than walking fast. 7. To say things are more We can make comparisons stronger with more, much, a lot and far, by far We have a more exciting range of games New York is a lot bigger than Paris 8. To say things are less We can make comparisons weaker with less, a bit, slightly, or a little The games in the sale are less expensive

p. 70-71. My grammar lab for exercises

Gradable and ungradable adjectives Gradable adjectives represent a point on a scale; if an adjective is gradable we can say that a person or thing can have more or less of the quality referred to. E.g. cheap and expensive. Ungradable adjectives represent the limits of the scale; we don’t imagine degrees of the quality referred to. E.g. free.

Most English adjectives are gradable. We can make comparative and superlative forms from all gradable adjectives, but we don’t usually make comparisons with ungradable adjectives.

We can make adjectives stronger or weaker with INTENSIFYING AND WEAKENING ADVERBS Intensifying adjectives: We can make gradable adjectives stronger with very but not with the adverb absolutely. -

That new jacket looks very expensive.

Other words are extremely, pretty, rather, really, so terribly, bitterly, painfully, highly... -

Extremely ambitious Slightly different Pretty strong

To emphasise the extreme or absolute nature of ungradable adjectives we can use adverbs such as absolutely, completely, utterly, or totally. -

Absolutely huge

-

Completely impossible Totally useless

We do not usually use very with ungradable adjectives -

Entrance to the museum is very free X museum is absolutely free

- Entrance to the

Weakening adjectives: Gradable adjectives can usually be made weaker by the words fairly, slightly, a little bit, somewhat. -

Slightly dizzy A bit upset Somewhat aggressive

For ungradable adjectives we use almost, nearly, practically or virtually to indicate a point close to the absolute meaning of these adjectives. -

It’s practically freezing in there He’s almost dead After six months of the disease he was virtually blind

p. 78-79. My grammar lab for exercises

Some adjectives have both gradable and ungradable uses with different meanings. -

Bardreth isn’t a very common surname (gradable: common=frequent) They have certain common characteristics (non-gradable: common=similar)

Some adjectives have both gradable and ungradable uses with related meanings. -

You’re being very diplomatic (gradable because it refers to a quality a person has) He worked as the diplomatic correspondent of a national newspaper (non-gradable because it refers to the type of correspondent he is)

Adverbs Adverbs tell us about a noun, a verb, and adjective or another adverb. Adverbs give us information about time, place, manner, frequency, certainty, degree… They describe how, how of the, when or where an action happens.

Types of adverbs:

*Most adverbs of manner are formed adding –ly to an adjective (except well) Sad, sadly safe, safely *An adjective that already ends in –ly cannot be made into an adverb. Instead, we use adverbial phrases: Friendly => She started the interview in a friendly manner Silly => She laughed in a silly way *Some words can be used both as adjectives and adverbs high, low, deep, near, far, fast, hard, early, late, much, little, straight, pretty, wrong, kindly, enough, daily He caught the early train / He always arrives early She’s a hard worker / She works hard I had enough time / I ran fast enough

Position of adverbs: *Adverbs generally go after the verb, or after the object of the verb if there is one. Sometimes, they may go before the verb or at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis: He packed his suitcase carefully He carefully, packed his suitcase Carefully, he packed his suitcase *One word Frequency adverbs (and hardly ever) are usually midposition (but after am/are/is/was/were): before the main verb but after de auxiliary verb and modal verbs. I usually travel by train I am often late

 More than one word Frequency adverbs can go at the beginning or end of the sentence Occasionally I like to eat really spicy food I admit we go to fast food places sometimes *Opinion adverbs usually go in the front position Luckily, we found the money Actually, I don’t agree with what you say *Adverbs of place and time usually go at the end of the sentence Foxes usually hunt at night Did you go to university here? We never put them in front of the main verb *In the end position we put adverbs of place first, then adverbs of time I hadn’t been to Norway before

Comparison of adverbs *Single-syllable adverbs (and the adverb early) add –er and –est hard, harder, hardest nice, nicer, nicest early, earlier, earliest

*With adverbs of 2 or more syllables use more or less to make comparatives /the most or the least to make superlatives: My brother speaks Italian more fluently than you I speak Italian less fluently than him Of all the students, Maria speaks the most fluently

Adverbs use the same comparative structures as adjectives p.81 My grammar lab

Meaning and use of certain adverbs Fairly and rather Both can be ‘moderately’ but fairly is mainly use with ‘favourable’ adjectives and adverbs, while rather is chiefly used before ‘unfavourable’ adjectives and adverbs. Tom is fairly clever but tom is rather stupid. *Rather can also mean ‘quite/very’ She is rather clever Hardly, barely *Hardly means ‘almost not’ and it is often used with ‘any’ or ‘ever’ I have hardly any money I hardly ever go out She hardly noticed when he came into the room There was hardly anybody in the cinema *Barely means ‘no more than/only/just’ and usually goes with adjectives such as ‘enough’ or ‘sufficient’ He had barely enough to eat He was barely 16 Lately Lately means ‘recently’ You’ve been going to the dentist a lot lately Quite Quite before an adjective means moderately This suitcase is quite expensive Quite between a/an and an adjective means completely This is a quite remarkable story Already, yet, still Already can go in either mid or end position I’d already decided… / I’d decided already…

Yet is usually put in end position in negatives, questions and expressions of uncertainty I don’t know if I can tell you yet Still usually goes in mid position I’m still waiting for you

Even, only They usually go in mid-position He can even/only speak Swedish Really Its meaning depends on its position in the sentence: -

Immediately before an adjective it means ‘very’ In other positions it can mean ‘actually’ or ‘in fact’

Adverbial clauses An adverbial clause must be connected to a main clause; we cannot use it as a separate sentence. We only use one conjunction to connect them. I don’t eat much breakfast because I’m in a rush / NOT: I don’t eat much breakfast. Because I’m in a rush

Time clauses: as/when/while Contrast and concession clauses Reason clauses Purpose and result clauses