There are 9 parts of speech or word classes in English language:
– nouns
– pronouns
– determiners
– verbs
– prepositions
– adjectives
– adverbs
– conjunctions
– interjections

We use adjectives to express:
– conditions,
– quality,
– characteristics,
– feelings/emotions
of someone or something.

John is sick.
Sick is a condition for someone.
Sick is an adjective.

That car is new.
New is a condition for something.
New is an adjective.

Jane is smart.
Smart is a quality for someone.
Smart is an adjective.

That movie is awesome.
Awesome is a quality for something.
Awesome is an adjective.

John is tall.
Tall is a physical characteristic for someone.
Tall is an adjective.

That car is red.
Red is a physical characteristic for something.
Red is an adjective.

Jane is brave.
Brave is a non-physical characteristic of someone.
Brave is an adjective.

That lesson is boring.
Boring is a non-physical characteristic of something.
Boring is an adjective.

James is happy.
Happy is a feeling.
Happy is an adjective.

How to Use Adjectives

(1) We can use adjectives after linking verbs

linking verb + adjective

Linking verbs:
am
is
are
was
were
feel
seem
look
sound
taste

– That house is big.
– Jane was worried.
– John looked happy.

(2) We can use adjectives in front of nouns:

adjective + noun

– That is a big house.
– John is a smart student.
– Those are expensive shoes.

(3) We can use adjective to describe pronouns.
Jane is beautiful.
She is beautiful.

Those students looked happy.
They looked happy.

Types of Adjectives

There are no formulas to form adjectives.
We recognize an adjective by its function in a sentence:
– an adjective describes a noun/pronoun.
However, there are a group of adjectives which have certain suffixes:
-able, -ible
-al, -ial
-ful
-ic
-ical
-ish
-ive, -ative
-less
-eous, -ious, -ous
-y
-ed, -ing

Adjectives Ending with -able, -ible

enjoyable
acceptable
predictable
preventable
avoidable
doable
remarkable
reasonable
available
comfortable
possible
horrible
terrible
visible
incredible
credible
eligible
legible
flexible
responsible

Adjectives Ending with -al, -ial

natural
usual
unusual
annual
financial
actual
official
essential
initial
special
partial
impartial

Adjectives Ending with -ful

beautiful
wonderful
useful
helpful
painful
careful
powerful
awful
meaningful

Adjectives Ending with -ic

classic
heroic
romantic
scientific
energetic
fantastic
tragic
academic
majestic

Adjectives Ending with -ical

comical
critical
physical
chemical
musical
logical
medical

Adjectives Ending with -ish

foolish
childish
sluggish
selfish
stylish

Adjectives Ending with -ive, -ative

alive
active
inactive
massive
expensive
creative
talkative
educative
tentative
lucrative

Adjectives Ending with -less

useless
hopeless
reckless
careless
baseless
fearless
restless
ruthless

Adjectives Ending with -eous, -ious, -ous

famous
dangerous
jealous
anxious
serious
obvious
gorgeous
courageous
outrageous

Adjectives Ending with -y

dry
shy
busy
happy
lazy
cozy
angry
costly
lucky
unlucky

Adjectives Ending with -ed, -ing

Adjectives ending with -ed express feelings or emotions felt by someone.
I am bored.
= I am feeling boredom.

He was confused.
= He was feeling confusion.

Adjectives ending with -ing express something that causes certain feelings/emotions.
I am boring.
= I am causing boredom.

He was confusing.
= He was causing confusion.

bored, boring
confused, confusing
surprised, surprising
shocked, shocking
frightened, frightening
annoyed, annoying
tired, tiring
disgusted, disgusting
inspired, inspiring
disappointed, disappointing
excited, exciting
interested, interesting
worried, worrying
amazed, amazing
charmed, charming
convinced, convincing

depressed, depressing
embarrassed, embarrassing
entertained, entertaining
exhausted, exhausting
fascinated, fascinating
pleased, pleasing
relaxed, relaxing
relieved, relieving
satisfied, satisfying
terrified, terrifying
threatened, threatening
touched, touching