ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH

In English, there are two major semantic categories of adjectives: descriptors

and classifiers.

-Descriptors are adjectives that describe…

colour: green, white, blue, bright, dark, light…

size: small, huge, enormous,…

age: old, antique, young, recent, two-month-old, …

Evaluative/ emotive descriptors: They denote judgement, emotions, and

emphasis: lovely, fine, bad, beautiful, best, horrible, awful, poor.

miscellaneous descriptors: They cover many other kinds of characteristics:

appropriate, complex, strange, practical, positive, free, hot, cold, dead, empty,
serious, sudden…

In a word, they are qualifiers of a noun.

-Classifiers limit or restrict a noun’s referent rather than describing

characteristics in the way that descriptors do.

Relational/classificational/ restrictive classifiers limit the referent of a noun in

relation to other referents: average, primary, following, single, maximum,
internal, main, various, top, entire, external, necessary, previous, final…

Affiliative classifiers identify the national or social group of a referent:

Canadian, Peruvian, Turkish, European, Christian, Catholic,…

Topical/ other classifiers give the subject area or specific type of a noun:
environmental, chemical, sexual, medical, visual, official, oral, phonetic, human,
commercial…

As can be seen, the distinctions between descriptors and classifiers is not

always clear-cut. Many topical classifiers, for instance, provide descriptive
content while they also limit the head noun, e.g. political, medical, chemical,…
 Some adjectives can serve, therefore, as both classifiers and descriptors,
depending on their context.

descriptor classifier

a popular girl at school popular vote, popular opinion

a primary issue primary school, primary colours

criminal activity criminal law

The most common adjectives often have a range of meaning according to

the context. Old ,for example, can be descriptive or express evaluation or
emotion. Even with a single category an adjective can have more than one
meaning. e.g.:

an old TV set, old magazines poor old Jack, good old genetics

a poor country (lacking in resources) poor health (not good)

Adjectives as exclamations

1.Great! I’ll let you know.

2.Excellent, we’ll give you a call.

3.Sorry! I didn’t see you.

4.Well, let’s go to the point.

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

How to order adjectives in English

When several adjectives come before a noun (or when nouns are used as
adjectives before another noun), they are usually put in a more or less fixed
order.

The order of adjectives in English is as follows:

1.Determiner (articles, demonstrative, possessive,…)

2.Quantity/ order (six, ten, twelve… first, fifth, tenth)

3.Opinion adjectives: lovely, beautiful, comfortable, valuable…

4.Size (fat, slim, small, big, huge…)

5.Age (new, old, antique, two-year-old, modern,…)

6.Shape (rectangular, square, round, oval, heart-shaped…)

7.Colour (red, green, brown, bright, dark, light…)

8.Origin (usually proper adjectives: Italian, Japanese, Christian, Catholic…)

9.Material (leather, plastic, silk, cotton, glass,…)

10.Purpose racing [car] – a car for races

drawing [table] – a table used for drawing

…Noun

Examples:

1.It features luxurious Italian leather upholstery.

a.luxurious: opinion adjectives

b.Italian: origin or nationality

c.leather: material

2.It’s a priceless ancient Greek ceramic wine jar.

a.priceless: opinion adjectives

b.ancient: age

c.Greek: origin or nationality

d.ceramic: material

e.wine: purpose

3.I love that really big old green car that always parked at the end of the street.

a.really: adverb (intensifier)

b.big: size

c.old: age
d.green: colour

4.She found meters of superb dark blue textured velvet in the sales.

a.superb: opinion adjectives

b.dark blue: colour

c.textured velvet: material