English Grammar Guide for ESL

ADJECTIVES (good, bad, happy, green)

On this page: Description, Exercises

Description

Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns (people, places, things, or ideas). They give more information about a noun.

Examples:

  • a big house

  • a great movie

  • a blue sky

Important Rules

1. Adjectives do not change form in English.

The adjective stays the same with masculine, feminine, singular, and plural nouns.

Examples:

  • a nice girl

  • a nice boy

  • two nice girls

  • three nice boys

2. Adjectives usually come before the noun.

Examples:

  • a small car

  • an interesting book

  • a beautiful city

❌ a car small
❌ a book interesting

Remember: in English, adjectives normally come before the noun they describe.

Exercises

Choose the correct form:

She is wearing a (beautiful, beautifully, beauty) dress.
We live in a (small, smaller, smallly) apartment.
The movie was very (interesting, interest, interestingly).
He bought a (new, newly, newer) car last week.
They have a (friendly, friend, friendlily) dog.
The test was (easy, easily, ease) for everyone.
She has (long, length, longly) hair.
This is an (expensive, expensively, expense) restaurant.
The soup is too (hot, heat, hotly) to eat.
We saw a (happy, happily, happiness) child in the park.
My grandfather is a very (kind, kindly, kindness) man.
The classroom is (clean, cleanly, cleanliness) today.
She gave me some (good, well, goodness) advice.
That was a (difficult, difficulty, difficultly) question.
The mountain is very (high, highly, height) above sea level.

Translate the following and look up the answer in a dictionary (French answers are provided):

good
famous
bad
sad
interesting
rotten
fast
kind
fat
funny
confortable
easy
weak
honest
magnificent
thin
sick
new
old
recent
soft
favourite
worried
proud
strange
sweet
former
athletic
next
modern
dirty
sincere
nice
empty
lucky
true
fun
short
polite
heavy
open
other
early
major
minor
late
hard
low
wide
best
high
right
straight
crooked
flat
steep
bumby
false
young
real
black
white
narrow
expensive
cheap
light
big
pretty
ugly
little
happy
far
close
mean
busy
dangerous
safe
strong
free
available
clear
full
annoying
bitter
angry
lazy
unavailable
tired
ready
likely
left
warm
hot
foreign
certain
past
private
single
smart
unlikely
faithful

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