oxford_guide_to_english_grammar

24 ADJECTIVES PAGE 252
198 Introduction to adjectives
1 Use
PARADISE APARTMENTS
An excellent choice for an independent summer holiday, these large apartments
are along an inland waterway in a quiet residential area. The friendly resort of
Gulftown with its beautiful white sandy beach is only a short walk away.
Restaurant and gift shop nearby.
An adjective modifies a noun. The adjectives here express physical and other
qualities (large, quiet, friendly) and the writer's opinion or attitude (excellent,
beautiful). The adjective residential classifies the area, tells us what type of
area it is.
Adjectives can also express other meanings such as origin (an American writer),
place (an inland waterway), frequency (a weekly newspaper), degree (a complete
failure), necessity (an essential safeguard) and degrees of certainty (the probable
result).
NOTE
a We use adjectives of quality to answer the question What... like?
What's the area like? ~ Oh, it's very quiet.
Adjectives of type answer the question What kind of...?
What kind of area is it? ~ Mainly residential.
b A modifier can also be a noun, e.g. a summer holiday, a gift shop. • 147
2 Form
a
b
An adjective always has the same form. There are no endings for number or
gender.
an old man an old woman old people
But some adjectives take comparative and superlative endings. • 218
My wife is older than I am. This is the oldest building in the town.
Most adjectives have no special form to show that they are adjectives. But there are
some endings used to form adjectives from other words. • 285(5)
careful planning a salty taste global warming artistic merit
199 The position of adjectives
1 An adjective phrase can have one or more adjectives.
a large stadium a large, empty stadium
For details about the order of adjectives, • 202.
An adverb of degree can come before an adjective. • 212
a very large stadium an almost empty stadium
a very large, almost empty stadium
NOTE
a The adverb enough follows the adjective.
Will the stadium be large enough?
b We can put a phrase of measurement before some adjectives.
The man is about forty years old and six feet tall.