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Similar to Vietnamese, English also possesses adjectives playing a crucial role in its grammar. Let's delve into English adjectives - their usage and examples in this article.
1. What are English Adjectives?
- English adjectives, abbreviated as adj/Adj, are words that modify nouns or pronouns.
- Serve as adjuncts to nouns and pronouns.
- Describe the characteristics and qualities of objects and phenomena.
2. Classification of Adjectives
| Loại tính từ | Định nghĩa |
Ví dụ |
Tính từ riêng |
Là tên riêng để gọi người, sự vật, hiện tượng |
Her name is Lan |
Tính từ miêu tả |
- Miêu tả tính chất sự vật, hiện tượng. |
- I have a fast car |
Tính từ định lượng |
- Biểu thị số lượng, bổ nghĩa cho danh từ, đại từ. |
- They have two children |
Tính từ sở hữu |
Diễn tả tính sở hữu của danh từ |
- This is my car |
Tính từ chỉ số thứ tự |
Chỉ số đếm và số thứ tự |
I have ten candies in my pocket |
Tính từ chung |
Diễn tả sự tổng quát, chung |
- Everything I need |
Tính từ chỉ thị |
Dùng để chỉ cái này, cái kia. Luôn đứng trước danh từ. |
- This book |
Tính từ liên hệ |
Đóng vai trò là đại từ liên hệ trong câu |
- Take whatever you need |
Tính từ nghi vấn |
Là từ dùng để hỏi |
- Which kind of movies do you like? |
3. Identifying Signs and Positions of Adjectives in Sentences
Preceding Nouns
When an adjective precedes a noun, it provides additional information about the noun. You can follow the example below:
- “I wear a dress” – I wear a dress.
- “I wear a beautiful dress” - I wear a beautiful dress.
By adding the adjective 'beautiful', we can see the owner's pride and emphasize that the dress being worn is 'beautiful' - a contrast to wearing an ordinary dress.
Following Linking Verbs
| Động từ liên kết | Ví dụ |
To be |
She is so cute |
Seem |
You seem tired. |
Appear |
He appeared nervous this morning |
Feel |
I feel hungry |
Taste |
It tasted horrible |
Look |
She looked angry |
Sound |
That sounds fun |
Smell |
These flowers smell beautiful |
Furthermore, signs to recognize adjectives can be based on suffixes such as:
| Hậu tố | Ví dụ |
– al |
national, cultural… |
– ful |
beautiful, careful, useful,peaceful… |
– ive |
active, attractive ,impressive… |
– able |
comfortable, miserable… |
– ous |
dangerous, serious, humorous, famous… |
– cult |
difficult… |
– ish |
selfish, childish… |
– ed |
bored, interested, excited… |
– ing |
interesting, relaxing, exciting, boring,… |
– ly |
daily, monthly, friendly, healthy, lovely,… |
4. Compound Adjectives
By combining nouns and adjectives, we create compound adjectives with richer meanings. The new meaning of compound adjectives tends to convey a higher level and is similar to Vietnamese proverbs:
snow + white = snow-white (as white as snow)
knee + deep = knee-deep (deep up to the knees)
world + wide = world-wide (across the world)
life + long = lifelong (lasting a lifetime)
Well + done = Well-done (done well)
Well + known = Well-known (famous)
Blue + Black = blue-black (dark blue)
White + hot = white-hot (extremely hot)
Dark + Brown = dark-brown (deep brown)
Worldly + wise = worldly-wise (experienced)
Low + paid = Low-paid (earning low wages)
Ready + made = Ready-made (premade)
lion + hearted = lion-hearted (courageous like a lion)
pitch + dark = pitch-dark (as dark as pitch)
car + sick = carsick (motion sickness)
5. Order of Adjectives
Adjectives in a sentence should not be arranged randomly but follow a rule based on the classification attributes in the table below, with position 1 being the priority position and position 8 being the last position for that type of adjective in the sentence.
| STT | Loại |
Ví dụ |
1 |
General Opinion (quan điểm, ý kiến chung) |
Good, bad, great, terrible |
2 |
Size (Kích cỡ) |
Big, huge, tall, long, enormous, gigantic |
3 |
Age (Tuổi tác) |
Old, ancient, new, young |
4 |
Shape (Hình dáng) |
Round, square, triangular, rectangular, flat |
5 |
Color (Màu sắc) |
Red, blue, yellow |
6 |
Nationality/Origin (Quốc tịch/Nguồn gốc) |
Italian, Japanese, Thai, German, French |
7 |
Material (Chất liệu) |
Gold, silver, copper, cotton, leather, polyester, wool, silk, velvet, nylon, wooden, stone, diamond, plastic |
8 |
Purpose (Mục đích) |
running shoes, a sleeping bag, a flower vase, a frying pan, a tennis racket |
With the insights into adjectives in English through this article, readers will gain more valuable knowledge on their journey to mastering English. Best of luck to all!
