Introduction to Adjectives 形容词简介
Adjectives are very important to English even though you can write an entire sentence without a single adjective. Sentences without adjectives are very plain and boring; however, by using adjectives your writing can become much more descriptive and interesting.
虽然有的句子中一个形容词都没有，但是形容词在英语中是很重要的。没有形容词的句子读起来会很无趣，适当的使用形容词会让你的写作变得更生动、更有吸引力。
Adjectives /ˈædʒɪktɪvz/ 形容词 xíngróngcí
A word or phrase that is used to modify or describe a noun or pronoun. Adjectives commonly describe things like colour, size, and number (e.g., red, intelligent, strong, etc.).
修饰名词或代词的词或短语(如红的、聪明的、强壮的等)。
An adjective is used to modify the noun(s) or pronoun(s) that are used in a sentence. In the following examples different adjectives will be used to to modify the noun ‘pencil’. You can use one or more adjectives to describe or modify a single noun or pronoun. Look at the examples below:
形容词在句子中是用来修饰名词或代词的。请看下例用了几个不同的形容词来修饰名词’pencil’。而且可以用一个或多个形容词来描述同一个名词。请看下例：
I have a short pencil.
I have a red pencil.
We have three pencils.
We have three red pencils.
Adjectives 形容词
An adjective’s function in a sentence is to make it more descriptive, and larger sentences may have more than one noun or pronoun in them; therefore, different adjectives can be used to describe each noun or pronoun in the sentence. Look at how the following example changes when adjectives are added to modify the different nouns in the sentence.
形容词能让一个句子更具有描述性，有的句子会有多个名词，那么可以用不同的形同词来修饰这些名词。请看下例：
The student almost dropped their computer.
The student almost dropped their new computer.
The clumsy student almost dropped their new computer.
The use of adjectives is also very important in other subjects as well. Look at this example from Life Science:
在其他科目中也可瞥见形容词的重要性。请看下面《生命科学》科目中的一个例子：
The anglerfish attracts it’s prey in the deepest depths of the dark ocean by emanating a bright light from it’s esca (a long antenna on it’s forehead).
Note: adjectives are used to modify nouns or pronouns to provide more details about the subject of the sentence. Therefore understanding an adjective’s role is very important to understanding complex subjects like science.
注意: 句子中的形容词常常会给读者提供很多细节，所以了解形容词也对学习其它科目有很大帮助。
As you can see, sentences can become very complex; however by understanding the different ‘parts of speech’ you can start breaking down the sentence into smaller parts which will help you understand even the most complicated sentences.
所以，即使在复杂的句子，只要一一分解其中每个词的作用会简单很多。
Comparative Adjectives 形容词比较级
A comparative adjectives also describes or modifies nouns and pronouns, but it compares one noun or pronoun to another. Therefore a comparative adjective compares two nouns or pronouns. Look at the examples below to see the difference between a regular adjective and a ‘comparative adjective’.
在我们比较两个名词或代词的时候通常会用到形容词的比较级。请看下例形容词的原级和比较级：
Adjectives 形容词原级
Elephants are big.
Mice are small.
Comparative Adjectives 形容词比较级
Elephants are bigger than mice.
or
Mice are smaller than Elephants.
To create a ‘comparative adjective’ you usually just need to add ‘-er’ to the end of the adjective, but if the adjective ends with a ‘-y’, you need to drop the ‘-y’ and add
‘-ier’ instead. However, if the word is longer than 2 syllables you will add the word ‘more’ in front of the adjective and you don’t change the spelling of the adjective.
一般情况下，形容词原级变成比较级直接在其后面加“-er”。如果形容词以“-y”结尾，则需要变“-y”为“i”加 ‘-er’。 三个或三个以上音节的形容词，在其前面加‘more’。
‘fast’ becomes ‘faster’
‘tidy’ becomes ‘tidier’
‘intelligent’ becomes ‘more intelligent’
Superlative Adjectives 形容词最高级
Superlative adjectives compare three or more items. Look at the following examples to see the difference between comparative and superlative adjectives.
三个或三个以上之间的比较需要用形容词最高级。请看下例：
Comparative Adjectives 形容词比较级
Brad ran faster than Tom.
Jenifer ran faster than Brad.
Superlative Adjectives 形容词最高级
Jenifer is the fastest runner.
To create a ‘superlative adjective’ you usually just have to add ‘-est’ to the end of the adjective, but if the adjective ends with a ‘-y’, you need to drop the ‘-y’ and add
‘-iest’ instead. However, if the word is longer than 2 syllables you will add the word ‘most’ in front of the adjective and you don’t change the spelling of the adjective.
一般情况下，形容词原级变成最高级直接在其后面加“-est”。如果形容词以“-y”结尾，则需要变“-y”为“i”加 ‘-est’。 三个或三个以上音节的形容词，在其前面加‘most’。
‘fast’ becomes ‘fastest’
‘tidy’ becomes ‘tidiest’
‘intelligent’ becomes ‘most intelligent’
Adjective Review 复习
Adjectives modify or describe a noun or pronoun. Comparative adjectives compare two things. Superlative adjectives compare things to the highest degree. When modifying adjectives with more than two syllables the word ‘more’ or ‘most’ gets added before the adjectives and the spelling remains the same.
形容词修饰名词或代词。 当比较两个物体时需用形容词比较级，三个物体时需用形容词最高级，三个或三个以上音节的形容词需要加‘more’ 和 ‘most’ 。
Spelling Rules 拼写规则
| Adjective – 形容词原级 | Comparative – 比较级 | Superlative – 最高级 |
|---|---|---|
| An adjective with only one syllable and ends with a consonant 一个音节,以辅音结尾 Examples: light, neat, fast, tall | Add ‘-er’ lighter, neater, faster, taller | Add ‘-est’ lightest, neatest, fastest, tallest |
| An adjective with only one syllable and ends in ‘-e’. 一个音节，以E结尾。 Examples: wide, fine, cute | Add ‘-r’ wider, finer, cuter | Add ‘-st’ widest, finest, cutest |
| An adjective with only one syllable and one vowel and consonant at the end. 一个音节，以一个元音和一个辅音结尾。 Examples: hot, big, fat, sad | Double the consonant and add ‘-er’ hotter, bigger, fatter, sadder | Double the consonant and add ‘-est’ hottest, biggest, fattest, saddest |
| An adjective with two syllables and ends with a ‘-y’. 两个音节，以Y结尾。 Examples: happy, silly, lonely, jolly | Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ then add ‘-er’ happier, sillier, lonelier, jollier | Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ then add ‘-est’ happiest, silliest, loneliest, jolliest |
| An adjective with two syllables and ends with a vowel sound that is not stressed. 两个音节，重音节在第一个 Examples: simple | Add ‘-er’ simpler | Add ‘-est’ simplest |
| An adjective with three or more syllables and does not ending with a ‘-y’. 三个音节或更多，不以Y结尾。 Examples: interesting, beautiful | Use ‘more’ before the adjective: more interesting, more beautiful | Use ‘most’ before the adjective: most interesting, most beautiful |
Practice Activities 练习
Complete the following practice activities that will help you familiarize yourself with the spelling rules for modifying an adjectives form to create either the comparative or superlative adjective forms.
完成下列形容词的比较级和最高级。
One syllable: ending with ‘-e’ by adding ‘-r’ or ‘-st’.
| Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cheap | /tʃiːp/ | |||
| cute | /kjuːt/ | |||
| fine | /faɪn/ | |||
| soft | /sɒft/ | |||
| sweet | /swiːt/ | |||
| wide | /waɪd/ |
one syllable adjective with one vowel and one consonant at the end, double the consonant, and add ‘-er’ or ‘-est’.
| Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| big | /bɪɡ/ | |||
| fat | /fæt/ | |||
| sad | /sæd/ |
two syllable word ending with ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to ‘-i’, then add ‘-er’ or ‘-est’.
| Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| happy | /ˈhæpɪ/ | |||
| lazy | /ˈleɪzɪ/ | |||
| lucky | /ˈlʌkɪ/ |
Two syllable adjectives ending in ‘-ed’, ‘-ing’, ‘-ful’, or ‘-less’ always add ‘more’ or the ‘most’
| Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| boring | /ˈbɔːrɪŋ/ | |||
| careful | /ˈkeəfʊl/ | |||
| dangerous | /ˈdeɪndʒrəs/ | |||
| difficult | /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/ | |||
| useless | /ˈjuːslɪs/ | |||
| worried | /ˈwʌrɪd/ |
Irregular Adjectives
| Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bad | /bæd/ | |||
| far | /fɑː/ | |||
| good | /ɡʊd/ | |||
| little | /ˈlɪtl/ | |||
| much | /mʌtʃ/ | |||
| old | /əʊld/ |
Practice Activity 练习
Complete the practice activity on the next page. Look at each adjective carefully to determine what spelling rule you need to apply for each adjective and then write the comparative and superlative forms of each word.
完成下列形容词的比较级和最高级。
| # | Adjective | IPA | Chinese | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | angry | /ˈæŋɡrɪ/ | |||
| 2 | bumpy | /ˈbʌmpɪ/ | |||
| 3 | cold | /kəʊld/ | |||
| 4 | crazy | /ˈkreɪzɪ/ | |||
| 5 | dirty | /ˈdɜːtɪ/ | |||
| 6 | early | /ˈɜːlɪ/ | |||
| 7 | hungry | /ˈhʌŋɡrɪ/ | |||
| 8 | loud | /laʊd/ | |||
| 9 | lovely | /ˈlʌvlɪ/ | |||
| 10 | messy | /ˈmesɪ/ | |||
| 11 | muddy | /ˈmʌdɪ/ | |||
| 12 | poor | /pʊə/ | |||
| 13 | quiet | /ˈkwaɪət/ | |||
| 14 | rich | /rɪtʃ/ | |||
| 15 | rough | /rʌf/ | |||
| 16 | salty | /ˈsɔːltɪ/ | |||
| 17 | shiny | /ˈʃaɪnɪ/ | |||
| 18 | short | /ʃɔːt/ | |||
| 19 | sick | /sɪk/ | |||
| 20 | sleepy | /ˈsliːpɪ/ | |||
| 21 | strong | /strɒŋ/ | |||
| 22 | tasty | /ˈteɪstɪ/ | |||
| 23 | tiny | /ˈtaɪnɪ/ | |||
| 24 | ugly | /ˈʌɡlɪ/ | |||
| 25 | wealthy | /ˈwelθɪ/ |