Adjectives

e.g. She was still angry about the result.

They're getting pretty fed up with him.

Adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive or ‘that’-clauses

1. After link verbs, we often use adjectives that describe how someone

feels about an action or situation. With some adjectives, we can add a

‘to’-infinitive clause or a ‘that’-clause to say what the action or situation is.

If the subject is the same in both clauses, we usually use a ‘to’-

infinitive clause. If the subject is different, we must use a ‘that’-

clause.

e.g. I was happy to see them again.

He was happy that they were coming to the party.

We often use a ‘to’-infinitive clause when talking about future time in

relation to the main clause.

e.g. I am afraid to go home.

He was anxious to leave before it got dark.

We often use a ‘that’-clause when talking about present or past time in

relation to the main clause. e.g. He was anxious that the passport was missing. They were afraid that I might have talked to the police.

2. We often use ‘sorry’ with a ‘that’-clause. Note that ‘that’ is often

omitted.

e.g. I'm very sorry that I can't join you.

I'm sorry I'm so late.

3. Some adjectives are not usually used alone, but have a ‘to’-infinitive

clause after them to say what action or situation the adjective relates to.

e.g. They were unable to help her.

They were not likely to forget it.

I am willing to try.

I'm prepared to say I was wrong.

4. When we want to express an opinion about someone or something, we often use an adjective followed by a ‘to’-infinitive clause.

e.g. She had been easy to deceive.

The windows will be almost impossible to open.

Am I wrong to stay here?

5. With some adjectives, we use a ‘that’-clause to express an opinion about someone or something.

e.g. I was sad that people had reacted in this way.

. It is extraordinary that we should ever have met!

6. We can also use adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive clauses after ‘it’ as

the impersonal subject. We use the preposition ‘of ’ or ‘for’ to indicate

the person or thing that the adjective relates to.

e.g. It was easy to find the path.

It was good of John to help me.

It was difficult for her to find a job.

Adjectives ending in ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’

We use many ‘-ing’ adjectives to describe the effect that something has on

our feelings, or on the feelings of people in general. For example, if we

talk about 'a surprising number', we mean that the number surprises us.

e.g. He lives in a charming house just outside the town.

She always has a warm welcoming smile.

We use some ‘-ing’ adjectives to describe something that continues over a

period of time.

e.g. Britain is an ageing society.

Increasing prices are making food very expensive.

Many ‘-ed’ adjectives describe people's feelings. They have the same form

as the past participle of a transitive verb and have a passive meaning. For

example, ‘a frightened person’ is a person who has been frightened by

something.

e.g. She looks alarmed about something.

A bored student complained to his teacher.

She had big blue frightened eyes.

Note that the past participles of irregular verbs do not end in ‘-ed’, but

can be used as adjectives.

e.g. The bird had a broken wing.

His coat was dirty and torn.

4. Like other adjectives, ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ adjectives can be:

used in front of a noun

They still show amazing loyalty to their parents.

This is the most terrifying tale ever written.

I was thanked by the satisfied customer.

The worried authorities cancelled the match.

used after link verbs

It's amazing what they can do.

The present situation is terrifying.

He felt satisfied with all the work he had done.

My husband was worried.

modified by adverbials such as ‘quite‘, ‘really‘, and ‘very’

The film was quite boring.

There is nothing very surprising in this.

She was quite astonished at his behaviour.

He was a very disappointed young man.

used in the comparative and superlative

His argument was more convincing than mine.

He became even more depressed after she died.

This is one of the most boring books I've ever read.

She was the most interested in going to the cinema.

5. A small number of ‘-ed‘ adjectives are normally only used after link

verbs such as ‘be‘, ‘become‘, or ‘feel‘. They are related to transitive

verbs, and are often followed by a prepositional phrase, a ‘to‘-infinitive

clause, or a ‘that‘-clause.

e.g. The Brazilians are pleased with the results.

He was always prepared to account for his actions.

She was scared that they would find her.

Conclusion

The subject of our investigation was adjectives. What we have learnt about adjectives is that most English adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. These are generally constructed in one of two ways: either by suffixes (big, bigger, biggest) or by the use of the grammatical particles more and most. We have investigatedthat some adjectives have suppletive forms in their comparison, such as good, better, best. Comparative and superlative forms apply only to the base form of the adjective, so that duplicate forms like most biggest or worser are nonstandard (although lesser is sometimes permitted as a variant of less). A few adjectives have no comparative but a superlative with -most: uppermost, westernmost, etc. Also it has its own degrees, such as comparison, etc. Those such as male, female, extant and extinct which express "absolute" qualities do not admit comparisons: one animal cannot be more extinct than another. Similarly in a planktonic organism the adjective planktonic simply means plankton-type; there are no degrees or grades of planktonic. Other cases are more debatable. Grammatical prescriptivists frequently object to phrases such as more perfect on the grounds that something either is perfect or it is not. However, many speakers of English accept the phrase as meaning more nearly perfect. An adjective that causes particular controversy in this respect is unique. The formulations more unique and most unique are guaranteed to raise the hackles of purists. Which English adjectives are compared by -er/-est and which by more/most is a complex matter of English idiom. Generally, shorter adjectives (including most monosyllabic adjectives), Anglo-Saxon words, and shorter, fully domesticated French words (e.g. noble) use the suffixes -er/-est. Adjectives with two syllables vary. Some take either form, and the situation determines the usage. For example, one will see commoner and more common, depending on which sounds better in the context. Two-syllable adjectives that end in the sound [i], most often spelled with y, generally take -er/-est, e.g., pretty : prettier : prettiest. It was pleasant to investigate adjectives and we think that it is not the end of its investigation. We will continue this theme on our diploma work. Thank you for spending time on reading our course work!

Appendix

For my practical task I decided to find something extraordinary what we didn’t learn at school and at university also. It is eponymous adjective!

An eponymous adjective is an adjective which has been derived from the name of a person, real or fictional. Persons from whose name the adjectives have been derived are called eponyms.

Following is a list of eponymous adjectives in English.

Aaronic — Aaron (as in Aaronic Priesthood)

Abbasid — Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (as in Abbasid Dynasty)

Abelian — Niels Henrik Abel (as in Abelian group)

Abrahamic — Abraham (as in Abrahamic religions)

Achillean — Achilles, of Greek mythology

Adamic — Adam (as in Adamic language); also Adamite (as in pre-Adamite race)

Addisonian — Thomas Addison (as in Addisonian crisis)

Adlerian — Alfred Adler (as in Classical Adlerian psychology)

Aegean — Aegeus, of Greek mythology (as in Aegean Sea)

Aeolian — Aeolus, of Greek mythology (as in Aeolian Islands)

Aeschylean — Aeschylus

Aldine — Aldus Manutius (as in Aldine Press)

Alexandrine — Alexander the Great (as in Alexandrine verse); also Alexandrian (as in Alexandrian period)

Amperian — Andrй-Marie Ampиre (as in Amperian loop)

Antonian — St. Anthony the Great (as in Antonian monasticism); Antoninus Pius (as in Nervan-Antonian dynasty)

Antonine — Antoninus Pius (as in Antonine Wall); Marcus Aurelius

See also: en./wiki/List_of_eponymous_adjectives_in_English#See_also

Bibliography

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