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Topic: Adjective

An adjective is a word which can go before a noun and modify its meaning (the ancient tower) or go after a linking verb like be (The tower is ancient).

Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 1

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide and the three sentences. Ask them to identify the adjectives and to think of an affix they could attach to each one to change the meaning. Show some possible solutions in the next slide and explain how, just like with nouns, we can use affixes to alter the meaning of adjectives. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 1

Lesson

Starter

Read these three sentences. Identify the adjective in each. Discuss if you can add an affixes to change the meaning of the adjective in each sentence. 

  1. This is the only weekly magazine.
  2. She had a cold and a red nose.
  3. My kids always get too active after having sweets.

Here are some ways you could have changed the adjectives with affixes. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 2

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide and the four sentences. Ask them to transform the base word in brackets into an adjective by using an affix. Ask them to attempt this individually, then in pairs and finally to share with the whole class. Discuss to see if they noticed any patterns. Show the solutions in the next slide. All these examples use suffixes to change a noun into an adjective that shares the same qualities. Also, note that sometimes spelling changes are required. 

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Word Formation: Adjective Derivation 2

Lesson

Starter

Read these four sentences. Each one has a base word in brackets you need to transfrom into an adjective by adding an affix.

What do the examples have in common? Where do they differ?

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Word Formation: Compound Adjectives

Plan

Starter

Show learners the first slide. Discuss in what ways words such as blackbird are different from ones such as grass-green i.e. the first is a compound noun and the second is a compound adjective. Make sure learners pay attention to the base word. 

The second slide explains the difference in forming these types of adjective are formed. See if learners can think of any other examples. 

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Word Formation: Compound Adjectives

Lesson

Starter

Last lesson we saw how adjectives can be combined with nouns to make compound nouns, such as blackbird or red card.

Are these next two examples the same or something different?

  • grass-green 
  • lifelong

These words are both examples of compound adjectives.

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Words

Plan

Activity 1

Show learners the image in the first slide. Ask them to work with a partner and write down as many words as they can see. Share back with the whole class and accept any valid answers. 

Activity 2

Show learners the list of actions. Ask them to put the letters a-f in the appropriate order. Circulate and accept any reasonable answers. On the next slide, disucss possible solutions as a whole class. 

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Words

Lesson

Objective

To explore the meaning of simple, everyday words and how they relate to your experience of the world.

Activity 1

There are many kinds of words.

Do you know the words for what you see in the picture? Talk to a partner and write down as many words as you can.

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Writing an advertisement with adjectives

In this activity, you will write a brief entry advertisement that describes a product and makes it sound as attractive as possible.

Goals

  • Identify the adjectives in an online advertisement.
  • Write an original advertisement using an array of descriptive and effective adjectives.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will write Ebay advertisements to sell products. To make your item sound attractive you will need to describe it in detail, using a range of adjectives. 

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Writing an advertisement with adjectives: Activity

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Approximate heights 16cm, 12cm and 8cm.

These little figures have a dense staple polyester filling. All felt used here is a good-quality wool blend. Heads are natural beechwood beads.

Suitable for gentle play or lovely Christmas stocking fillers.

All natural materials. Original hand-crafted items.

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Adverb or adjective?

Work out whether the highlighted word is an adverb or an adjective

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is an adverb or an adjective:

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Identify the adjectives

Click on the words that you think are adjectives to select or deselect them.

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Y2 GPaS Test: Identify the adjectives

Identify the adjectives in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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Y6 GPaS Test: Adjective or adverb?

Work out whether the highlighted word is an adjective or an adverb

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is an adjective or an adverb:

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Y6 GPaS Test: Article or adjective?

Work out whether the highlighted word is an article or an adjective

In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is an article or an adjective:

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Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the adjectives

Find the adjectives in a range of examples

Identify the adjectives in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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Adjectives

A very simple definition of adjectives that has sometimes been used is that they are ‘descriptive’ words. But this isn’t really very helpful. Lots of word classes can be ‘descriptive’: a noun like funeral is fairly descriptive, as is the verb leap. We might also say that the adverb quickly describes the verb ran in a sentence like He quickly ran.

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Adjectives: Avoiding adjective overuse

Many writers of fiction use adjectives as a quick way of telling us what a character is like: how they appear, how they feel, how we should view them. Look at the following examples of how adjectives are used to provide a basic description:

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Nouns, adjectives and determiners

This short film introduces some basic ideas of grammar that everyone should know.

In this film Professor Bas Aarts introduces three basic categories: nouns, adjectives and determiners.

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