Adjectives

witty

very clever and funny person

greedy

someone who wants more money, things or power than they need

lazy

inclined to avoid effort, not willing to work

cruel

a person that inflicts pain to people or animals without pity

morose

unhappy, ill-tempered or gloomy

stingy

a person unwilling to spend or give a lot of money, not generous

unreliable

not able to be trusted or depended on

reserved

people who do not show their feelings, silent or reticent

large-handed

a generous person that gives in large quantities

vindictive

a revengeful and cruel person

quiet

used about people who do not usually talk much, restrained in a speech, manner...

discreet

a tactful person that is careful not to say a secret

convivial

friendly, sociable, festive and making you feel welcome

skinny

being very thin in a way that is not attractive

friendly

people who are kind, not antagonistic or hostile, they often make you feel comfortable

diligent

someone who works hard and is constant in effort to accomplish something

Abbreviations and Acronyms

1. TGIF = Try Getting Into FashionThank God It's FridayTo Get It Fixed 

2. FYI = For Your InformationFrom Your InanityFrom Your Instinct 

3. i.e. = Any questions?That is to sayThere you have it 

4. AI = Artificial IodineArtificial IntelligenceArtificial Ice 

5. KO = KaleidoscopicKnockoutKnock Only 

6. IOU = I owe youI owe moneyIt's often unfit 

7. PS = Park SlowlyPost SecretlyPostscript 

8. ASAP = As Slowly As PossibleAnswer Secretly And PrivatelyAs Soon As Possible 

9. ATM = Auto-Tuning MachineAutomated Teller MachineAutomatic Train Mechanism 

10. BC = Before ChurchesBefore ChristianityBefore Christ 

Chat rooms & SMS acronyms

An acronym is a word formed from the first or first few letters of several words. eg: ASAP = As Soon As Possible. This scripted online conversation is full of acronyms. Our friend, Sylvain, finds it very hard to understand them and to engage in conversation. Can you help him decode the acronyms written in red?

Butterfly3: Hello everybody? How R U?

Kelly114: Hello Butterfly, glad to C U. I sent you a pm, did you recieir it?

Butterfly3: SRY, what does 'recieir¡' mean? Is it English?

Kelly114: No, it's not LOL, just a typing mistake, I meant: 'receive'

Butterfly3: Ok, THX U

Kelly114: Have you heard from Kidd09 recently?.

Sylvain: Hi there! I am fine, and you? I'm a newbie here.

Butterfly3: Welcome then! ASL? Kelly. Nope, he went to the USA, that's the last I heard from him.

Sylvain: I am a 19 year-old boy, I live in London, but I'm French. What about you?

Kelly114: 21, F, Nottingham. To Butterfly: W@?! He's in the USA?! How lucky!

Butterfly3: Yes. Oh, my phone's ringing¡­BRB

Kelly114: No problem, I'm waiting. To Sylvain: How is it going in London? How do U like England?

Sylvain: Que¡­.what does BRB mean?

Butterfly3: I'm back. Sorry I have to leave you guys. My friend's coming. TTYL.

Kelly114: Ok, I've got to go too. XXs & Oos.

Butterfly3: Bye Kelly and CYA Sylvain

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.

Subject pronoun	Possessive adjective
Singular
I	my
you	your
he	his
she	her
it	its
Plural
you	your
we	our
they	their

For example:

• I own a laptop. = It is my laptop.
• You own this computer (I presume). = It is your computer.
• David owns a black car. = It is his car.
• Karen owns a house. = It is her house.

ADJECTIVE ORDER

Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour, material, to more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose.

We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of something.

Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it can sometimes depend on what exactly you want to emphasise.

For example: 

"That's a nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)

"That's a nice blue." (You like the colour.)

When we group adjectives together there is a general (sometimes flexible) rule for the position of each type of adjective, these are:-

Position	1st*	2nd*	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Material	Origin	Purpose
	Nice	Small	Old	Square	Black	Plastic	British	Racing
	Ugly	Big	New	Circular	Blue	Cotton	American	Running

You might swap adjectives that express an opinion and an adjective based on fact depending on what you wish to emphasise:-

For example:

• "She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.
• "He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.

This is just for fun as you wouldn't normally see so many adjectives in one description.

For example:

• "She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, stripey, cotton, British, knitting bag."

Does it matter if you get it wrong? Well outside of exams and tests, it won't kill you, but people reading or listening to you will find it odd if you mix up the order.

ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

When we compare things, people or even ideas we look at what makes them different from each other.

Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.

!Tip - It's a good idea to learn opposites (antonyms) when learning adjectives.

For example:

TALL / SHORT

The man on the left is taller than the man on the right. 

The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.

!Note - Have you noticed that when we are comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.

FAST / SLOW

 

A car is faster than a bicycle. 

A bicycle is slower than a car.

For example:

BIG / SMALL

 

The red bag is bigger than the blue bag. 

The blue bag is smaller than the red bag.

For example:-

• 'good' becomes 'better'
• 'bad' becomes 'worse'
• 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'