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Adjectives

Presentation / Objective

Do you know what the adjectives are?
Do you know what they are used for?
Do you know how to use them in English?

On this section, you will get familiar with the use of adjectives, their form and word order in a sentence in English. You will also learn how to use them in the four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking. You will find explanations and exercises that will help you understand and apply adjectives properly within any context, such as describing personal information and of others.

Objective

At the end of this topic you will:

Use the adjectives taking family members to say physical and personality description of yourself and others.

Content

In English like in Spanish, we use adjectives to modify or describe nouns. For example: giving information about their size, general description, age, and shape colour among other qualities. The order in which they appear in a sentence changes in English.

  • Adjectives

  • What are they?
    An adjective is a word that modifies a noun. It tells extra information about it. There are several types of adjectives. For example, demonstratives, distributives, quantitative, interrogatives, possessives, participles and agreement.

  • Use
    Adjectives come before a noun. For example, a rich man, a happy girl, a good student.

  • Classification
    Order of the adjectives of quality: a) size, b) general description, c) age d) shape e) colour, f) material, g) origin and h) purpose. Adjectives of personality/emotion come after of physical description, for example, a small suspicious official, a pale, anxious girl.

In the following chart, you will find the definition of what adjectives are, their use and a brief classification.

Read it carefully to learn useful information about them, so that later you can do the exercises.

Physical description

Reading

Activity 1

A portrait

Do you know what a portrait is? Would you like to have your own?

Well, interesting, isn't it? Next, you are going to read Emily´s portrait. Read the text carefully, so you do not miss any detail. Then, answer the questions about the text.

Emily's portrait

Emily Grover is seven years old and attends 2nd grade. She lives with her parents and her two older brothers in Plockton village on the shores of Lochcarron, Scotland.

She has got long brown hair and green eyes. She is tall (for her age) and thin. She loves to walk along Plockton Bay and see the beautiful rocky hills in the distance. She also likes to read adventure stories and to play tricks on people. She doesn't like to go shopping. She prefers a good adventure.

Her favourite animals are butterflies, but she doesn't like flies at all. She is honest and friendly, but sometimes she is a bit naughty to her friends because she is always playing tricks on them.

When she grows older, she wants to be a veterinary, just like her grandfather or perhaps a lawyer.

After reading the text about Emily´s portrait, you have an idea of what a portrait is right? You can explore the personality of a person. What he/ she is like.

Now you are going to complete Emily´s fact-file based on the reading. You can read the text as many times if necessary.

Reading

Activity 2

Definitions

What are you like? Can you define yourself? It is easy, right?

Read the definitions given and then complete with the adjectives provided.

Example:
A cheerful person is usually happy and smiles a lot.

Reading

Activity 3

Faces

What about making faces? Are you good at it?

In the activity 1, you worked with positive personality adjectives. In this activity, you are going to work with opposite meanings. That is with the negative connotation, to describe someone's personality.

In the following activity, you are going to match a face corresponding adjective.

 

Listening

Activity 4

Descriptions

Are you good at guessing?

You're going to listen to descriptions of different situations. Then, read the sentences about them and decide if they are T (true) or F (false).

Situation 1


Now read the following statements and decide if they are T (true) or F (false).

Situation 2


Now read the following statements and decide if they are T (true) or F (false).

Writing

Activity 5

Scrambled sentences

Writing is an important skill you are going to practice in this activity.


Writing

Activity 6

Physical description

In this activity, you are going to read the description of different people. Then, you are going to match the picture with the description provided.

This exercise is going to help you practice giving physical descriptions.

Speaking

Activity 7

Description

As all the skills, speaking is an essential language skill. It helps you express your ideas about different topics in the target language. You have done some exercises practising, reading, listening and writing.

Now it's your turn to show what you have learnt about this topic. In the previous activity, the descriptions include personality adjectives. Review what you know and do the following exercise.

Describe a person's physical appearance, like type and colour of his/her hair, nose, mouth, height, etc. as well as his/her personality. You can help yourself using the descriptions from the previous activity. It can be someone from your family or friends.

Self-assessment

Describing people

Based on what you have learned about using adjectives in English, solve the following exercise. When you are ready to start, press begin.

Once you are ready press start and begin.

References

Basic references:

Study English for Free (n. d.). Retrieved on 2017, May 9 from http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/
Murphy, R. (2012). English Grammar in Use (2ª ed.). United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Complementary

Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. (1998). The Grammar Book (2ª edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Sharma, P. and Barrett, B. (2007). Blended Learning. Using technology in and beyond the language classroom. Oxford: Macmillan Books for Teachers.
Study English for Free (n. d.). Retrieved on 2017, May 9 from http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/
Thompson, A. and Martinet, A. (1986) A Practical English Grammar. (4ª edition). New York: Oxford University Press.