How to Form Adjectives

Forming adjectives

1. Typical adjective endings (suffixes)

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:

1. -able/-ible understandable, comfortable, invisible, incredible
2. -al/-ial mathematical, functional, influential, industrial
3. -ful beautiful, wonderful, helpful, harmful
4. -ic artistic, heroic, romantic, terrific
5. -ive active, creative, inventive, attractive
6. -less endless, hopeless, priceless, timeless
7. -ous gorgeous, dangerous, famous, fabulous

Sometimes when adding these endings changes have to be made. Here are some rules for forming adjectives and their exceptions:

2. Forming adjectives from nouns and verbs

Adjectives can be formed from different words. They can be formed from nouns:

From verbs:

Or even from other adjectives:

3. Typical adjective beginnings (prefixes) 

Some adjectives can be formed by adding  a prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, il- and ir- . Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

1. un- unfair, unhappy, unsure
2. in- inactive, inappropriate, incomplete
3. ir- irresponsible, irregular, irreducible
4. im- imbalance, impolite, impossible
5. il- illegal, illegible, illogical