Correct Uses of Some Adjectives PDF – Learn English Grammar

Correct Uses of Some Adjectives PDF Download – Learn English Grammar

These (Adjectives) are words that describe the states of qualities of being nouns (enormous,doglike, silly, yellow, fun and fast). These can also describe the quantity of nouns (many, few, millions, eleven).

Correct Uses of Some Adjectives PDF Download

Rule 1 

Positive degree of adjective / adverb comes in between ‘as……as‘ and ‘so……as‘.

E.g.: He is as good as his brother.

He ran as fast as he could.

Here, ‘good’ and ‘fast’ are adjectives.

Rule 2

‘Adjectives + er …. than’ indicates the presence of a comparative degree. Comparative degree comes before ‘than‘.

E.g. : He is better than his brother.

‘Than’ may or may not come after a comparative degree.

E.g.: Today I am feeling better.

Rule 3

‘The’ is used before a superlative degree.

E.g.: He is the best player of the team.

Rule 4

When one is chosen out of two, we use a comparative degree preceded by ‘the’ and followed by ‘of’.

E.g.: She is the best of two sisters. (☓)

She is the better of two sisters. (✓)

If one is chosen out of ‘more than two’ or ‘all’, superlative degree is used preceded by ‘the’  and followed by ‘of’.

E.g.: He is the best of the three/ all the players.

Rule 5

When two qualities of a noun or a pronoun are compared with each other, more + positive degree is used instead of a comparative degree.

E.g.: He is wiser than intelligent. (☓)

He is more wise than intelligent. (✓)

Rule 6

If one is compared with all the others of the same variety, ‘any other’ is used to exclude the former.

E.g.: Gold is more precious than any other metal. (☓)

Gold is more precious than any other metal.(✓)

Look at the following sentences :

Diamond is more precious than any metal.

The above sentence is correct because diamond is not a metal.

Rule 7

Adjectives that end in ‘ior’ are followed by ‘to’ and not ‘than’.

E.g.: Superior, inferior, senior, junior, prior, anterior, posterior,

He is senior than me. (☓)   (Replace ‘than’ by ‘to’)

Rule 8

Adjectives like ‘interior’, ‘exterior’, ‘ulterior’, ‘major’, ‘minor’, ’empty’, ‘excellent’, ‘circular’, ‘extreme’, ‘chief’, ‘entire’, ‘complete’, ‘perfect’, ‘final’, ‘last’, ‘unique’, ‘universal’, ’round’, ‘square’, ‘triangular’, ‘eternal’, ‘everlasting’, ‘ideal’, ‘absolute’, ‘impossible’ and ‘supreme’, ‘free’ and ‘vacant’ are not used in comparative degree or superlative degree.

E.g.: 1. This is more inferior to that. (☓)

This is inferior to that. (✓)

2. Good deeds are more everlasting. (Remove more)

Rule 9

Some adjectives are used in only positive and superlative degree and not in comparative degree.

Positive Superlative
Top Topmost
Northern Northernmost
Southern Southernmost
Eastern Easternmost
Western Westernmost

Rule 10

Adjective ‘preferable‘ is used in only comparative degree.

‘Preferable’ is followed by ‘to’ and not ‘than’ or ‘more’Prefer’ (verb) is followed by to that.

E.g.: This is more preferable to that. (☓)

This is preferable to that. (✓)

Rule 11

If two adjectives are used for a single noun or pronoun and if both adjectives are connected by a conjunction, both the adjectives must be in same degree.

E.g.: Gandhiji was noblest and wiser of all the leaders. (☓)

Gandhiji was the noblest and wisest of all the leaders.(✓)

Rule 12

If ‘the’ is used before an adjective, the adjective becomes a plural common noun. It will hence take a plural verb.

E.g.: rich, poor, needy, aged, blind, dead, meek, wicked etc.

  1. The rich (rich people) usually exploit the poor. (poor people)
  2. The honest are rewarded.

Rule 13

Verbs are modified by adverbs.

E.g.: He works honestly.

Here, works is a verb and honestly is an adverb. ‘ly’ is added to an adjective to convert it into an adverb (except in some cases)

Adjective Adverb
Polite Politely
Bad Badly
Sincere Sincerely

But verbs of sensation (seem, look, appear, feel, taste, sound and smell) is followed by an adjective and not an adverb.

E.g. : He feels badly. (☓)

He feels bad(✓)

The soup smells deliciously. (☓)

The soup smells delicious. (✓)

Apart from verbs of sensation ‘be’, ‘become’, ‘turn’, ‘get’, ‘grow’, ‘keep’, ‘make’ and ‘prove’ are also modified by adjective and not adverbs.

E.g.: When he heard the news, he became sad.

Here, sad is adjective.

Rule 14

Many nouns are a part of hyphenated or compound adjectives. They never come in plural form.

E.g.: I delivered a two hours lecture. (☓)

I delivered a two-hour lecture. (✓)

He gave me two hundred-rupees notes. (☓)

He gave me two hundred-rupee notes. (✓)

Rule 15

If a noun works as an adjective, it cannot be in plural form.

E.g.: Lasers are indispensable tools for delicate eyes surgery. (‘eye’ in place of ‘eyes’)

Rule 16

Some adjectives are confusing in their meaning. Hence they should be used carefully.

(1) Farther and Further – Farther means ‘at a greater distance’.

E.g.: She lives at the farther end of the lane.

Further means ‘in addition’

E.g.: I did not receive any further order.

(2) Last and latest

Last means ‘after all others’.

E.g.: The last ruler of Mughal Empire was Bahadur Shah Jafar.

Latest means ‘newest or recent’

E.g.: What is the latest score?

(3) Elder and older – Elder / eldest means ‘of earlier birth‘. It shows blood relation.

E.g.: He is my elder brother.

Older / Oldest means ‘of earlier time‘.

E.g.: He is older than his uncle.

(4) Nearest and next

Nearest means ‘within a short distance‘.

E.g.: Which is the nearest hospital?

Next means ‘immediately adjacent‘.

The bank is in the next building.

(5) Later and latter

Later means ‘at some time subsequent to a given time’.

E.g.: I will call you later.

Latter means ‘second of the two’.

E.g.: The latter part of the movie was boring.

Note – Former is the opposite of latter.

Rule 17

Possessive case comes after ‘All’ and ‘Both’ and not before them.

E.g. : My all friends have got selected. (☓)

All my friends have got selected. (✓)

Rule 18

If both positive and comparative degree of an adjective are used in a single sentence, both ‘as…..as’ & ‘than‘ will be used.

Positive degree is used with ‘as….as‘ and ‘so….as‘ and comparative degree is used with ‘than’.

E.g.: He is as intelligent as if not more than his brother.

Rule 19

Comparative degree does not come with the word ‘times‘.

E.g.: My house is four times bigger than yours. (☓)

My house is four times as big as yours. (✓)

Rule 20

If adjective of size, colour, age etc. come together in a sentence, they should be used in the following order.

Opinion (1) –> Size (2) –> Age (3) –> Shape (4) –> Colour (5) –> Origin (6) –> Material (7) –> Purpose (8) noun

E.g.: I bought beautiful, tiny, heart-shaped, purple, American, diamond, wedding ring.

Here, beautiful  is opinion, tiny is size, heart-shaped is shape, purple is colour, American is origin, diamond, is material wedding is purpose.

The thief flashed a big sharp knife and asked the cashier to fill the black leather bag with money.

Here, big is size, sharp is shape, black is colour, leather is material.

We can remember the order as OSASCOMP.

Opinion – beautiful, pretty, uggly etc.

Size – big, small, tiny, minute etc.

Age – old, new, recent etc.

Shape – round, oval, heart-shaped etc.

Colour – Blue, red, pink etc.

Origin – Indian, German etc.

Material – wooden, leather etc.

Purpose – wedding, dining, sleeping etc.

Note : ‘Tall, dark and handsome’ or ‘fair and beautiful’ are such common examples that have opinion after colour.

Rule 21

Two comparative and two superlative degrees never come together.

E.g.: He is the most cleverest of all the officers. (☓)

He is the cleverest of all the officers, (✓)

This is more better than that. (☓)

This is better than that. (✓)

Rule 22

If different prepositions are needed with different adjectives, suitable prepositions must be used with each of them.

E.g.: He is senior and more experienced than you. (☓)

He is senior to and more experienced than you. (✓)

Correct Uses of Some Adjectives PDF

Candidates can download the pdf of correct uses of Adjectives by clicking on below link.

Correct Uses of Adjectives pdf


All the best for your upcoming exam!

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