ADJECTIVES

Adjectives describe a noun and are used in front of nouns. They have the same
form for singular and plural. They do not change for male and female. (Adjectivele
descriu un substantiv şi sunt folosite în faţa substantivelor. Au aceeaşi formă pentru
singular şi plural. Nu au formă diferită pentru masculin şi feminin).

Ex: It was a lovely day. These are tasty apples.

She/he is tall. They are tall.

The article belongs to the noun, not the adjective. So, it is not possible to say:
what a lovely, you lucky, an old, a young. (Articolul aparţine substantivului, nu
adjectivului. Deci nu este posibil să spunem:….)

* What’s it like? (Cum este…?) : we use this question when we ask someone to give an
opinion about, or describe, something or someone. We use the adjective in the answer.
(Folosim această întrebare când cerem cuiva o părere, sau să descrie ceva sau pe cineva.
Folosim adjectivul în răspuns):

Ex: What’s your teacher like? She’s fantastic!

What’s Joe’s house like? It’s enormous!

Practice: Write questions with What……..like?

a) What’s your teacher like? My teacher? She’s a very nice person?
b) …………………………? The end of the film? Wait and see!
c) ………………………….? My parents? When you meet them, you can
decide.
d) …………………………...? The weather in my country? It rains a lot.

* Classes and nationalities (Clase/categorii şi naţionalităţi)

Adjectives can become nouns if we add “the”. (Adjectivele pot deveni substantive
dacă adăugăm “the”)

Groups of people: the young the old the rich the poor
Some nationalities: the French the Chinese
the Japanese the Portuguese
the Swiss the British
the English the Dutch
the Irish the Spanish
the Welsh the Danish
Some nationalities use noun plurals (unele naţionalităţi folosesc
substantive la plural):

the Italians the Turks the Greeks the Germans

the Americans

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Practice: Write one word in each space:
a) The……….come from Switzerland.
b) The……….sometimes feel ill and lonely.
c) The……….come from Japan.
d) The……….usually live in enormous houses.
e) The……….come from China.

* Verbs of sensation (verbe care exprimă senzaţii, sentimente)

Adjectives with verbs of sensation: feel, look, taste, smell, sound.
Ex: This tastes good. I feel ill.
The washing-machine sounds terrible.
This cheese smells bad.
It looks great.
It feels very soft.
Adjectives with be, become, feel, look: adjectives can be used on their own,
without a noun, after these verbs (adjectivele pot fi folosite singure, fără un substantiv,
după aceste verbe):

Ex: The beach is fantastic! Sue has become rich.

I feel terrible! You look ill!

If we use more than one adjective, note the use of commas and the word
‘and’(dacă folosim mai mult de un adjectiv, observaţi folosirea virgulei, şi cuvântul “and”
– “şi”) :
Ex: Sue has become happy and rich.
Sue has become happy, rich and famous.

* Too and enough (“prea” şi “destul”)

We can’t swim. The water is too cold.
We can’t swim. The water is not cold enough.

Practice: Complete each sentence with too or enough.

a) I can’t work today. It’s too hot.
b) We need another ladder. This one isn’t long ……….
c) I can’t do this exercise because it’s ……..difficult.
d) Nobody bought my bike because it was……..old.
e) We had to change rooms because our room wasn’t big…………..

* Order of adjectives (ordinea adjectivelor):

Two adjectives: Jim has become happy and rich.
Three adjectives: Jim has become happy, rich and famous.

When we have more than one adjective, we use this order (când avem mai multe
adjective, folosim această ordine):

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 Opinion: lovely, difficult
Size: large, long
Age: old, second-hand
Shape: round, square
Temperature: hot, cold
Colour: green, blue
Material: wooden, plastic
Purpose (what is it for?) swimming pool
Final noun swimming pool

Ex: An old leather football boot. (age, material, purpose, noun)

A lovely green silk shirt. (opinion, colour, material, noun)

It is not advisable to put more than three adjectives together. (Nu se recomandă
utilizarea a mai mult de 3 adjective împreună)

In the “material” and “purpose” categories we can have nouns used as adjectives
(Pentru categoriile “materie” şi “scop” putem folosi substantive ca adjective): plastic,
steel, swimming, football.

Practice: 1. Write the words in the correct order.

a) shirt/cotton/a/new/lovely a lovely new cotton shirt
b) large/wooden/old/a/house ……………………….
c) apples/large/two/green/beautiful …………………………
d) film/an/new/interesting/science-fiction ……………………..
e) green/vase/old/a/beautiful ………………………………
f) short/a/coat/red/plastic …………………………………
g) carpet/a/old/beautiful/blue ……………………………..
h) puppy/little/a/sweet/black ………………………………
2. Write compound words:
a) a boot for playing football a football boot
b) a shoe for running in ……………………..
c) a road in the country ……………………..
d) a stadium for athletics …………………….
e) a costume for swimming ………………………
f) a village on a mountain ……………………….
g) a student at university ………………………
h) a bus for the school ……………………….
3. Put each group of words into the best order:
a) old/a/plastic/large/bag/green a large old green plastic bag
b) wooden/square/two/tables …………………………….
c) red/a/dress/silk/beautiful …………………………….
d) silver/a/of/jugs/antique/pair ……………………………..
e) bowl/small/a/plastic …………………………….
f) winding/road/country/long/a ………………………………

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g) boots/some/old/football/dirty ……………………………..
h) cotton/long/a/skirt/yellow ………………………………
i) squeezed/cold/juice/a/freshly/glass/orange/of……………………