Amazing adjectives!

Amazing adjectives!
Start at the start
Or jump to a slide :
1 : Recognise an adjective
2 : Using more than one adjective
3 : Adjectives can go before or after a noun
4 : Making adjectives with ly and y
5 : Making adjectives from words with tricky endings
6 : Using adjectives to compare by adding er
7 : Using adjectives to compare by adding est
8 : Adding er and est to adjectives with tricky endings
9 : Making opposites by adding un
10 : Making opposites with ful and less
Extension 11 : Words that make adjectives stronger or weaker
12 : Using with, in and on phrases to describe nouns
13 : Summary – Look at what we know about adjectives
 Recognise an adjective

Adjectives describe nouns.

They say what they are like.

Here are some adjectives. Can you match them with the pictures?
Reveal

hot angrytiny tiny oldold hot angry

Challenge

Have fun mixing the adjectives around. Can you have an old
baby?

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 Using more than one adjective

You can use more than one

adjective to describe a
noun.

Can you think of two adjectives to describe this frog?

A ______, ______ frog.

Challenge

Make pairs of adjectives to describe different animals. They

can be funny if you like. (Ideas - silly, smelly snake)

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 Adjectives can go before or after a noun

Adjectives often go before the

noun. If they go after it, you
need a word like is or feels.

Are these adjectives before or after the noun?

happy boy
the happy boy
Reveal

the boy is funny

funny
he feels great
feels great
Challenge

Try using these adjectives twice - once before a noun and

once after a noun: hot, furry, tall.

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 Making adjectives with ly and y

You can make adjectives from

some words by adding y or ly
to them.

Add ly or y to these nouns to turn them into adjectives.

Reveal

rain
rainy friend
friendly frost
frosty mess
messy
Challenge

What is the weather like today? Can you think of an

adjective ending with y to describe it?

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 Making adjectives from words with tricky endings

Some words need to change

before you can add y to them
to make adjectives.

Can you spot the spelling rule when these words change?

sun sunny noise noisy

Reveal

spot spotty lace lacy

You may need to

Challenge

double the last letter

Try adding ly or y to these words to make adjectives: or remove the final
fog, scare, fun, shine. e.

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 Using adjectives to compare by adding er

If you want to compare two

nouns with each other, add er
to their adjective.

Add er to the adjectives to compare the nouns.

Reveal

tall
taller short
shorter fast
faster
Challenge

Look at the person sitting next to you. Can you think of

comparing words that use er for each other? Be kind!

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 Using adjectives to compare by adding est

If you add est to an adjective,

you can compare more than
two things.

Add est to the adjectives to compare these people.

Reveal

oldest
old youngest
young
Challenge

What other words ending with est can you think of to

compare the people in this family?

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 Adding er and est to adjectives with tricky endings

Some adjectives need a

spelling change before you can
add er or est to them.

How do these words change before er and est are added?

greedy greedier / greediest

large larger / largest
big bigger / biggest
You may need to
Challenge

double the last letter,

Try adding er or est to these words: remove the final e
or change y to i
hot, funny, strange.

8
 Making opposites by adding un

Adjectives have opposites.

Some opposites can be made
by adding un to an adjective.

Try adding un to these adjectives. Which one doesn’t work?

Reveal

Help!

untrue
true unslow
slow unsafe
safe
Challenge

Think of a superhero. What adjectives could describe him or her?

Now think of opposites. Do any of them start with un?

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 Making opposites with ful and less

Some adjectives end with ful

or less to make opposites.

Which adjective should end with ful and which needs less?

He is a care___ driver.

He is a care___ driver.
Challenge

Not all words can take both ful and less. Try it on
these: hope, beauty, use, harm, home.

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 Words that make adjectives stronger or weaker

Words such as very and

Extension

really can be put before an

adjective to emphasise it
(make it stronger or weaker).
Try very or really with these adjectives and nouns:

sunny day scruffy shirt exciting ride

Challenge

What is your favourite food? Use an adjective to describe it and then add
another word to emphasise it, e.g. very tasty cake.
Here are some words you could use: really, rather, absolutely, quite.
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 Using with, in and on phrases to describe nouns

You can use one noun to

Extension

describe another using words

like in, with and on. This is an
adjectival phrase.
Which adjectival phrase best describes the dog?

in a car
a dog... with a collar
on a rug
under a tree
Challenge

Be really clever by adding some adjectives to the phrases above, e.g.

a smelly dog on a furry rug.

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Look at what we know about adjectives .
a. Adjectives tell you what a noun is like
b. We can use more than one adjective to describe a noun
c. Some adjectives can go before the noun or after a verb
d. Adjectives can be made from some words by adding y or ly
e. Some words need a spelling change before adding y or ly
f. You can add er to some adjectives to compare two things
g. You can say which is the most or least by adding est to an adjective
h. Some adjectives need a spelling change before adding er or est
i. You can make the opposite of some adjectives by adding un
j. Adjectives can be made from some words by adding ful or less
k. Some words can make adjectives more interesting
l. A noun can be described by a phrase starting with on, in or with

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