Adjectives

Adjectives make your English colourful. Without them, every kottu is just "a kottu". With them, it's a hot, spicy, delicious kottu. 🤤

What can adjectives tell us?

Kinds of adjectives

සිංහලෙන්

• That was a fantastic film.opinion
• He's a tall man.size
• My phone is old.age
• We sat at a round table.shape
• She wore a green saree.colour
• I have a Japanese car.origin
• a wooden chairmaterial
• They are honest.quality

Two easy rules

1. Adjectives never change. No plural, no male or female.

2. Adjectives usually go before the noun. Or after verbs like be, look, feel, seem, taste, smell, sound. More on that in adjective placement.

-ed and -ing adjectives

This is one of the most common mistakes I hear.

• -ed = how a person feels: I'm bored, I'm tired, I'm interested.
• -ing = what causes the feeling: the film is boring, the work is tiring, the book is interesting.

-ed or -ing?

සිංහලෙන්

• I'm bored. This film is boring.
• I'm interested in cricket. Cricket is interesting.
• They were surprised by the results. The results were surprising.

In this section

• Adjective placement: before the noun, or after be and look.
• Order of adjectives: why it's a big old red bus, not a red old big bus.
• Comparatives and superlatives: bigger, the biggest.
• Comparing qualities: as tall as, not as hot as.
• Comparing amounts: more, fewer, less.

Quick check

Tap an answer. Nothing is saved.

1. After the long bus ride, I was really .

   tiredtiring

2. This book is very .

   interestinginterested

3. Sri Lanka has many beaches.

   beautifulsbeautiful

4. Thaththa bought .

   a car newa new car