Singular and plural
The singular form of a noun is used to mean only one of a thing:
| a picture | one elephant |
| the school |
The plural form is used to mean more than one of a thing:
| two pictures | ten elephants |
| four schools |
The possessive
The possessive (which is sometimes called the possessive case) is used to show that a person or thing owns another person or thing. You add ’s to the end of the noun that is the owner:
my mother’s sister
Nick’s football boots
the cat’s paw
the stadium’s roof
If the noun is a plural that already ends in s, you put an apostrophe at the end of the word:
the soldiers’ uniforms
those boys’ bicycles
African elephants’ ears
tractors’ wheels
You don’t use ’s to make a plural noun. It is only used for showing the possessive.
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that tells you something about a noun. Adjectives can describe nouns in a number of ways:
how they feel or what they are like:
a happy child
a strange boy
a joyful occasion
what they look like:
a large tree
a spotty dress
a gorgeous beach
what they sound, smell, taste or feel like:
a noisy party
a stinky cheese
a delicious cake
a hard seat
what colour they are:
a yellow bag
dark hair
green leaves
where they come from:
our German relatives
my American friend
a northern accent
what something is made from:
chocolate cake
a wooden box
a velvet scarf
Comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives
When you want to make a comparison between people or things, you need to use comparative or superlative adjectives. In the examples below, taller is the comparative form of tall and tallest is the superlative.
Rory is tall.
Rory is taller than his brother.
Rory is the tallest boy in his class.
Comparative
The comparative shows that a person or thing has more of a certain quality than another person or thing. In this case it is the quality of being tall.
You make the comparative form of an adjective by adding the suffix ‑er at the end.
dull + ‑er = duller
green + ‑er = greener
clever + ‑er = cleverer
Not all comparatives are made like this, though. If the adjective is quite a long word, you use more instead.
beautiful → more beautiful
eccentric → more eccentric
interesting → more interesting
Superlative
The superlative shows that a person or thing has the most of a certain quality out of a group of people or things.
You make the superlative form of an adjective by adding the suffix ‑est at the end.
dull + ‑est = dullest
green + ‑est = greenest
clever + ‑est = cleverest
If the adjective is quite a long word, you use most to make the superlative.
beautiful → most beautiful
eccentric → most eccentric
interesting → most interesting
Good and bad
The adjectives good and bad don’t follow the normal rules for comparative and superlative forms.
| good | better |
| best |
| bad | worse |
| worst |
There are spelling rules about adding suffixes, and you can see these on pages 81–85.
Adverbs
An adverb is a word that tells you something about a verb. They describe the way in which something is done. Many adverbs end with the letters ‑ly.
Some
