Quizzes & Exercises

When we use more than one adjective before a noun, which are one idea, we connect them with a hyphen (-).

• He is a good-looking man.
  (The meaning is not good man and looking man. The meaning is a man that looks good. They are one idea, so we link the adjectives.)
• The slow-moving train arrived late.


When the adjectives before the noun are different ideas, we put a comma between them.

• The furry, black cat.
  (The meaning is that the cat is furry, and the cat is black.)
• When the adjectives come after the noun, we don’t use a hyphen.

Compare:
• The blue-eyed cat has just had a bath.
  (adjectives/ blue-eyed, noun/cat)
• The cat with blue eyes has just had a bath.
  (noun/cat, adjectives/blue eyes)
• The slow-moving train arrived late.
• The train was slow moving so it arrived late.

Now do the exercise.

Adjectives that end in -ed describe how you feel.

• The cats were very interested in the mouse.
  (The cats feel interested in the mouse.)
• I feel relaxed after my holiday.
  (I feel relaxed.)
• She felt tired after working all day.


Adjectives that end in -ing describe the action by something or someone.

• The running mouse was interesting for the cats.
  (The running action of the mouse was interesting.)
• My holiday was relaxing.
  (The action of my holiday was relaxing.)
• Her work is tiring. She feels tired at the end of every day.

Now do the exercise.

Capitalise the first and last words.
Capitalise all other words but not:

• articles
  (a, an, the)
• to in an infinitive
  (I want to play football.)
• prepositions
  (on, in, at, etc)
• or, for, but, so, and, nor, yet


• How to Build a Garage for Your Car
• My Favourite Picnic Sites in the New Forest
• Twenty-Five Ways to Kill Your Husband
• A Back-to-School Guide for Parents

Which letters to capitalise.

There is a correct order of adjectives in sentences.

1. Articles: a, an, the
2. Opinion: interesting, boring, cute
3. Size: big, small, tiny, large
4. Shape: triangular, square
5. Age: old, modern, young
6. Colour: blue, black, red
7. Where from: Indian, Ankara, Russia, Chinese
8. Material: plastic, wooden, paper
9. Noun: eyes, bag, story, book, painting, cat



• Big blue eyes.
  (size + colour + noun)
• A small black plastic bag.
  (article + size + colour + material + noun)
• An old Indian story.
• An interesting Chinese painting.

Now do the exercise.

A dictionary is a book of words.
vocabulary is the list of words in a dictionary.

• Can I borrow your dictionary?
• His English vocabulary list was growing one word every day.

More help with confused words.

Client is a person who consults or employs a professional advisor. For example, Lawyers, advertising agencies and financial consultants have clients.
Customer means someone who buys something.

• Should a lawyer defend a client whom he knows to be guilty?
• Customers are not so loyal to a particular supermarket anymore.

Help with mispronounced words.