Adjectives

Adjectives are words added to nouns to qualify them or to limit their denotation by reference to quality, number or position.

1. Adjectives are usually formed from nouns and verbs by adding <-ie> or where words are shared with or similar to Standard English <-y> may be used.
   The internal inconsistency caused by unpredictably using <-ie> or<-y> will be found on this site. Some writers simply use one or the other.

   A creashie cloot. A greasy cloth.	A stany gate. A stony road.
   The duddie claes. The ragged clothes.	The reekie lum. The smoky chimney.
   The stourie brace. The dusty mantlepiece.	The grippy puggie The grasping monkey.

2. The past participles of verbs may also be used as adjectives.

   The thruishen corn. The threshed grain.	The feart laddie. The scared boy.
   The soopit fluir. The swept floor.	The drucken mannie. The drunk man.
   The cuisten baw. The cast ball.	The shoddit horse. The shod horse.
   The thrawn wifie. The obstinate woman.		The droukit dug. The soaked dog.

3. Suffixes and prefixes.

   Adjectives may also be formed by adding the suffixes <-n> and <-en> or <-ern>.

   The stanern waw. The stone wall.	The treen buirds. The wooden boards.
   A straen tattie-bogle. A straw scarecrow.

   The suffix <lin> or <lins> signifies 'way', 'condition' or 'direction'.

   It's a snell eastlin wind. It is a fierce east wind.	The hauflins laddie. The half-grown boy.
   He wis blindlins fou yestreen. He was blind drunk last night.

   The suffix <fu> implies the subjective condition.

   A fearfu wee dug. A timid little dog.	The suithfu chield. The honest fellow.
   The waefu weedae. The melancholy widow.	The thochtfu Dominie. The thoughtful headmaster.
   Awfu dreich wather. Awfully dull weather.	An awfu mishanter. An awful mishap.

   The suffix <some> also implies the subjective condition.

   A gruesome carline. A ghastly old woman.	A braw lichtsome day. A beautiful joyous day.
   A winsome young man. A charming young man.	A waesome ongaun. A sad going on.

   The suffix <rif(e)> signifies 'full of the quality of'.

   The bairn's awfu waukrif. The baby is awfully wakeful.

   It's a gey an cauldrif day the day. It's an extremely cold day today.

   Adjectives may be formed by suffixing <like> can be attached to adjectives to qualify the meaning.

   The nicht wis black-like. The night was blackish.

   Siclike fowk gars me grue. Such people make me shudder.

   It wis a black-kin o a nicht. It was a blackish night.

   She gied a wicelike ootcome sae weel pitten on. She presented a good appearance so well dressed.

   The auld plane-tree wis vainisht-like. The old sycamore tree had a shrunken appearance.

   Both kynd or kin can also be used after adjectives to qualify the meaning.

   A lang kynd o a day. A longish day.

   A black kin o a nicht. A blackish night.

   The prefix <cam> signifies 'awry'.

   The camsheuch auld gowk wadna lat me see his dochter. The crabbed old fool wouldn't let me see his daughter.
   The raip wis sae camshauchelt A coudna unraivel't. The rope was so tangled that I couldn't untangle it.
   A cammelt crummock. A crooked walking-stick.	Thae's gey an camsteirie nowt. Those are extremely unruly cattle.

4. siccan (sic kin). With the indefinite article added siccan becomes sicna.

   Sicna day as A hae haed, siccan cauld as it is. Such a kind of day as I have had, so cold as it is.

5. Adjectives don't usually change their form in the plural, the following exceptions exist.

   Singular		Plural
   that	that	thir	these
   this	this	thae	those
   little	little	muckle	much, large
   		mony	many

   In Mid Northern and North Northern Scots this and that are used as plurals rather than thir and thae.

6. Demonstrative adjectives point out people and objects.

   Definite demonstrative adjectives refer to a particular person or object.

   Definite singular		Definite plural
   this	this	thir	these
   that	that	thae	those
   yon (thon)	that	yon (thon)	that
   sic	such	sic	such
   (the) tither	the other	(the) tithers	the others

   This and thir refer to objects near the person speaking.
   That and thae refer to objects near the person spoken to.
   Yon (thon) refers to objects farther off in place or time.
   Northern Scots uses this and that as the plural rather than thir and thae.

   A daena like thae tatties. I don't like those potatoes.	Whase bairns is thir? Whose are these children?
   Dae ye see yon tree? Do you see that tree over there?
   A aft mynd o yon time. I often think of that time (long ago).
   He's a richt timmer-heid thon. That man is a downright blockhead.
   A haena seen him this lang time. I haven't seen him for a long time.
   She haedna seen him this mony a year. She hadn't seen him for many years.

   Indefinite demonstrative adjectives do not refer to any particular person or object.

   Singular		Plural
   the ae*	the only, a certain one
   ony	any	ony	any
   anither	another	ither(s)	others

   *ae is the adjectival form of ane.

   Are thare ony parritch left? Is any porridge left?	It's the ae dug A hae. It's the only dog I have.
   A wad liefer hae the tither. I would rather have the other.	He didna hae ony ither anes. He didn't have any others.
   She coft anither poke aiples. She bought another bag of apples.
   The chields speirt whit ither haed. The fellows inquired what each other had.

7. Adjective comparisons.

   In single syllable words comparisons are formed by suffixing er (comparative) and est (superlative).

   The comparative expresses more or greater degree The superlative expresses the most or highest degree.

   		Comparative		Superlative
   braw	nice	brawer	nicer	brawest	nicest
   heich	high	heicher	higher	heichest	highest
   laich	low	laicher	lower	laichest	lowest
   lang	long	langer	longer	langest	longest

   If the adjective ends with ee the comparative and superlative are formed by adding -er and -est respectively e.g. wee (small), wee-er, wee-est.
   Note the comparative of like - liker meaning more like.

   In words of two or more syllables the comparative is formed by prefixing mair, and the superlative is formed by suffixing maist.

   The tree's mair muckle nor the hoose. The tree is larger than the house.

   The hoose is the muckle maist biggin in the toun. The house is the largest building in town.

   Sometimes double comparatives are used.

   He's mair aulder nor me. He's older than me.	It's mair sweeter nor hinnie. It's sweeter than honey.
   The maist bonniest lassie. The prettiest girl.

   Irregular comparison.

   		Comparative		Superlative
   guid	good	better	better	best	best
   hint	rear	hinder	rearer	hintmaist	rearest
   ill	bad	waur	worse	warst	worst
   little	little	less	less	least	least
   mony	many	mair	more	maist	most
   muckle	much	mair	more	maist	most
   near	near	nearer	nearer	neist	next

   

   Mony, mair and maist are used with countable nouns.
   Muckle, mair and maist are used with uncountable nouns.
   An alternative to near is naur, nauerer or naur(d)er and naur(d)est.

8. The nouns of number, quantity and distribution are often used as adjectives, others are:

   Yon's an orra chield. That is an odd fellow.

   It's no aft that the sun's oot for sae lang. It is infrequent that the sun shines for so long.

   Thare's no mony fowk come. There are only a few people who have come.

   Aye nou an than thare's an antrin blast o wind. Every now and then there is an occasional blast of wind.

9. Several nouns, adverbs and prepositions of place are used as adjectives.

   		Comparative		Superlative
   abuin	above	buiner	upper	buinmaist	topmost
   ablo	down	nether	lower	blomaist	lowest
   afore	before	nether	lower	foremaist, first	foremost, first
   ablo	below	nether	lower	blomaist	lowest
   ahint	behind	hinder	behind	hintmaist	hindmost
   aneath	below	nether	lower	neathmaist	lowest
   ben*	in			benmaist	furthest in
   doun	down	nether	lower	dounmaist	lowest
   east	in	easter	farther east	eastmaist	eastermost
   in**	in	inner	inner	inmaist	innermost
   near	near	nearer	nearer	neist	next
   oot	out	ooter	outer	ootmaist	outmost
   up	up	upper	upper	upmaist	upmost
   wast	west	waster	farther west	wastmaist	westernmost

   *ben is only used to refer to the inner room of a dwelling.
   **In colloquial speech in is often shortened to i' in unstressed positions before consonants and is sometimes written as such.
   An alternative to near is naur, nauerer or naur(d)er and naur(d)est.

10. The interrogative adjectives are:

    Interrogatives ask questions.

    The older whilk corresponding to Standard English 'which' is now obsolete in speech but may occur in literature. Whilk may be replaced by whit.

    Whilk cou's that? Whit cou's that? Which cow is that?

    Whilk haund will ye tak? Whit haund will ye tak? Which hand will you take?

    Whiten (whit kin o) is used both singularly and in the plural and can mean, depending on situation or context, 'what kind of?' or 'what sort of?'
    With the indefinite article added whiten becomes whitna.

    Whit kintra dae ye come frae? Which (part of the) country do you come from?
    Whit year wis thay mairit in? In which year were they married?	Whiten baccie's that? What kind of tabacco is that?
    Whiten fowk daes siclike? What kind of people do such like?
    Whitna body's yon? What kind of a person is he (or she)?
    Whitna cou's it ye hae? What kind of a cow is it that you have?

11. Negative Adjectives.
    
    <wan> is a negative prefix roughly corresponding to 'un'.
    
    

    That wis ae wanchancie mishanter. That was one unfortunate accident.

    Thon bour-tree is awfu wanshapen. Yonder elder tree is awfully deformed.

    The tint gear wis wanawnt. The lost belongings were unclaimed.

    Yer dochter's a wansonsie wee lassie. Your daughter is a mischievous little girl.

    Negative adjectives nae and nane.

    The negative adjective nae is used before nouns.

    A hae nae siller in ma pootch. I have no money in my pocket.	It's nae guid greetin. It's no good crying.
    Thare's nae body hame the nicht. There's no one at home tonight.
    Nane o the twa. None of the two.	Nane o thaim. None of them.
    Thare'll nane o the twa o ye'll gang. Neither of you shall go.

    Negative attributes can be expressed by adding less to the noun or verb.

    The careless wee laddie. The careless little boy.	The fushionless sodger. The pithless soldier.
    A hairmless wee lamm. A harmless little lamb.	A thochtless thing tae dae. A thoughtless thing to do.

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