ADJECTIVES

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.

Examples:1. The tall professor.2. The lugubrious lieutenant. 3. A solid commitment.4. A month's pay.5. A six-year-old child.6. The unhappiest, richest man.

Type of Adjectives

– Possessive Adjectives– Demonstrative Adjectives– Interrogative Adjectives– Indefinite Adjectives

• Descriptive Adjectives• Limiting Adjectives• Predicate Adjectives

DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE:

• These types of adjectives add detail or description to the noun.

Example:1. Monica said, "Wow, this is a great game2. A worthwhile rivalry had been born.

LIMITING ADJECTIVE:

• These types of adjectives specify or limit the noun.

Examples:1. The two teams have met every season

since 1932.2. Will you be sitting at the captain's table

this evening?

PREDICATE ADJECTIVE

• This is a special type of adjective that follows a linking verb and modifies (directly refers to) the subject of the sentence.

Examples:1. People are interested in this game.2. Sheena is beautiful.

Adjective Clause

If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adjective, it is called an Adjective Clause. My sister, who is much older than I am, is an engineer.

Adjective Phrase

If an adjective clause is stripped of its subject and verb, the resulting modifier becomes an Adjective Phrase: He is the man who is keeping my family in the poorhouse.

Position of Adjective

Adjectives appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category.

Position of Adjective

When indefinite pronouns — such as something, someone, anybody — are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun.

Example:

1. Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.

2. Something wicked this way comes.

Degrees of Comparison

PositiveComparativeSuperlative

Comparative

Used in comparing two persons or things.

Superlative

Used in comparing three or more persons or

things.

Take Note!

The word than frequently accompanies the comparative.

The word the precedes the superlative.

Take Note!

The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ier and -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in y (happier and happiest); otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has more than one syllable.

Examples

Positive Comparative Superlative

rich richer richest

lovely lovelier loveliest

beautiful more beautiful most beautiful

Take Note!Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative

degrees.

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

good better bestbad worse worstlittle less leastmuchmanysome

more most

far further furthest

Order of Adjectives• Determiners — articles and other limiters. See Determiners • Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real

hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting)

• Size and Shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round)

• Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient) • Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale) • Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French,

American, Canadian) • Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of

(e.g., woolen, metallic, wooden) • Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g.,

rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)

Order of AdjectivesDetermin

erObservati

onPhysical Description Origin Material Qualifier Noun

  Size Shape Age Color  

five   huge young   black Canadian     bears

  battered   old shapel

ess gray   cotton work pants

many magnificent   antique     British   referen

ce books

one studious   teenag

ed     American     boy

few shiny     round blue Indian     gems

five   huge young   black Canadian     bears

  battered   old shapel

ess gray   cotton work pants

many magnificent   antique     British   referen

ce books

one studious   teenag

ed     American     boy

few shiny     round blue Indian     gems

many well-made tiny   elongat

ed brown   wooden fishing boats

several cheap large     purple   polyester

sleeping bags

A-Adjectives

The most common of the so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily show up as predicate adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking verb).– The children were ashamed. – The professor remained aloof. – The trees were ablaze.

A-Adjectives

Occasionally, however, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the alert patient, the aloof physician. Most of them, when found before the word they modify, are themselves modified: the nearly awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And a- adjectives are sometimes modified by "very much": very much afraid, very much alone, very much ashamed, etc.

EXERCISES

And he hastened straight down, running over the wet, sodden fields, pushing through the hedges, down into the depression of callous, wintry obscurity. It took him several minutes to come to the pond. He stood on the bank, breathing heavily. He could see nothing. His eyes seemed to penetrate the dead water. Yes, perhaps that was the dark shadow of her black clothing beneath the surface of the water.

He slowly ventured into the pond. The bottom was deep, soft clay, then he sank in, and the water clasped . . . his legs. As he stirred he could smell the cold, rotten clay that fouled up into the water. It was objectionable in his lungs. Still, repelled and yet not heeding, he moved deeper into the pond. The cold water rose over his thighs, over his loins, upon his abdomen. The lower part of his body was all sunk in the hideous cold element. And the bottom was so deeply soft and uncertain, he was afraid of pitching with his mouth underneath. He could not swim, and was afraid.

And he hastened straight down, running over the wet, sodden fields, pushing through the hedges, down into the depression of callous, wintry obscurity. It took him several minutes to come to the pond. He stood on the bank, breathing heavily. He could see nothing. His eyes seemed to penetrate the dead water. Yes, perhaps that was the dark shadow of her black clothing beneath the surface of the water.

He slowly ventured into the pond. The bottom was deep, soft clay, then he sank in, and the water clasped . . . his legs. As he stirred he could smell the cold, rotten clay that fouled up into the water. It was objectionable in his lungs. Still, repelled and yet not heeding, he moved deeper into the pond. The cold water rose over his thighs, over his loins, upon his abdomen. The lower part of his body was all sunk in the hideous cold element. And the bottom was so deeply soft and uncertain, he was afraid of pitching with his mouth underneath. He could not swim, and was afraid.