Some People Think They Can Divide My Family We Solid as a Rock

Definition

Adjectives are words that depict or modify another person or affair in the judgement. The Manufactures — a, an, and the — are adjectives.

• the alpine professor
• the lugubrious lieutenant
• a solid commitment
• a month's pay
• a six-yr-sometime child
• the unhappiest, richest man

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

Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note well-nigh the use — or over-apply — of adjectives: Adjectives are fragile; don't ask them to do more piece of work than they should. Let your wide-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of clarification. Be specially cautious in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the beginning place: interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your chore equally a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest, and when y'all but insist on its presence without showing it to your reader — well, you lot're convincing no one.

Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas Wolfe'south Look Homeward, Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in this colour; participles, verb forms acting every bit adjectives, are highlighted in this blue. Some people would argue that words that are function of a name — like "East India Tea House — are not really adjectival and that possessive nouns — begetter'south, farmer'south — are not technically adjectives, but nosotros've included them in our analysis of Wolfe's text.

He remembered however the East Bharat Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the robes, the absurd interior and the smell of Bharat tea; and he had felt now the cornball thrill of dew-moisture mornings in Spring, the red odor, the cool clarion earth, the wet loaminess of the garden, the pungent breakfast smells and the floating snowfall of blossoms. He knew the inchoate sharp excitement of hot dandelions in young earth; in July, of watermelons bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe and crated peaches; and the odor of orange rind, bitter-sugariness, before a fire of coals. He knew the skilful male smell of his father's sitting-room; of the shine worn leather sofa, with the gaping horse-hair rent; of the blistered varnished woods upon the hearth; of the heated dogie-skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of apple tobacco, stuck with a red flag; of wood-smoke and burnt leaves in Oct; of the brownish tired autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; of warm nasturtiums, of a clean ruddy farmer who comes weekly with printed butter, eggs, and milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; of large deep-hued stringbeans smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room of sometime pino boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long airtight; of Concord grapes in their long white baskets.

An abundance of adjectives like this would exist uncommon in contemporary prose. Whether we take lost something or non is left up to yous.

Position of Adjectives

Dissimilar Adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a sentence, adjectives nearly always appear immediately earlier the substantive or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they exercise, they announced in a set lodge according to category. (See Below.) When indefinite pronouns — such equally something, someone, anybody — are modified by an adjective, the describing word comes subsequently the pronoun:

Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.
Something wicked this way comes.

And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with sure words, are ever "postpositive" (coming subsequently the thing they modify):

The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper.

See, besides, the note on a- adjectives, below, for the position of such words as "ablaze, aloof, aghast."

Degrees of Adjectives

Adjectives can express degrees of modification:

• Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie is the richest adult female in town.

The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the comparative, and the tiptop. (Actually, only the comparative and meridian show degrees.) Nosotros use the comparative for comparing 2 things and the summit for comparing 3 or more things. Notice that the word than frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although nosotros need -ier and -iest when a 2-syllable adjective ends in y (happier and happiest); otherwise we utilize more than and most when an adjective has more one syllable.

Click on the "scary behave" to read and hear George Newall's "Unpack Your Adjectives" (from Scholastic Rock, 1975). Schoolhouse Stone® and its characters and other elements are trademarks and service marks of American Dissemination Companies, Inc. Used with permission.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
rich	richer	richest
lovely	lovelier	loveliest
cute	more than beautiful	almost beautiful

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and pinnacle degrees:

Irregular Comparative and Top Forms
practiced	better	best
bad	worse	worst
little	less	least
much many some	more	most
far	farther	furthest

Be careful not to form comparatives or superlatives of adjectives which already express an farthermost of comparison — unique, for instance — although it probably is possible to form comparative forms of most adjectives: something can be more than perfect, and someone tin can take a fuller effigy. People who argue that 1 woman cannot be more pregnant than another have never been 9-months pregnant with twins.

Grammar's Response

According to Bryan Garner, "complete" is one of those adjectives that does not acknowledge of comparative degrees. We could say, however, "more nearly complete." I am sure that I have non been consistent in my application of this principle in the Guide (I can hear myself, now, saying something like "less adequate" or "more preferable" or "less fatal"). Other adjectives that Garner would include in this list are equally follows:

absolute	impossible	principal
adequate	inevitable	stationary
primary	irrevocable	sufficient
consummate	main	unanimous
devoid	manifest	unavoidable
entire	minor	unbroken
fatal	paramount	unique
final	perpetual	universal
platonic	preferable	whole

From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright 1995 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., world wide web.oup-usa.org, and used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Printing.

Be careful, also, not to utilise more than forth with a comparative adjective formed with -er nor to utilise most along with a superlative describing word formed with -est (e.grand., do not write that something is more heavier or most heaviest).

The as — equally construction is used to create a comparison expressing equality:

• He is as foolish as he is big.
• She is as bright as her mother.

Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives

Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and acme forms can be accompanied by premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.

• Nosotros were a lot more careful this fourth dimension.
• He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town.
• We like his work so much amend.
• You'll get your lookout man back all the faster.

The same process tin can be used to downplay the degree:

• The weather this week has been somewhat better.
• He approaches his schoolwork a footling less industriously than his blood brother does.

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an breezy noun phrase, is used for this purpose:

• He arrived a whole lot sooner than nosotros expected.
• That's a heck of a lot better.

If the intensifier very accompanies the elevation, a determiner is also required:

• She is wearing her very finest outfit for the interview.
• They're doing the very best they can.

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing being modified is understood:

• Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I similar this i the about.
• The quicker you stop this projection, the better.
• Of the two brothers, he is past far the faster.

Potency for this section: A University Grammar of English language by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.

Less versus Fewer

When making a comparison between quantities nosotros often accept to make a choice between the words fewer and less. Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we utilize the word fewer; when we're talking about measurable quantities that we cannot count, we use the word less. "She had fewer chores, but she too had less energy." The managers at our local Finish & Shop seem to have mastered this: they've changed the signs at the and so-called express lanes from "Twelve Items or Less" to "Twelve Items or Fewer." Whether that's an actual improvement, nosotros'll leave up to you. We practise, however, definitely utilize less when referring to statistical or numerical expressions: It's less than twenty miles to Dallas. He'southward less than six feet tall. Your essay should be a thousand words or less. We spent less than twoscore dollars on our trip. The town spent less than four percent of its budget on snow removal. In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.

Taller than I / me ??

When making a comparison with "than" exercise we finish with a bailiwick form or object form, "taller than I/she" or "taller than me/her." The correct response is "taller than I/she." We are looking for the field of study form: "He is taller than I am/she is tall." (Except we exit out the verb in the 2nd clause, "am" or "is.") Some practiced writers, however, will fence that the word "than" should be immune to function as a preposition. If we can say "He is tall like me/her," so (if "than" could be prepositional like like) we should be able to say, "He is taller than me/her." It's an interesting argument, just — for now, anyway — in formal, academic prose, use the bailiwick form in such comparisons. Nosotros besides want to exist careful in a sentence such every bit "I similar him amend than she/her." The "she" would mean that you similar this person better than she likes him; the "her" would mean that yous like this male person person better than you similar that female person person. (To avert ambiguity and the slippery use of than, we could write "I like him amend than she does" or "I similar him better than I like her.")

More than / over ??

In the The states, nosotros usually use "more than than" in countable numerical expressions meaning "in backlog of" or "over." In England, in that location is no such distinction. For instance, in the U.South., some editors would insist on "more than 40,000 traffic deaths in one twelvemonth," whereas in the U.k., "over 40,000 traffic deaths" would be acceptable. Even in the U.Southward., however, you volition commonly hear "over" in numerical expressions of age, time, or pinnacle: "His sister is over forty; she's over six feet alpine. We've been waiting well over two hours for her."

The Gild of Adjectives in a Serial

It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "piddling brownish house" and not "brownish little house" or why we say "ruddy Italian sports car" and non "Italian red sports car." The order in which adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English language equally a second language. About other languages dictate a like lodge, but not necessarily the same society. It takes a lot of do with a linguistic communication before this order becomes instinctive, because the society often seems quite arbitrary (if not downright capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find many exceptions to the pattern in the table below, but it is definitely important to learn the pattern of adjective order if it is not part of what you naturally bring to the linguistic communication.

The categories in the following table tin exist described equally follows:

1. Determiners — articles and other limiters. Run into Determiners
2. Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.k., a existent hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective mensurate (eastward.g., cute, interesting)
3. Size and Shape — adjectives discipline to objective measure out (e.g., wealthy, large, round)
4. Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)
5. Color — adjectives cogent color (east.g., red, black, stake)
6. Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of substantive (e.one thousand., French, American, Canadian)
7. Cloth — denominal adjectives denoting what something is fabricated of (e.m., woolen, metallic, wooden)
8. Qualifier — concluding limiter, frequently regarded as role of the noun (eastward.g., rocking chair, hunting motel, passenger car, book cover)

THE Majestic Club OF ADJECTIVES
Determiner	Observation	Physical Description				Origin	Material	Qualifier	Noun
		Size	Shape	Historic period	Color
a	beautiful			erstwhile		Italian		touring	car
an	expensive			antique			silvery		mirror
iv	gorgeous		long- stemmed		red		silk		roses
her			short		black				pilus
our		big		sometime		English			sheepdog
those			square				wooden	hat	boxes
that	battered	footling						hunting	cabin
several		enormous		immature		American		basketball	players
some	delicious					Thai			food

This chart is probably too wide to print on a standard slice of paper. If yous click HERE, you will get a one-page duplicate of this chart, which you can print out on a regular piece of newspaper.

It would exist folly, of course, to run more than two or 3 (at the most) adjectives together. Furthermore, when adjectives belong to the same class, they go what we telephone call coordinated adjectives, and yous will want to put a comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes. The rule for inserting the comma works this way: if you could have inserted a conjunction — and or but — between the 2 adjectives, use a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive but comfortable shoes," so we would use a comma between them (when the "but" isn't there). When you have three coordinated adjectives, split them all with commas, but don't insert a comma between the terminal adjective and the noun (in spite of the temptation to do so because yous oft intermission there):

a pop, respected, and expert looking student

Meet the section on Commas for additional assist in punctuating coordinated adjectives.

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives

When an adjective owes its origins to a proper substantive, it should probably be capitalized. Thus we write nearly Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian style, Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: the Nixon era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval writer). Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're role of a title:

Nosotros took the northwest road during the spring thaw. Nosotros stayed there until the town'southward annual Autumn Festival of Pocket-sized Appliances.

Run across the department on Capitalization for further aid on this matter.

Commonage Adjectives

When the definite commodity, the, is combined with an adjective describing a form or group of people, the resulting phrase tin can human action equally a noun: the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the alone, the unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dearest departed. The difference between a Collective Noun (which is usually regarded as singular but which tin be plural in certain contexts) and a collective adjective is that the latter is e'er plural and requires a plural verb:

• The rural poor have been ignored by the media.
• The rich of Connecticut are responsible.
• The elderly are beginning to demand their rights.
• The young at middle are always a joy to be around.

Adjectival Opposites

The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of means. Ane mode, of course, is to find an adjective to hateful the contrary — an antonym. The opposite of beautiful is ugly, the opposite of tall is curt. A thesaurus tin can assist yous find an appropriate opposite. Another manner to form the opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The opposite of fortunate is unfortunate, the opposite of prudent is imprudent, the opposite of considerate is inconsiderate, the reverse of honorable is dishonorable, the opposite of alcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of being properly filed is misfiled. If you lot are non certain of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way by prefixes (or which is the appropriate prefix), you volition take to consult a dictionary, as the rules for the option of a prefix are complex and too shifty to be trusted. The significant itself can be catchy; for case, combustible and inflammable mean the same affair.

A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less or least to create a comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and tone get available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the to the lowest degree beautiful city in the state." than information technology is to say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly different significant.) A candidate for a chore can still be worthy and notwithstanding exist "less worthy of consideration" than another candidate. It's probably non a good idea to use this structure with an adjective that is already a negative: "He is less unlucky than his brother," although that is not the same matter as maxim he is luckier than his blood brother. Apply the comparative less when the comparison is betwixt two things or people; use the superlative least when the comparison is amid many things or people.

• My mother is less patient than my male parent.
• Of all the new sitcoms, this is my least favorite show.

Some Adjectival Problem Children

Good versus Well

In both coincidental oral communication and formal writing, we often accept to choose between the adjective good and the adverb well. With almost verbs, there is no contest: when modifying a verb, use the adverb. He swims well. He knows just too well who the murderer is. However, when using a linking verb or a verb that has to do with the v human senses, yous want to use the adjective instead. How are yous? I'm feeling good, cheers. After a bath, the baby smells then skilful. Even after my careful paint job, this room doesn't wait skillful. Many careful writers, however, will use well subsequently linking verbs relating to wellness, and this is perfectly all correct. In fact, to say that you are skilful or that you feel good commonly implies not only that you lot're OK physically but likewise that your spirits are high. "How are you?" "I am well, thank yous."

Bad versus Desperately

When your cat died (assuming you loved your cat), did yous experience bad or badly? Applying the same rule that applies to good versus well, utilize the adjective form after verbs that have to practice with human feelings. You felt bad. If you said you felt badly, information technology would mean that something was wrong with your faculties for feeling.

Other Adjectival Considerations

Review the section on Compound Nouns and Modifiers for the formation of modifiers created when words are continued: a four-yr-erstwhile child, a nineteenth-century novel, an dizzy fool.

Review the department on Possessives for a stardom betwixt possessive forms and "adjectival labels." (Do you vest to a Writers Club or a Writers' Club?)

Adjectives that are really Participles, verb forms with -ing and -ed endings, tin be troublesome for some students. It is ane thing to be a frightened child; it is an altogether different matter to exist a frightening kid. Do you want to get upward to your professor after class and say that you are confused or that you are confusing? Mostly, the -ed ending means that the noun so described ("you") has a passive human relationship with something — something (the field of study affair, the presentation) has bewildered you lot and you are confused. The -ing ending means that the substantive described has a more active part — you are not making whatsoever sense then you are confusing (to others, including your professor).

The -ed ending modifiers are oftentimes accompanied by prepositions (these are not the merely choices):

• We were amazed at all the circus animals.
• Nosotros were amused by the clowns.
• We were annoyed by the elephants.
• We were bored by the ringmaster.
• We were confused by the dissonance.
• Nosotros were disappointed by the motorcycle daredevils.
• We were disappointed in their performance.
• We were embarrassed by my blood brother.
• We were exhausted from all the excitement.
• We were excited by the lion-tamer.
• We were excited about the high-wire deed, too.
• We were frightened by the lions.
• We were introduced to the ringmaster.
• We were interested in the tent.
• We were irritated past the oestrus.
• We were opposed to leaving early.
• We were satisfied with the circus.
• We were shocked at the level of racket nether the big tent.
• We were surprised by the fans' response.
• We were surprised at their indifference.
• Nosotros were tired of all the lights afterward a while.
• We were worried about the traffic leaving the parking lot.

A- Adjectives

The most common of the then-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, live, alone, aloof, ashamed, comatose, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily show upwards as predicate adjectives (i.due east., they come afterwards a linking verb).

• The children were ashamed.
• The professor remained aloof.
• The trees were afire.

Occasionally, nevertheless, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the warning patient, the aloof physician. Most of them, when constitute before the word they alter, 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.

minerstor1985.blogspot.com

Source: http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/adjectives.htm

Share this post