ADJECTIVES

Usage of Descriptive Adjectives

If you wish to use more than one descriptive adjective, you need to follow certain rules of usage. The descriptive adjective follows the opinion adjective. To understand this, consider the following example. e.g. A beautiful, green emerald. In the above example, both 'beautiful' and 'green' are descriptive adjectives. But the adjective 'beautiful' is an opinion or a general adjective that may differ from person to person. On the other hand, 'green' is a specific adjective that defines an emerald. Therefore, when more descriptive adjectives have to be used, they should follow the manner illustrated below. e.g. A black, wooden door. A nice, big bungalow.

Descriptive Adjectives
(1) Simple Adjectives Simple adjectives are single words that are commonly used to describe a noun. These are commonly used in verbal communication when describing a thing or a person. e.g. good, happy, bad, thin, lovely, picturesque (2) Compound Adjectives Two or more adjectives, used consecutively to describe the same noun, are known as compound adjectives. The most common compound adjectives are the ones formed when adjectives precede nouns like 'blue-sky', or when adjectives are preceded by verbs as in 'feel-good'. When two or more colors are used as adjectives, there is always a hyphen between them. e.g. middle-aged, short-sighted, bluish-green

Quantitative Adjective
A Quantitative Adjective is an adjective which indicates the quantity in general terms of an object. Quantitative adjectives are: all, some, any, little, much, enough, sufficient, no.

 Sample Usage
(i) The fruit vendor was happy as he sold all the grapes. (ii) Only some of the students managed to finish the test on time. (iii) The teacher realized that the chocolates were over and she did not have any to give Mihir. (iv) John got a little time to rehearse his lines before the auditions began. (v) Harini rushed to get a cab, as there was not much time left to reach the station to pick up her sister. (vi) The tour operator told Mrs. Kulkarni that the trip would be cancelled if there were not enough people in the group. (vii) Murali had sufficient time to reach the airport as he had left home very early.

(viii) Shridhar looked at the clock and quickly grabbed a fruit as there was no time to have a proper breakfast.

DEMONSTRATIVE
Definition: An adjective that points out which item, object, person or concept is being referred to. In English, the same words are used for demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives. Demonstrative adjectives always come before the nouns they refer to

EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATIVE
English has four demonstrative pronouns: "this," "that," "these" and "those. E.g: To indicate a specific sweater that I want you to look at, I will point to the sweater and ask "What do you think of this sweater." And you might reply, "I don't like that sweater".

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES AND DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

There are two type of demonstrative; adjective and pronouns.

adjective:
describes a noun

pronoun:
takes the place of a noun

Interrogative adjectives
Interrogative Adjective is used with nouns to ask questions. Whose, Where, Why, How and Which are Interrogative Adjectives.

Examples : Which is the shortest method? What is your plan?

Whose car is this?

What type of gun is it? Where are you going? What happened after I came out of the house is not known to me. Which team won the match is not our problem. Whose child is this is a mystery. How many boys are there in the class? What is your need?

Article and Determiner

The three articles a, an, the are a kind of adjective. The is called the definite article because it usually precedes a specific or previously mentioned noun. a and an are called indefinite articles because they are used to refer to something in a less specific manner (an unspecified count noun). These words are also listed among the noun markers or determiners.

 The is used with specific nouns. eg; The moon circles the earth. The is required when the noun it refers to represents something in the abstract: eg; The United States has encouraged the use of the private automobile as opposed to the use of public transit. The is required when the noun it refers to represents something named earlier in the text eg ; "I put the glass of juice on the counter already," Sheila replied

 We use a before singular countable nouns that begin with consonants. Eg; (a cow, a barn, a sheep) We use an before singular countable nouns that begin with vowels or vowel-like sounds. Eg ; (an apple, an urban blight, an open door). Words that begin with an h sound often require an a (as in a horse, a history book, a hotel). But if an h-word begins with an actual vowel sound, use an an (as in an hour, an honor).

 We would say a useful device and a union matter because the u of those words actually sounds like yoo (as opposed, say, to the u of an ugly incident). The same is true of a European and a Euro (because of that consonantal "Yoo" sound). We would say a once-in-a-lifetime experience or a one-time hero because the words once and one begin with a w sound.

VERB & ADJECTIVE

Verbs Can Become Adjectives Words that are normally verbs can often be used as adjectives. If a word modifies a noun or pronoun, it is an adjective, even if that word is usually associated with a different part of speech. Sometimes the present participle (verb plus ing) form of a verb becomes an adjective: (e.g. A rolling stone gathers no moss.) Sometimes the past participle form of a verb becomes an adjective: (e.g I will accept a written apology.) Such adjectives are sometimes called participle adjectives.

Examples for participle adjectives.

1. Many kind carpenters offered to repair the broken porch. Break 2. Never kiss a smiling crocodile. Smile 3. My father prefers to drink filtered spring water. filter

Noun as Adjective
As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun: Adjective clever small black noun teacher box horse

 Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" an adjective. Nouns as adjective Nouns History Teacher Ticket Office Race Horse

The "noun as adjective" always comes first

a race horse is a horse that runs in races a horse race is a race for horses a boat race is a race for boats a love story is a story about love a war story is a story about war a tennis ball is a ball for playing tennis tennis shoes are shoes for playing tennis a computer exhibition is an exhibition of computers a bicycle shop is a shop that sells bicycles

ADJECTIVE USED AFTER CERTAIN VERB

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always refers to and qualifies the subject of the sentence, not the verb. Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective Because she had to wait, she became impatient. Is it getting dark? The examination did not seem difficult. Your friend looks nice. This towel feels damp. That new film doesn't sound very interesting. Dinner smells good tonight. This milk tastes sour. It smells bad.

 These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not include all stative verbs. Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective), the adjective can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.

Comparison positive, comparative and superlative

The comparative forms of most adjectives, however, are formed by adding the suffixeser and -est, or by placing the words more and most in front of the positive form. Positive Comparative Superlative Red redder reddest Happy happier happiest Ingenious more ingeniousmost ingenious Good better best

RULES FOR FORMING COMPARATIVES

1. One syllable words form the comparative by adding -er and -est: brave, braver, bravest small, smaller, smallest dark, darker, darkest. 2. Two-syllable words that end in -y, -le, and -er form the comparative by adding er and -est: pretty, prettier, prettiest happy, happier, happiest noble, nobler, noblest clever, cleverer, cleverest 3. Words of more than two syllables form the comparative with more andmost: beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful. resonant, more resonant, most resonant 4. Past participles used as adjectives form the comparative with moreand most: crooked, broken, damaged, defeated, etc.

Adjectival phrases
Can consist of an adverb + adjective Eg; The operation was quite painless. Sue felt rather sad when she heard the news. Can also consist of an adverb + participle. Eg; He sent the manager a carefully worded letter. We were stuck in a queue of slow-moving traffic It may be a possessive expression. Eg; That is my fathers briefcase.

Adjectival phrases that follow the noun can begin with a preposition, adjective, participle or adverb. Eg; The man at the door would not let us in. People allergic to nuts have to be careful of what they eat. Jack was talking to a girl wearing a red dress. The weather down here is much better than it is at home

An adjectival phrase can be some other hyphenated set of words, such as number + noun, a noun +adjective, an adjective + participle, or a noun + participle Eg; Mum works in a ten-storey building. The water was crystal clear. He had baked us a delicious-looking cake. These leather-bound books are valuable.

ADJECTIVE CLAUSES
Adjectives modify (or describe) nouns and pronouns. Example: Intelligent students understand adjectives. (The word "intelligent" is an adjective because it describes the noun "students.") But adjectives are not always single words. Sometimes they are clauses: Example: Students who are intelligent understand adjectives. (The adjective clause is underlined. It is an "adjective" clause because it describes the noun "students.")

 Adjective clauses are always dependent clauses adjective clause is used to describe a noun: The car, which was red, belonged to Khairul. A relative pronoun is usually used to introduce an adjective clause: Khairul, who is a Korean student, lives in Victoria.

The main relative pronouns are:

Pronoun:Who used for humans in subject position E.g: Hans, who is an architect, lives in Berlin. Whom Used for humans in object position E.g: Marike, whom Hans knows well, is an interior decorator. Which used for things and animals in subject or object position E.g: Marike has a dog which follows her everywhere. That used for humans, animals and things, in subject or object position (but see below) E.g: Marike is decorating a house that Hans designed.

 1. Non-defining clauses Non-defining clauses give extra information about the noun, but they are not essential: The desk in the corner, which is covered in books, is mine. Explanation: We don't need this information in order to understand the sentence. The desk in the corner is mine is a good sentence on its own we still know which desk is referred to. Note that non-defining clauses are usually separated by commas, and that is not usually used in this kind of context.

2. Defining clauses. Defining clauses give essential information about the noun: The package that arrived this morning is on the desk. Explanation: We need this information in order to understand the sentence. Without the relative clause, we don't know which package is being referred to. Note that that is often used in defining relative clauses, and they are not separated by commas.

DISTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES
Distributive Adjectives point out that the objects named are to be taken separately. There are only four distributive adjectives. Examples : - I will give a book to each scholar in this class. Every person in the room was astonished. You may have either book. You may have neither book.