Adjectives
Adjectives are words or phrases that modify or describe nouns or pronouns.
A noun by itself does not offer much information. If a man wanted to buy a shirt in a shop, he would need to narrow down what he was looking for by using descriptive words like thin or silky. These words are known as adjectives.
If you are unsure whether a word is an adjective or something else, see if it answers questions such as: What kind? Which one? How much? How many?
Adjectives should be used sparingly, for effect. Too many adjectives can make a sentence difficult to follow.
For example:
The weary painter took off his blue, green, and white overalls and ate a day-old Chinese meal because he felt ravenous.
Describing words
Most adjectives attribute (characteristic) of nouns or pronouns and answer the question What is it like? They are used to compare one person or thing to other people or things, a position known as the attributive position.
weary: adjective in attributive position
painter: noun
Listing adjectives
If one word is not enough to describe something use several adjectives. Each adjective should be separated from the next by a comma. If there is a list of adjectives at the end of the clause, the last adjective must be preceded by and.
blue, green, and white overalls.
Place a comma between adjectives in a list. white is the last adjective that should follow the word and.
Compound adjectives
They are made up of more than one word. When two or more words are used together as an adjective in front of a noun they are usually hyphenated. This shows that the two words are acting together as a single adjective.
day-old
day-old meal ( this two-word adjective means not fresh today.)
Proper adjectives
Some nouns can be modified and used before other nouns as adjectives. These include proper nouns, such as the names of places. Adjectives formed from proper nouns should always start with a capital letter. They often end in-an, -ian and -sh.
e.g. Chinese, Australian, English, Roman
Predicate adjectives
Many adjectives can also be placed at the end of a sentence, following a verb. This is known as the predicate position. A verb used in this way is called a linking verb because it connects a subject with a descriptive word. Common linking verbs include seem, look, feel, become, stay and turn.
he felt ravenous
felt is linking verb
ravenous is an adjective in a predicate position.
Adjective endings
Many adjectives can be recognised by their endings. Knowing these endings can help to distinguish adjectives from adverbs and verbs.
Identifying adjectives
Adverbs such as very extremely can be used to exaggerate the state of a subject. These adverbs are sometimes confused with adjectives. A simple way of checking whether a word is an adjective or an adverb is to break down a sentence, pairing each descriptive word in turn with the noun to see if the resulting phrase makes sense.
Ending Example
-able/bile comfortable, remarkable, horrible, edible
-al fictional, educational, logical, national
-ful bashful, peaceful, helpful, beautiful
-ic energetic, manic, dramtic, fantastic
-ive attractive, sensitive, impulsive, persuasive
-less homeless, careless, endless, useless
-ous ravenous, mischievous, famous, nervous
GLOSSARY
Attributive position: When an adjective is placed directly in front of the noun or pronoun that it is modifying.
Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a verb.
Linking verb: A verb that joints the subjects of a sentence to a word or phrase - often an adjective - that describes the subject.
Predicate position: When an adjective follows a linking verb at the end of a sentence.
Proper noun: The name given to a particular person, place, or thing, which always starts with a capital letter.