Adjective Explained

in Details

This presentation is dedicated to dealing with adjectives in details. Here, you are going to know the conception of adjective and the way adjectives have been classified into many categories 

Adjective qualifies or modifies a noun or pronoun. While qualifying or modifying a noun or a pronoun, an adjective gives extra information about that noun or pronoun. So, if you want to add more information about a noun or a pronoun, you can insert an adjective. 

 For example: 

Now we know something about the boy. How is the boy? He is a good boy. The adjective ‘good’ has specified the noun ‘boy.’ Similarly, the adjectives ‘beautiful,’ ‘handsome’ and ‘pretty’ have specified ‘girl,’ ‘he,’ and ‘she’ respectively. So, an adjective can specify a noun or pronoun by giving extra information about the noun or the pronoun. Therefore, we use adjectives if we want to insert any information.  

An adjective can sit before and after a noun. However, an adjective cannot sit before a pronoun. So, an adjective can pre-modify and post-modify a noun, but an adjective cannot pre-modify a pronoun. For example, Karim is a boy. Here, ‘boy’ is a common noun. In the sentence--Karim is a good boy—the noun ‘boy’ has been preceded by an adjective. So, we can see how an adjective can be used before a noun. An adjective can also be used after a noun. For example, Karim is happy. Here, ‘happy’ has been preceded by the noun ‘Karim.’ So, we can understand that adjectives can be used before and after a noun. But adjective cannot be used before a pronoun. For example, we can say he is sad. But there is no way we can use any adjective before ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘they,’ ‘we,’ ‘I,’ or ‘you.’ So, as far as placement is concerned, we can say an adjective can modify a noun sitting before or after that noun. But an adjective modifies a pronoun sitting only after that pronoun. 

When we are done with the definition and placement of adjectives, we can talk about various types of adjectives. Here, we have proper adjectives, pronominal adjectives, qualitative adjectives, quantitative adjectives, and numerical adjectives. Look at the diagram below and see how adjective has been divided and sub-divided into many categories: 

Proper adjective 

The proper adjective refers to those adjectives which have come from proper noun. Can you remember what a proper noun is? I talked about it in the noun section. Proper noun indicates any definite name: Bangladesh, India, America, Dhaka, etc. These words refer to particular names. We can transform Bangladesh into Bangladeshi, India into Indian, America into American; Panjab in Panjabi. These transformed words are adjectives, and they are proper adjectives because they have come from proper nouns.  

Qualitative adjective 

A qualitative adjective is gradable. That means it has a degree of comparison. It has a higher degree; it has the highest degree. So, the qualitative adjective has three forms: positive, comparative, and superlative degree.  

We can understand a qualitative adjective when we understand that a qualitative adjective has a degree of comparison. 

Quantitative adjective: 

Quantitative adjectives talk about an amount but do not deal with any exact number. Many, some, few, and a few are some examples of quantitative adjectives.

Difference between Determiner and Adjective

Keep in mind that quantifiers are determiners. However, like an adjective, they modify nouns. But you should be aware of the fact that adjectives and determiners have different functions and placement. Determiners always sit before an adjective. Moreover, while a determiner gives quantifying and specifying information, an adjective gives qualitative information, and an adjective has a degree of comparison. While a determiner introduces a noun to the audience, an adjective gives further information.  

 Numerical Adjective 

Numerical adjectives deal with the exact number. It has many forms: cardinal, ordinal, multiplicative, and fraction.   

Pronominal Adjectives: 

Pronominal adjectives originate from pronouns: the pronominal adjective is of four types: demonstrative, distributive, interrogative, and possessive. They are called pronominal adjectives because they have come from pronouns. Look at the diagram below:  

The words in bold are modifying nouns, and so they are adjectives. On the other hand, these words in bold are called pronominal adjectives because they originate from different types of pronouns. So, when a pronoun sitting before a noun modifies that noun, it is an adjective. This adjective is technically called a pronominal adjective. 

Article Adjectives 

There are three articles: a, an, and the. ‘The’ is called definite article and ‘a and an’ are known as indefinite articles. ‘A’ and ‘an’ carry similar meanings. It means they are interchangeable. So, we have only two unique articles: ‘the’ and ‘a.’ They have unique usages. We use ‘a and ‘an’ when we do not specify any particular noun. 

Here, we are not mentioning any particular pen or cat. We are just mentioning any pen someone possesses and any apple that was eaten by someone. 

We use ‘the’ to refer to any specific noun.  Here, there are three occurrences of ‘the,’ pointing to one specific river, one specific dog, and one specific planet.    

Exercise  

Note: Linking verbs are always followed by adjectives, not adverbs. Linking verbs are be verbs (am, is, are, was, were), sense verbs (look, smell, taste, sound), feel, seem, become, appear, remain, etc. An adjective modifies nouns and pronouns. An adverb modifies all the parts of speech except noun, pronoun, and interjection. 

1.      Wrong: He looks smartly. 

Right: 

2.      Wrong: It sounds harshly. 

Right:.  

3.      Wrong: They seem happily. 

Right: 

4.      Wrong: He looked uncomfortably. 

Right: 

5.      Wrong: They were considerable more studious. 

Right: 

6.      Wrong: It was obvious important. 

Right: 

7.      Wrong: It seemed extreme complex. 

Right: 

Note: seldom, hardly, never, rarely are negative adverbs; so, you cannot use them with other negatives. 

8.      Wrong: I haven’t never done this. 

Right:  

9.      Wrong: He cannot hardly do this. 

Right: He can hardly do this. 

10. Wrong: He doesn’t seldom watch television. 

Right:  

Note: Some words such as late, fast, hard, straight, and right have both adjective and adverb form. 

11. Wrong: He runs fastly. 

Right: 

12. Wrong: They arrived lately. 

Right: 

13. Wrong: Work hardly if you want success 

Right: Work hard if you want success.  

​

 Right answers:  

He looks smart. 

• It sounds harsh. 
•  They seem happy. 
•   He looked uncomfortable. 

They were considerably more studious. 

• It was obviously important. 
•  It seemed extremely complex. 
•  I have never done this. 
• He can hardly do this. 

 He seldom does it. 

• He runs fast. 

They arrived late. 

• Work hard if you want success.  

Thank You