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Adjectives
Go to The Guide to Grammar and Writing section on Adjectives.
Adjectives
are one of the most useful parts of speech because they help the skilled writer
paint poignant pictures in the reader’s mind. (Can you identify the adjectives
I used in the preceding sentence?) Adjectives, like their cousin the adverb,
modify other words (nouns and pronouns), helping to describe things better for
the reader. Think of adjectives as writing tools that
help the reader see what you are writing in their mind. Take the following
sentence for example:
I drove the truck to
the store.
As it stands, this is a fine sentence. Grammatically it is flawless, but, just because it’s flawless doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s fulfilling its potential. Examine this same sentence after it has been altered:
I drove my older
brother’s loud, rusty 1972 Ford pick-up truck to K-Mart.
Although the foundation of the sentence remains the same (I drove a truck to a store), we have now given the reader details that help him/her paint a better picture in their mind. We now know the truck belongs to an older brother, it’s old and a bit dilapidated, and we know its destination. Just the addition of a few descriptive adjectives (older, loud, rusty, 1972, Ford, pick-up) really helps the reader see what you’re writing.
Remember that there are two types of adjectives: descriptive and limiting. A descriptive adjective, well, describes:
Dr. King was an excellent public speaker.
A limiting adjective
Okay, so have I sold you on the importance of adjectives? if so, please don't make the mistake so many of my students have done in the past by trying to fit big, what call hundred dollar words when a simple five dollar word will suffice. Don't change this sentence:
The boy helped the old lady across the street.
to
The vivacious boy helped the ancient lady across the tumultuous street.
Although vivacious, ancient, and tumultuous are all excellent adjectives, using them in this sentence makes the writing seem a bit overdone. Consider this revision:
The thoughtful boy helped the elderly lady across the busy street.
If you are unsure as to whether the word you are using is indeed an adjective, keep in mind that adjectives answer the question "What kind of?" about the words they modify:
The hungry bear exited her den once the snow melted. What kind of bear? Hungry.
Some adjectives answer the questions "How many?" and "Which one?":
There are 35 students in that class.
A sirocco is a hot Saharan wind.
Here are some rules that you may find helpful:
Understanding adjective patterns
The subject-linking
verb-adjective pattern
Using participles, nouns, phrases, and clauses as
adjectives
Using participles as adjectives
Using phrases and clauses as adjectives
Often you will be able to recognize adjectives by their positions immediately before nouns:
Willie’s cat has six toes.
Despite the cold weather, many students came to school were shorts.
Sally Ride was the first woman to travel into outer space.
Adjectives are also often found in predicates after linking verbs:
Rodney Dangerfield feels disrespected.
Digital pictures can be beautiful.
Teachers must be licensed.
Sometimes you can identify adjectives by their endings. Many (though not all) adjectives are formed from nouns and other parts of speech. The chart below illustrates endings that are commonly used to change nouns into adjectives:
Nouns Endings Adjectives
reason -able reasonable
person -al personal
wood -en wooden
hope -ful hopeful
magnet -ic magnetic
girl -ish girlish
excess -ive excessive
care -less careless
coward -ly cowardly
poison -ous poisonous
stone -y stony
Short adjectives change their endings to compare people, things, or ideas:
Clem’s older boy started school yesterday.
I own the oldest house on the block.
Longer adjectives add more and most:
My cat is more intelligent than Cindy’s dog.
My niece is the most interesting five-year-old child I’ve ever met.
Numbers are often used as adjectives:
There were 300 cars parked on the lawn in front of the church.
In this sentence, the number 300 answers the question “How many?” Numbers functioning as adjectives that answer the question “How many?” are called cardinal numbers.
A number such as first, on the other hand, answers the question “Which one?” in the following sentence:
The first one to arrive should turn on the lights.
Numbers functioning as adjectives that answer the question “Which one?” are called ordinal numbers.
Understanding adjective patterns
Adjectives can precede the words they describe, follow them or appear after linking verbs in predicates to describe the subjects of sentences.
Most adjectives appear in sentences immediately before the nouns they describe:
I like fireworks that end in a burst of red stars.
When a noun is preceded by an article (a, an, or the), the usual order is article-adjective-noun:
An immature sloth clings to its mother for the first year of its life.
Adjectives occasionally follow the nouns they describe:
At that moment a woman, tall and stately, entered the room.
Here the adjectives tall and stately describe the noun woman.
Adjectives used as object complements also follow the nouns they describe:
Billy called his brother stupid.
Here the adjective stupid completes the meaning of the noun brother.
The subject-linking
verb-adjective pattern
Adjectives often follow linking verbs. These adjectives describe the subjects of the linking verbs, so they are called subject complements. (Subject compliments follow linking verbs and rename or describe the subjects of the verbs. They can be either nouns or adjectives.) Another name for a subject complement that is an adjective is a predicate adjective:
That restaurant is expensive.
Here the adjective expensive describes the noun restaurant.
Present and past participles can function in sentences as adjectives, and even nouns are sometimes used to modify other nouns or pronouns. In addition, entire phrases and clauses can be used as adjectives.
Using participles as adjectives
Both present and past participles can function as adjectives:
The jumping horses were beautiful to watch.
In this sentence the present participle jumping functions as an adjective to modify horses.
When I was young, we taped up our broken baseball bats and used them for softball.
Here, the past participle broken functions as an adjective to modify bats.
Nouns can function as adjectives that describe other nouns or pronouns:
A copper pan is hard to clean.
Here copper, which is usually a noun, functions as an adjective, answering the question “What kind of?” about the noun pan.
Often the only way to tell whether a word is a noun or an adjective is to see how it functions in a sentence:
1. Justin took a matchbook from Sam’s Sourdough Restaurant even though he doesn’t smoke.
In the first sentence matchbook is a noun, the direct object of the verb took.
2. Justin collects matchbook covers that feature the advertisements of restaurants.
In the second sentence, however, matchbook is an adjective. It describes the noun covers.
Using phrases and clauses as adjectives
Sometimes phrases and clauses function as adjectives:
The glass in the sink cracked.
Here the prepositional phrase “in the sink” answers the question “Which one?” about the noun glass. It therefore functions as an adjective.
The house that my grandfather built has been sold.
In this sentence the relative clause “that my grandfather built” functions as an adjective. It answers the question “Which one?” about the noun house.
Most phrases and clauses used as adjectives follow the words they describe:
A room with such small windows should be painted white.
In this sentence the prepositional phrase “with such small windows” describes the noun room.
People who leave their shopping carts in supermarket parking spaces reserved for the handicapped ought to be ashamed of themselves.
In this sentence the relative clause “who leave their shopping carts in supermarket parking spaces reserved for the handicapped” modifies the noun people.
When two or more adjectives in a row describe the same word, and the adjectives can appear in whatever order the writer chooses, they are coordinate adjectives:
A competent, enthusiastic staff is the main thing parents should look for when choosing a daycare center.
In this sentence the adjectives competent and enthusiastic both describe the noun staff. If the adjectives were reversed, the sentence would still have the same meaning:
An enthusiastic, competent staff is the main thing parents should look for when choosing a daycare center.
However, some pairs of adjectives can appear in only one order:
Bob bought a suit and several silk ties before he started his new job.
Here the adjectives several and silk both describe ties. Notice that the adjective several must appear in the sentence before the adjective silk; “silk several ties” does not sound natural. Thus, several and silk are not coordinate adjectives.
Now look at the following sentence and decide whether the adjectives describing balloons are coordinate or not:
Edward bought bright, colorful balloons to celebrate the first day of summer.
Both bright and colorful describe balloons, but this time reversing them works smoothly: “colorful, bright balloons: sounds as natural as “bright, colorful balloons.” They are therefore coordinate.
Another test for coordinate adjectives is to put and between them. The words “bright and colorful balloons” sound natural, so bright and colorful are coordinate. “Several and silk ties” does not sound natural, so the adjectives several and silk are not coordinate.
Coordinate adjectives require a comma between them; adjectives that are not coordinate do not require commas.
Sometimes a group of two or more words forms a unit that describes one noun or pronoun. This kind of group is called a compound adjective. The individual words in the group may belong to any of the parts of speech.
When a compound adjective appears before the word it describes, hyphens are usually used between the words of the compound:
We now have a clear-cut objective: to sell as many raffle tickets as we can.
In this sentence, the compound adjective clear-cut describes objective, just as a one-word adjective would.
However, when a compound adjective follows the word it describes, no hyphens are used:
Our objective is clear cut: to sell as many raffle tickets as we can.
Sometimes adverbs appear in compound adjectives, as in “a well-conceived plan.” However, when adverbs that end in –ly, such as easily and suddenly, form part of a compound, no hyphen is used between them and other words in the group:
Busy people need a list of easily prepared meals to make when they don’t have time to cook.
The adverb very is not hyphenated when it is part of a compound adjective. Sometimes common compound adjectives are also not hyphenated.
Proper adjectives are adjectives formed from proper nouns:
The American dollar is accepted in many countries other than the United States.
The proper adjective American, which describes dollar, is formed from the proper noun America.
The town of Cape Coral contains many beautiful Victorian houses.
The proper adjective Victorian comes from Victoria, the queen of England from 1837 to 1901. Victorian is a style of architecture that became popular in her time and is named after her.
Like proper nouns, proper adjectives are capitalized. However, a few of them have become so familiar that they have become ordinary adjectives. In the following sentence the proper adjective French, formed from the proper noun France, is capitalized:
Linda bought her mother a bottle of French perfume for her birthday.
In this sentence, however, the adjective french is not capitalized:
Linda bought a hamburger and french fries for lunch.
People no longer associate this kind of fried potato with France. As a result, they treat french as an ordinary adjective rather than a proper adjective. However, writing French fries is not wrong.
Absolute adjectives are words that are already in their final form.
Absolute adjectives such as:
absolute
unique
dead
empty
final
spotless
unanimous
Are already in their final form. Nouns cannot be compared by adding –er or –est to these words. Use more nearly or most nearly to compare items using absolute adjectives.
The following sentence is incorrect:
Susan’s paper is
more correct than John’s.
If John’s paper is correct, how can Susan’s be more correct? If John’s isn’t correct, then there is no correctness which can be compared with Susan’s. An acceptable sentence would say:
Susan's paper is more nearly correct than John's.
Or
Susan’s paper
contains more correct answers than John’s.
Consider the incorrect sentence:
This hat is very
unique.
Unique means one of a kind. Adding very is useless and incorrect.
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns
Adjectives can precede the words they describe, follow them or appear after linking verbs.
Present participles and past participles can function as adjectives.
Nouns can be used as adjectives to modify other nouns or pronouns.
Phrases and clauses can function as adjectives.
Coordinate adjectives are pairs of adjectives that can be reversed and that are separated by commas.
Compound adjectives are usually hyphenated when they precede the words they modify.
Proper adjectives, which are formed from proper nouns, are capitalized.
The comparative form of most adjectives (and adverbs) is usually formed by adding –er or the word more.
The superlative form of most adjectives (and adverbs) is usually formed by adding –est or the word most.