Adjectives and Adjective Phrases Flashcards
Adjective
Quality or state of noun (modifiers of nouns and denote its quality or quantity)
Open class, not change their form for number,gender,person and case
Describing words (attributive)
Qualify or modify a noun, noun phrase or a clause
Adjective can be used to describe
- feelings or qualities( I’m hungry)
- Nationalities or origins ( he is French)
- Characteristics ( this is a sad novel)
- Age (the young man is eating)
- Size and measurement ( this is a short film)
- Colours ( this blue heart)
- Shapes ( round ball)
- Judgment or Value ( tricky problem)
Adjective phrases
Consists of adjective together with elements which complement or modify them
Fairly simple structure
Head and a degree modifier [almost impossible]
Attributive function
Adj/adjP placed with noun, usually before the noun
AdjP serves as a modifier [The arrogant minister], (an [increasingly difficult] problem)
Predicative function
Predicatives (complements) in clause structure, following verbs like: be,seem,look,become usually after the verb (they look [tired].)
Descriptive adjective
Help us visualize, describe, define, explain information about people,places,things, situation or actions
Order:
1. Opinion
2. Size
3. Physical quality
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Origin
8. Material
Classification adjective/classifiers
Used when we want to classify something (the educational sector) -> a sector can be classified as educational, industrial, corporate
Opinion adjective
Used before a noun when we want to give an opinion or judgment about something (he is a caring person) -> the speaker’s opinion about the noun
Opinion, description and classification
Description before classification-> this is our newest institutional establishment
Opinion before description -> the lovely old lady waved at us
Adjectival suffixes
Able, ible (edible, comfortable)
Al (grammatical)
Ful (beautiful)
Ic, ical (musical)
Ious, ous (studious)
Ish (childish)
Ive (creative)
Less (endless)
Y (hasty)
Adjectives used as nouns
The + adjective-> group of people (the poor, the deaf), general or abstract notions (the unknown, the supernatural), some nationality adjectives ( the British, the French)
Nouns used as adjective
Names of materials, substance ( it’s a cotton dress, it’s a summer dress)
Nouns that classify/qualify another nouns (could you please close the car door, we found three pounds in her coat pocket
But note wooden and woollen ( it’s a wooden spoon -> made of wood, it’s a woollen dress -> made of wool
Gold,golden,lead,leaden,silk, silky
Gradable and non-gradable
Gradable-> can exist in different degrees ( more/less)
Non-gradable -> can have either or qualities ( impossible- either impossible or not )
Constructions with comparisons adj.
As…as -> two people/things are similar ( Jane is as tall as Peter)
Not as..as -> lower degree ( Susan is not as suitable for the job as I’m)
Not such a/an + adj + noun ( he’s not such a hard worker as his brother)
Comparative + than ( Jane is taller than Peter)
The+ Comparative -> compare two things of the same kind( the grey coat is the longer (of the two coats))
More than, less than, worse than ( it was more than pleased)
Comparative with er and er -> gradual increase or decrease is expressed by 2 Comparatives ( it’s getting colder and colder)
The+ Comparative…. the + Comparative-> parallel increase/ decrease, direct or indirect proportion ( the earlier, the better)
Superlative… in/of -> comparison of 3 or more people/things ( this is the oldest theatre in London)
