Jj is for Jottings 129.  Adjectives Add Interest.

In previous posts we have discussed nouns  and articles.  The next part of speech we will cover is adjectives. Adjectives add interest to language because they describe nouns and pronouns, making our speech or writing more colourful and informative.  They are the difference between “The man walked down the road” and “The bent old man walked down the long, winding road”.  You get a much clearer and more interesting mental picture with the second sentence, I bet.

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?

Adjectives give information about nouns and pronouns, and are therefore said to qualify nouns and pronouns.  A simple way to see what function adjectives perform is to ask the questions: how many, which, whose, how much, what sort?

TYPES OF ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives add interest by telling us more about nouns.  They can describe, tell how many, distinguish one from another, demonstrate, show possession and question.

Descriptive Adjectives.

Descriptive adjectives describe the nouns physically.  Examples are blue, cold, English, red-headed, pretty, broken.

Numerical Adjectives.

These tell us about the numbers involved.  Examples are sixth, several, five, enough, many, several, few.  Numerical adjectives go with countable nouns.

Adjectives of Quantity.

These tell us how much or how many of the noun or nouns are involved.  Examples are whole, half, some, little, no, all, quarter.  “He ate the whole orange.”  “There was no room at the inn.”  “We have no time to finish this.” Adjectives of quantity go with uncountable nouns.  See also the note on “few” and “less”.

Adjectives Which Distinguish and Demonstrate.

These adjectives point out a person, place or thing: this, that, these, those.  They are used for pointing out or demonstrating the nouns which they modify.  “This chair is the most comfortable.”  “Those children are in Year 2.”

Interrogative Adjectives.

These adjectives ask questions (i.e. interrogate): what, which.  “What size is it?”  “Which dog attacked you?”

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES.

These forms of adjective compare one person, thing or group with another, but there are also degrees of comparison.  So we have the ordinary form of the adjective, then the comparative, then the superlative.  For example: long, longer, longest.

Comparative.

We use this to compare two items, people or groups.  It makes a judgement on the quality of those two things.  Usually we add er to form the comparative.  But in words of more than two syllables, and many of two syllables, adding er sounds clumsy, so we put the word more in front of the adjective.  For example: “Your fish is bigger than mine.”  “That girl is more attractive than her sister.”  Note that the first example is not a judgement, but a statement of fact.  The second is most certainly a judgement!

Superlative.

We use this when we compare three or more items.  “Superlative” means “of the highest order”.  It is formed by adding est to the adjective, or by putting most in front.  “Jack’s fish is the biggest.”  “Their cousin is the most attractive in the family.”

Make sure you don’t double up on comparatives and superlatives.  If something is the longest, it can’t be more longest or the most longest.  If someone is better, they can’t be more better.

And think about the meaning of what you are saying.  If something is perfect, it can’t be more perfect or most perfect.  The word “perfect” is already a superlative in meaning.

Exceptions.

This is English, so there are bound to be exceptions.  These groups of comparisons don’t follow the normal guidelines and people just have to learn them:

good, better, best

many, more, most

little, less, least

much, more, most

bad, worse, worst

ADJECTIVES OR NOUNS?

Sometimes adjectives can be used as nouns.

For example: We are building social housing for the homeless. (N)

Homeless people need social housing. (A)

And sometimes nouns can be used as adjectives.

For example: The town clock has a colourful face.  (A)

We have a colourful clock in our town.  (N)

 

SEQUENCING ADJECTIVES.

When we use two or more adjectives in a row, there are actually rules as to what order we should sequence them.  I had no idea these rules existed until researching this article (not the definite/indefinite sort of article!), and I don’t think that I’ve ever heard anyone producing an odd sequence.  That is either because we all seem to intuitively know how to sequence adjectives, or people don’t often put more than adjective into a sentence.  Probably a bit of both.  Anyway, it is not worth going into, other than to note that there are rules which you can look up if you really want to know more.

ADJECTIVES ADD INTEREST – BUT YOU CAN OVERDO IT.

Once again, we need to think about the meanings of the words we use.  There are times we just don’t need an adjective, because the meaning we wish to convey is already the meaning of the noun.

Some examples: a dreadful disaster (disasters are dreadful by definition)

A serious crisis (crises are serious)

Precise point in time (a point in time is already precise)

Under active consideration (consideration is an active process)

No cause for undue alarm (but you should be just a little bit alarmed!)

Such unnecessary adjectives are like weeds in a flower bed – they interfere with the view of the flowers and simply don’t belong there.

ADJECTIVES ADD INTEREST – AND CAN GET COMPLICATED

…so I’m not going into any of the twiddly bits, such as adjectives with prepositions; whether a word is an adjective, an adverb or a participle; or adjectival phrases.  The aim of the article is to provide basic information on adjectives and perhaps stimulate a little thought on their overuse and about the meanings of words in general. Remember that two important ways to help your child learn new words and their meanings is to keep reading to your children and encourage them to read widely.

 

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