Grammaire

Introduction

Pretend that you are going to the airport to meet a man you have never seen before. You are talking to him on the telephone. You are describing yourself to him so that he will recognize you in the crowd. In order to give him a clear mental picture of what you look like, you must use adjectives. Are you tall, short, or medium-sized? Are you thin, heavy-set, or average in build? Is your hair black, brown, red, blond, or gray? Here you add descriptions to yourself that give your recipient a full and clearer picture about you. So the “detail or descriptor” words you add in front of the noun like short, tall, thin, heavy, blacks are words called adjectives.

 

1. Definition of Adjective

§  Adjective = ads to noun or pronoun " they add to the meaning of a noun or pronoun §  Adjective = Advertises "advertises details about a noun or pronoun by telling what kind, which one, how many" So adjective says something more about a noun.

 

       Adjectives are words that are used to describe or "modify, qualify, identify, quantify; restrict, alters or limits the meaning of" nouns or pronouns or they restrict the application of the noun or noun equivalent and add descriptive detail. In other words, they fulfill this role by describing, identifying or quantifying noun and pronoun words. They present details about a noun or pronoun often by telling and answering the following questions: What kind? How many? How much? And which one? See the following examples and notice how adjectives answer questions about the nouns or pronouns they describe.

·        Colored birds flew by. (Colored is an adjective word describes and specifies birds from others?)

·        Boys are happy today. (Happy is an adjective words describes the state of children as happy from other states)

·        Small, independent companies are becoming more interesting. (What kind of companies?)

·        We have six boxes in four states. (How many boxes?) (How many states?)

·        That chain of health clubs started as a small operation. (Which chain?) (What kind of operation?)

·        He is energetic and forceful, while she is personal and deliberate.

Important Reminder: adjectives and Adverbs as Modifiers A modifier is a word that limits, changes, or alters the meaning of another word. Therefore, an adjective limits, changes, or alters the meaning of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives are usually placed before the noun. See the examples below: ·        The blue, puffy clouds are near our village. Here the words the, blue and puffy are all modifiers to the noun word clouds. ·        A sad, carefree child is my neighbor. ·        A poor dark chocolate layer cake is yours. There are two main classes of modifying words in English—adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify pretty much ev­erything else—verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and sentences. They modify these in much the same way as adjectives modify nouns—by adding criteria that must be met. For example, in ran quickly, quickly modifies ran and therefore requires that whoever ran didn’t run in any old way, but did it quickly. Other example includes expressions like take regularly, regularly modifies take and therefore requires that whoever take must do it frequently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. A Useful Way to Fix Adjectives

           Imagine that you are in a large meeting room full of people. Your director tells you this order “Give this piece of paper to the woman”. The only problem is that there are twenty-three women in the room. To which one should you give the paper? Here you could not decide about the woman unless your boss might have said “the tall woman”. The word tall is an adjective and somewhat helpful, as only six of the women are tall. To which tall women should you give the paper? Here you could not again decide unless your director perhaps said to you, “the tall, blond woman with the black dress”. The words tall and blond are adjectives that help you pick out a specific woman from a large group. Furthermore, the group of words “with the black dress” is also a form of adjective words that help limit the meaning to one particular woman among the twenty three women in the meeting. In other words, these adjectives limit the noun woman to one specific person. Examine the sample sentences below for a better understanding of adjectives.

·        I have a cup.

·        I have a red cup.

·        I have a big dark red cup.

The first sentence does not tell anything about my cup, only that I have one cup. The second adds the adjective red. This descriptive word makes the sentence more interesting and helping the reader to see your cup in his/her mind’s eye as red by excluding all other colors except red. The meaning of the word cup has been more limited from all the cups in the world to only those that are red. The third sentence adds even more details. Other adjectives like shiny, new, solid, beautiful, spacious ……………. could be added that would further limit the meaning of the word cup or tell what kind it is. It is worth to note here that the words (a) and (the) change the meaning of the word car. Although some grammar books call them indefinite (a, an) and definite articles (the), others called them adjectives. Either is correct.  In short, adjectives are sometimes hard to find. A good “trick” to remember is that adjectives are almost always placed next to the nouns that they modify. Consequently, one of the secrets of good writing is to include lots of details (adjectives), so the reader can accurately see the picture you are describing in his/her mind’s eye.

Important Reminder: Modification and Complementation
Complementation	Modification
When one element in an expression creates the grammatical expectation that another expression will also occur, the expected element complements the expecting element. For example, transitive verbs create the expectation of an object, as in: ·        Ann fractured [her ankle]. ·        John sends [me a letter]. ·        Sally gave [her] [a shot of morphine]	Modification occurs in a construction in which an expression is accom­panied by an element not grammatically required by it. For example, be­cause nouns do not typically require adjectives, beautiful modifies weather in beautiful weather. Verbs and adjectives do not typically require that they be accompanied by adverbials, so violently modifies swore in swore violently

 

2. Position of the Adjective

In English, the normal position of the adjective is before the noun or pronoun it modifies. In order to avoid confusion, try to place adjectives as close as possible to the nouns or pronouns they modify. Most one-word adjectives come right before the nouns they modify. See the examples below:

·        The broken window let in the cold air.

·        The cold war imposed plenty of danger on nations.

·        The main street is very active.

·        She prepared a delicious meal.

Occasionally, to draw attention and special effect to the adjective, it may be misplaced after the noun they describe, especially when used with linking verbs, since anything out of its ordinary place is noticed and stressed, as shown in the following examples:

·        A child, busy and dynamic, is the best thing in him.

·        He is energetic and forceful.

·        She is personal and deliberate.

·         The window, broken, let in the cold air.

3. Placement and Order of the Adjectives

A single noun can be described as a list of adjectives. When more than one adjective is used to modify a noun, it is important to consider the order in which the adjectives appear. Generally, the adjectives most important in completing the meaning of the noun are placed closest to the noun. Normally we don’t use more than three adjectives with the same noun. Notice that when we use adjectives from different categories we don’t use commas or “and”. Following is the usual order of adjectives in a series:

1.     Determiners: articles (a, the), demonstratives (this, those), and possessives (his, our, Mary’s, everybody’s), amounts (one, five, many, few), order (first, next last)

2.     Coordinate adjectives and opinions (subjective evaluations or personal opinions): nice, nasty, packed, pitiful

3.     Adjectives describing size and Dimension: big, huge, little, tiny

4.     Adjectives describing shape: long, short, round, square

5.     Adjectives describing age: young, old, modern, ancient

6.     Adjectives describing color: blue, green, red, white

7.     Adjectives describing nationality and origin: Italian, French, Japanese

8.     Adjectives describing architectural style or religion: Greek, Gothic, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim

9.     Adjectives describing material status: cardboard, plastic, silver, gold

10. Adjectives describing purpose:

11. Nouns functioning as adjectives: soccer ball, cardboard box, history class

Example:

·        I have a big brick house (article, size, and material)

·        Put your articles in these old brown cardboard boxes (demonstrative, age, color, material)

·        My friend is a beautiful young Italian woman (article, personal opinion, age, nationality)

1. 1. Kinds of Adjectives

1. 1. 1. Proper Adjectives

Proper adjectives are adjectives derived from proper nouns, particularly from names of geographical places (continents, countries, states). Adjectives like these describe origin or source. In English, proper adjectives must begin with a capital letter.

·        The French town has an interesting history.

·        Many of my friends are Americans.

·        This house is a fine example of Victorian architecture.

·        The Elizabethan era was very special to the nation.

·        The Roman Empire was the largest in the history.

1. 1. 2. Attributive Adjectives

Adjectives can be divided into two categories based on their position in a sentence. Adjectives can occur both before and after a noun. Adjectives which precede the noun they modify are usually referred to as attributive adjectives. Therefore, the main difference between attributive and predicative adjectives is that attributive adjectives occur before the noun whereas predicative adjectives occur after the noun. See the examples below:

·        Heavy rain is expected. (Heavy is and attributive adjective preceding the noun rain.)

·        We saw white swans in the river.

·        Two large red cardboard milk cartoons.

1. 1. 3. Predicate Adjectives

An adjective which is separated from the noun or pronoun it modifies by a verb is often referred to as a predicate adjective. The term predicative gives a description of the subject in the sentence. Students must pay special attention to adjectives that follow verbs. Sometimes, the adjective follows a verb, but it describes a noun or pronoun that comes before the verb. It is worth to mention that speakers prefer to place the adjectives after the noun to get a special effect and adjectives used in this way take a linking verb before. The words: “tall, green, black, long. Narrow, heavy, large and awkward” in these examples below are adjectives. They are placed after the linking verb and give more information about the person or thing which comes before the verb.

·        The trees were tall and green. (Tall and green is a predicative adjective following the noun horse.)

·        The horse is black.

·        The streets are long and narrow.

·        It is heavy, large and awkward.

1. 1. 4. Adjectival Phrases and Clauses

Nouns and adjectives can be modified not only by adjectives, but also by adjectival phrases and clauses. See the examples below for more details:

·        The table near the door is made of oak.

·        The chair, which was placed in front of the window, was an heirloom.

·        Those who decide to come will not be disappointed.

1. 1. 5. Participles used as Adjectives

As has already mentioned with the use of verbs, present and past participles of verbs can be used as adjectives. Participles as adjectives are used in following way:

1. 1. 5. 1. Present Participles

         Present participle is used as adjectives when they refer to actions being performed by the things being described. Generally speaking, a present participle when used as adjective usually donates the characteristics of the modified noun rather than its verbal action. It is to be noted that when the present participle is used to pre-modify a noun, it has the meaning of active voice while the past participle has the meaning of passive voice. Let us see the following examples:

·        The falling star

·        The barking dog

·        The exploiting class is rich. From this example, the exploiting class means the class exploits people.

·        Nigeria is a developing country.

1. 1. 5. 2. Past Participles

          Past participle used as adjectives when they refer to actions which have been performed on "over" the things being described. A past participle when used as adjective indicates the state of the modified noun with passive meaning. From the examples above, we can see that a present participle or a past participle is used as an adjective to pre-modify a noun or a noun phrase. It is to be noted that when the present participle is used to pre-modify a noun, it has the meaning of active voice while the past participle has the meaning of passive voice. Let us see the following examples:

·        The scattered leaves

·        The broken heart

·        An abandoned city

·        Changed conditions

·        A chained slave

·        The exploited class is poor. From this example, the exploited class means the class is exploited.

·        UK is a developed country.

Notes on the Types of Adjectives Adjectives may be divided into two main classes: (1) descriptive adjectives, and (2) limiting adjectives.

A descriptive adjective tells about a noun by describing some quality that belongs to it. Examples: a tall tree; a red car; a long rope; the wet pavement; a round table; a little girl. A descriptive adjective describes a person, place, or thing.         Some descriptive adjectives are formed from common nouns. Examples: "a brick house," "an iron skillet, "a bronze statue." Sentence: "Abraham Lincoln lived in a log cabin."         Some descriptive adjectives are formed from proper nouns and are capitalized. Examples: "Greek mythology," "Roman numerals," "Chinese lanterns," "Spanish guitar," "Japanese cars," "Italian cooks," "English gentleman." Sentence: "He wore an African headdress to the party." In English, a descriptive adjective usually comes before the noun it describes. Examples: "the bright light," "the gray file cabinet,"

A limiting adjective tells something about a noun by limiting it rather than describing its qualities. There are three major classes of limiting adjectives: (a) articles, (b) numerals, and (c) pronominal adjectives. a.     Articles. Limiting adjectives "a," "an," and "the" are known as "articles." "A" and "an" are called the "indefinite articles" while "the" is called definite article. An article must come before the noun it modifies. b.     Numerals. Numerals are limiting adjectives that express number and order. Numerals that express a number without reference to order are called "cardinals." Examples of cardinals are as follows: "one," "five," "twenty-five," "one hundred." Numerals that indicate position in a numbered series are called "ordinals." Examples of ordinals are as follows: "first," "second," "fifth," "twenty-fifth," "one hundredth." c.      Pronominal adjectives. Some pronouns can function as adjectives to explain nouns or other pronouns. These are called "pronominal adjectives." This type includes Demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, possessive pronouns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolute Adjectives Still other words cannot be used in comparisons, because of their meaning. These words are called absolute adjectives - words such as, correct and dead. An answer on a test is either correct, or not correct. It cannot be more correct, or correcter. If something is dead, it is dead. It cannot be less dead or more dead. Example of absolute adjectives are “complete, conclusive, eternal, final, immaculate, level, perfect, perpendicular, perpetual, right, round, spotless, square, supreme, unanimous, unique ……………………………….”

 

 

3. Comparison of Adjectives

         A significant formal feature of attributive adjectives is that they can be graded. This is known as degrees of comparison. This is a property adjectives share with adverbs. There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative.

3. 1. Positive adjective

Positive adjective is an adjective which describes one thing and offers no comparison. The case of positive degree comparison as + adjective + as is used in the affirmative to indicate equality between two people or things. See the following examples:

·        sweet, fine,

·        intelligent, beautiful,

·        Long, and Bold

·        He is as gentle as a lamb.

·        Virtue is as important as money.

·        She is as tall as him.

3. 2. Comparative adjective

An adjective in comparative degree is an adjective compares two things only. In this case we use “more” or “less” in the comparative degree if the adjective has more than two syllables; sometimes, either form is acceptable: costlier, more costly.) It is worth to be noted that this kind of degree the adjective is normally followed by the word "than". See the examples below:

·        sweeter,

·        finer,

·        more intelligent,

·        less beautiful,

·        John is smaller than John.

·        He is older than me.

·        This bag is more beautiful than that of mine.

3. 3. Superlative Adjective

Superlative adjective is an adjective which compares more than two things. In this case we use “most” or “least” in the superlative degree if the adjective has more than two syllables. Superlative degree is used in the structure the + superlative + of/in/on. See the examples below:

·        sweetest,

·        finest,

·        most intelligent,

·        least beautiful,

·         This is the best offer of all.

·        This is the oldest mosque in India.

·        Everest is the highest peak mountain on earth planet.

Note: this table summarizes the three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative.
Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Long Sweet Bold Good Old High Beautiful Intelligent	Longer Sweeter Bolder Better Older Higher More beautiful More intelligent	Longest Sweetest Boldest Best Oldest Highest Most beautiful Most intelligent

 

 

 

1.     Formation of Comparatives and Superlatives

1.      The construction “adjective + er / est” is applied with adjective of one syllable added in the comparative form and “est” in superlative form:

·        Tall, taller, tallest

·        Long, longer, longest

·        Short, shorter, shortest

·        Sweet, sweeter, sweetest

2.      The construction “adjective+r/st” is applied with one syllable adjectives ending in e add r in the comparative form and st in the superlative form:

·        Fine, finer, finest

·        Brave, braver, bravest

·        Wise, wiser, wisest

3.      The construction “Double Consonant +er\est” is applied with the following adjectives.

·        Big, bigger, biggest

·        Hot, hotter, hottest

·        Slim, slimmer, slimmest

·        Thin, thinner, thinnest

4.      The construction “i + er/est” is applied with the following adjectives when a one syllable adjective ends in consonant + y, y is changed into i when er/ est is added. But vowel + y is not changed into i:

·        Easy, easier

·        Dry, drier

·        Funny, funnier

·        Happy, happier

·        Gay, gayer, gayest = the case of vowel

5.      Irregular Comparatives

·        good, better, best

·        well, better, best

·        nigh, near, next

·        bad, worse, worst

·        little, less, least

·        much, more, most

·        many, many, most

·        far, more, farthest

·        far, farther, furthest

·        old, elder, eldest “of people only”

·        old, older, oldest “of people and things”

6.      Adjectives of more than two syllables form their comparative/superlative by adding more to the comparative form and most in the superlative:

·        Beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful

·        Intelligent, more intelligent, most intelligent

·        Important, more important, most important

 

5. Absolute Adjectives: These adjectives never compare because they identify characteristics of a person or thing either has or does not have; there are no degrees. See the examples below:

·        dead, alive

·        pregnant, full

·        Empty, unique, complete, perfect, fatal

 

 

Notes 2: Ø Adjectives in English are invariable; they have the same form for singular and plural, feminine and masculine nouns. Adjectives in English are not affected by number or gender or case because they do not have to agree with the noun they modify. See the examples below: ·        A good boy = good boys ·        A good girl = good girls Ø The only exceptions are the demonstrative adjectives this and that, which change to these and those before plural nouns. ·        This cat = these cats ·        That man = those men Ø Adjectives are normally placed in front of the noun word they describe. ·        It is an interesting job. ·        Constantine is a big town. ·        She does not speak any foreign languages. ·        There are some beautiful yellow flowers in my garden. Ø However, adjectives of quality can be placed after the verbs as. "Be, look, seem, appear, smell, taste, sound," ·        I am hungry. Can I have something to eat? It smells good. Ø Many adjectives and participles can be followed by propositions, ·        Good at, ·         tired of, Ø Adjectives can have both attributive and predicative use. ·        This book, which boy, my dog = attributive use ·        He made her happy, tom felt cold = predicative use Ø Within the predicative use of adjectives, verbs used in this way are called link verbs or copulas ·        This idea sounds interesting. ·        He made her happy.

 

7. Determiners

A determiner signals the coming of a noun in a sentence. Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically similar. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually you cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase. (Dra, 2009: 18) Determiners fall into the following categories:

a.     Articles “a, an, the" (See the chapters of articles)

b.     Possessives Adjectives are used to show who owns or possesses something. The possessive adjectives are: my, our, your, his, her, their, its, whose"

c.      Each, every, some and any “Each and every" have similar but not always identical meanings. Each = every one separately while every = each, all Each expresses the idea of 'one by one'. It emphasizes individuality. Every means half-way between each and all. It sees things or people as singular, but in a group or in general. Furthermore, some = a little, a few or a small number or Amount while any = one, some or all. Usually, some is used in positive (+) sentences and any in negative (-) and question (?) sentences. In general, something/anything and somebody/anybody are used in the same way as some/any.

d.     Possessive's When you want to show that something belongs to somebody or something, you usually add “s" to a singular noun and an apostrophe ' to a plural noun. See the unit of nouns for more details about possessives. For examples:

·        the girl's clothes (one girl)

·        the girls' clothes (two or more girls)

e.      Demonstratives winch are used to point out people or things “this, that, these, those"

·        This car is red.

·        This girl is tall.

f.       Distributives which refer to each member of a class separately: “each, every, either, neither"

g.     Number expressions such as “another, many, several, some, any, no, few, enough, a number of, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, some of, many of, one, two, three ... (cardinal numbers) "

h.     Quantifiers such as  “much, some, no, any, little, enough, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, much of, some of"

i.       Interrogatives They combine with nouns to form interrogative expressions used in questions: such as “what, which"

·        What color is the sky?

·        Which girl is the tallest?

8. Adjectives versus Determiners

Adjectives versus Determiners

1.     The form of adjectives can change, Determiners, on the other hand, have an invariant form. See the examples below: ·        Adjectives can change such as tall, taller, tallest…………………………… ·        But determiners do not change such as a boy, the girl …………………….….

2.     An adjective can be used before a noun, or as a complement to 'to be' verb, but determiners must come only before a noun. See the examples below: ·        Adjectives before nouns such as A good book. ·        Adjectives as complement such as This book is good. ·        Determiners must come before nouns such as  every book

3.     More than one adjective can be used to modify a noun, but more than one determiner is not allowed in a noun phrase. See the examples below: ·        More adjecti8ves before a noun like she is a tall, beautiful girl. ·        Only one determiner before a noun but not, an every book. Say instead a book or every book

4.     A determiner always comes before an adjective, not after it. See the examples below: ·        a red pen ·        her new house

 

 

 

Summary

A review of what students have learned so far about adjectives:

§  An adjective is a describing word. It tells you more about a noun or pronoun. An adjective usually appears before the noun it describes. Sometimes, though, the adjective appears after the noun, later in the sentence.

§  An adjective tells what kind, as in old man, new clothes, bad taste, and cold day;

§  An adjective tells how many, as in many days, few hours, couple of dollars, and two cities;

§  An adjective tells which one or ones, as in those books, this restaurant, these computers, that building;

§  Articles are also adjectives - a, the, and an.

§  Some adjectives cannot be predicted from their forms.

§   Others have derivational suffixes, such as disaster → disastrous.

§   Many common adjectives have no identifying shapes, such as good, hot, little, young, fat, etc.

§  Many adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative degrees, such as great → greater → greatest, but others do not allow inflected forms, such as disastrous, one cannot say *disasterouser or *disasterousest.

§  Some adjectives can be changed into adverbs by adding the derivational suffix (-ly), such as happy → happily, others do not allow this suffix to be added to them. For example, one cannot say old → *oldly.

§  Syntactically, most adjectives can be pre-modified by the intensifier 'very' and 'so', such as "The boys are very happy".

§  Adjectives are characterized as expressions “that alter, clarify, or adjust the meaning contributions of nouns”, in order to allow for the expression of “finer gradations of meaning” than are possible through the use of nouns alone. At a general level, adjectives gain this capability in virtue of two main characteristics, one of which is semantic and one of which is syntactic.

§  One of the secrets of good writing is to include lots of details (adjectives), so the reader can accurately see the whole picture you are describing in his/her mind’s eye.