Important concepts in Adjectives

📝 Important Concepts in English Adjectives

Adjectives are like colourful descriptors in English! 🌈 They add detail and make your sentences much more vivid. Think of them as giving extra “flavour” to nouns. 🍎✨

1. What are Adjectives and What Do They Do? 🤔

• An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun.
• They give us extra information about the noun.
• This information can be about many things, such as:
  • Shape (e.g., a round cup) 🟡
  • Size (e.g., a big man) 📏
  • Age (e.g., an old house) 👴
  • Colour (e.g., a red dress) 🔴
  • Origin (e.g., a Chinese saucer) 🌏
  • Material (e.g., an iron bridge) 🌉
  • Purpose/Utility (e.g., a reading hall) 📚

2. How to Spot an Adjective: Common Endings! 👀

While not exhaustive, many adjectives end with specific suffixes:

• -able / -eible: comfortable, invisible, responsible
• -al: viral, educational, gradual, critical
• -an: Indian, American, Mexican
• -ar: popular, spectacular
• -ent: competent, patient, intelligent, silent
• -ful: shameful, powerful, harmful, beautiful
• -ic / -ical: synthetic, problematic, magical, scientific
• -ine: feminine, masculine
• -ile: fragile, agile, docile
• -ive: selective, predictive, informative, native
• -less: harmless, careless, homeless
• -ous: precious, delicious, notorious, cautious, dangerous
• -some: tiresome, awesome, handsome

3. Nouns Acting as Adjectives (Compound Nouns) 🤯

Sometimes, a noun can act like an adjective when it’s placed before another noun to give more information about it. This forms what is often called a compound noun.

• Example 1: “dinner table” 🍽️
  • ‘Dinner’ and ’table’ are both nouns.
  • But here, ‘dinner’ modifies ’table’, telling us the purpose or type of table. So, ‘dinner’ acts as an adjective.
• Example 2: “music class” 🎶
  • ‘Music’ modifies ‘class’, indicating the type of class.

4. Positioning of Adjectives: Where Do They Go? 🗺️

The position of an adjective is very important, and it affects its function and sometimes even its meaning!

• Attributive Adjectives (Pre-Nouns) 👈

  • These adjectives come before the noun they modify.
  • They “attribute” a quality directly to the noun.
  • Examples:
    • “This is a wonderful proposal.” (Here, ‘wonderful’ describes ‘proposal’ directly before it).
    • “You are an honest person.”
    • “I have an old car.”
    • “This is a big book.”

• Predicative Adjectives (Post-Verb) 👉

  • These adjectives come after a verb (often a ‘be’ verb like is, are, was, were or verbs like seem, look, feel, smell, taste, sound) [692, 85C].
  • Even though they are after the verb, they still modify the subject noun of the sentence.
  • They are like complements because they “complete the sense” of the sentence.
  • Examples:
    • “This place seems unsafe.” (Unsafe modifies ‘place’, but comes after ‘seems’).
    • “She is beautiful.” (Beautiful modifies ‘She’, but comes after ‘is’).
    • “This book is big.”.

• The “Meaning Shift” Magic! ✨

  • Sometimes, the same adjective can have a different meaning depending on whether it’s used attributively or predicatively.
  • Example: The adjective “certain”
    • Attributive: “We need to do a certain work.” (Here, ‘certain’ means demanding or specific, but not clearly defined).
    • Predicative: “I was certain that you would succeed.” (Here, ‘certain’ means sure or definite).

5. Adjectives and Degree Adverbs: How Much? 📏

Degree adverbs are words that modify adjectives (or verbs or other adverbs) to give information about the extent or intensity of something.

• Gradable vs. Non-Gradable Adjectives:

  • Gradable Adjectives: These adjectives can have different levels of quality. You can be “a bit cold,” “very cold,” or “extremely cold”. Most adjectives are gradable.
    • We use adverbs like ‘very’ and ’extremely’ with gradable adjectives.
    • Examples: “extremely effective,” “very difficult”.
  • Non-Gradable Adjectives: These express an absolute quality and cannot be made weaker or stronger. If something is “finished,” it’s finished; you can’t say “a bit finished”.
    • We use adverbs like ‘absolutely’ and ‘completely’ with non-gradable adjectives. ‘Simply’ also goes with non-gradable adjectives.
    • Examples: “absolutely clear,” “simply awful”.

• Special Usage of ‘Very’ and ‘Very Much’:

  • We do not use ‘very’ directly before verbs.
  • However, we can use ‘very much’ before some verbs to emphasize feelings (e.g., ‘agree,’ ‘doubt,’ ‘fear,’ ‘hope,’ ’like,’ ‘want,’ ‘admire,’ ‘appreciate,’ ’enjoy,’ ‘regret’).
    • Correct: “I very much agree with your decision.”
    • Incorrect: “I very agree with your decision.”
  • When an adjective is a past participle (V3 form) and is part of a passive voice construction, we use ‘very much’ before it, not ‘very’.
    • Correct: “The new highway was very much needed.”
    • Incorrect: “The new highway was very needed.”
  • For participle adjectives ending in -ing or -ed (e.g., ‘disturbing,’ ‘disappointed’), we use ‘very’.
    • Correct: “I was very disturbed to hear the news.”
    • Incorrect: “I was very much disturbed to hear the news.”

• The Curious Case of ‘Quite’:

  • Meaning 1: “Fairly” or “A particular degree but not very”.
    • Example: “I was quite satisfied with the result.” (Meaning: fairly satisfied).
  • Meaning 2: “Completely” or “A large degree/A lot”.
    • This meaning is used when ‘quite’ modifies a non-gradable adjective.
    • Example: “You are quite wrong.” (Meaning: completely wrong).
    • Example: “Are you quite sure?” (Meaning: totally sure).

6. Ordering of Multiple Adjectives in a Noun Phrase 📋

When you have multiple words describing a noun, there’s a general order. Adjectives usually appear:

• Immediately before the noun (e.g., a red dress).
• Between an article and a noun (e.g., the dirty room).
• Between a possessive and a noun (e.g., his big office).
• Between a demonstrative (this, that, these, those) and a noun (e.g., that aggressive moment).
• Between an amount (some, most, a few) and a noun (e.g., a few ordinary things).
• When a degree adverb is present, the order is typically: Article + Degree Adverb + Adjective + Noun (e.g., “a very cold day,” “an extremely cold day”).
• Exceptions for ‘quite’ and ‘rather’: These can sometimes precede the article (e.g., “quite an expensive item,” “a rather painful decision”).

✍️ Practice Questions

1. Identify the adjectives in the following sentence and state what type of information they provide: “She lives in a small old red brick house.”
2. Explain the difference in meaning of ‘responsible’ in these two sentences, based on its position: a) “He’s a responsible employee.” b) “He is responsible for the project’s success.”
3. Fill in the blank with either ‘very’ or ‘very much’. Explain your choice: “The students were _______ surprised by the sudden announcement.”
4. Form a compound noun using the given words, where the first noun acts as an adjective: “garden” + “party”

✅ Answers

1. “She lives in a small old red brick house.”
   • small: provides information about size.
   • old: provides information about age.
   • red: provides information about colour.
   • brick: provides information about material (a noun acting as an adjective).
2. a) “He’s a responsible employee.”
   • Here, ‘responsible’ is an attributive adjective. It precedes the noun ’employee’ and describes an inherent quality of the employee – that they are reliable and dependable.
   • b) “He is responsible for the project’s success.”
   • Here, ‘responsible’ is a predicative adjective. It follows the verb ‘is’ and indicates his accountability or a duty connected to the project’s success, rather than just a general quality.
3. “The students were very surprised by the sudden announcement.”
   • Explanation: ‘Surprised’ is a participle adjective (ending in -ed). According to the sources, we use ‘very’ before participle adjectives and not ‘very much’. (Unless it’s a past participle in a passive construction like “was very much needed”, which is not the case here).
4. Compound Noun: “garden party” 🌳🥳
   • ‘Garden’ (a noun) acts as an adjective, modifying ‘party’ by specifying the type or location of the party.