ADJECTIVES

TSL 1024
LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION
Learning Objectives :

By the end of the lesson, students are able to :

• identify and classify adjectives accurately

• demonstrate understanding of adjective types
• demonstrate ability to use adjectives in different contexts
• distinguish between adjectives and possessive determiners
• distinguish between adjectives and adverbs
 DEFINITION OF AN ADJECTIVE

An adjective refers to any word that describes or modifies nouns

(people, places, animals, things)

Therefore, adjectives are describing words.

Adjectives are used to describe / modify nouns and pronouns.

Adjectives come BEFORE the noun / pronoun that they modify in

a sentence.
Adjectives that modify nouns.

E.g. :

Car : red, new, expensive, stylish

Rabbit : wild, big, cute

Boy : tall, dark, handsome

Market : busy, dirty, crowded

Adjectives that modify pronouns.

My car is the red one.

>Adjective ‘red’ modifies the pronoun ‘one’.

>‘One’ is a pronoun because it replaces ‘car’.

The strong ones have received their rewards.

>Adjective ‘strong’ modifies the pronoun ‘ones’

>‘Ones’ is a pronoun because it replaces the noun which is not in the
sentence. The noun has been mentioned earlier.
 TYPES OF ADJECTIVES

There are 5 types of adjectives.

•Common adjectives (One-word Adjectives)

•Participial adjectives
•Demonstrative adjectives
•Nouns as adjectives (Compound Nouns)
•Possessive adjectives
 COMMON ADJECTIVES
Common adjectives are not derived from other words or word
classes.

E.g. :

arrogant cheeky enormous good long kind

ultimate nice painful worthy obsolete

sad vital remorse dull mischievous quick

 PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES
These adjectives are derived from non-finite verbs (in the participle
forms).

There are 2 types of participles – the present and the past.

Present Participle Adjectives Past Participle Adjectives

Verbs Adjectives Verbs Adjectives

excite exciting movie break broken hearted

burn burning house marry married man

run running machine abuse abused child

bark barking dogs isolate isolated island

 DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES
These adjectives are used to demonstrate or indicate specific
things.

Demonstrative adjectives are : this, these, that, those

They are used BEFORE a noun in a sentence.

E.g. :
This boy has gone to many schools.
That house is haunted.
These people are joining us for dinner.
Those flowers are for the wedding.
 NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES

Some nouns are used as adjectives when they describe another noun
as in these examples below.

Nouns Adjectives + Nouns

Gold gold ring
Black black box
Cotton cotton dress
Mexican Mexican dance
 POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES

Possessive Adjectives are used to show ownership or possession.

Possessive Adjectives are : my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Here are some examples how Possessive Adjectives are used in

sentences.
 Possessive Adjectives
• That boy is the manager here.
• He is my son. my
• You own this company.
• It is your company. your
• My husband manages the hotel.
• He likes his job very much. his
• My sister likes cats.
• This is one of her cats. her
• My dog sleeps in a kennel.
• This is its kennel. its
• We are going to buy this house.
• It is going to be our house. our
• Please don’t open these boxes.
• They are their boxes. their
An adjective can function either as a predicative or
attributive/descriptive.

A predicative adjective appears after the linking verb.

An attributive/descriptive adjective appears before the noun.

Linking verbs : These verbs do not show action but they

describe about someone or something. They link the subject
and another word in the sentence.
Linking verbs are also known as copulas.
 Examples of Predicative Adjectives.

• Children grow older everyday.

• The baby remains happy during her bath.
• Her lasagna smells scrumptious.
• His assignment proves difficult for him.
• The disease is wide-spread.

Linking verbs : grow, remains, smells, proves, is

 Examples of Attributive/Descriptive Adjectives

• Is that a wild rose I see in your garden?

• It was a captivating, enticing and peculiar novel.
• The rose-coloured petals waved softly to the floor.
• Come, sit with me by the crackling fire.
• The soft pillows lulled me straight into a deep sleep.
Many adjectives can be both predicative and attributive.

If the adjective appears after the linking verb, it is predicative.

If the adjective appears before the noun, it is attributive.

Here are some examples.
Attributive
• It is a black cat.
• What a gloomy future!
• It is a slow journey.
• He bought a large suitcase.
Predicative
• The cat is black.
• The future looks gloomy.
• The journey seemed slow.
• The suitcase is large.
Some adjectives can only occur in attributive position.

E.g. :

The words ‘focus’ and ‘previous’.

•That was my previous life. (Correct)

•That life was previous. (Ungrammatical)

•This is the focus point. (Correct)

•This point is focus. (Ungrammatical)
Some adjectives can only occur in predicative position.

E.g. :

The words ‘ill’ and ‘afraid’

•She is ill. (Correct)

•She is an ill child. (Ungrammatical)

•He is afraid. (Correct)

•He is an afraid man. (Ungrammatical)