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Grammar Adjectives and Adverbs

This document discusses adjectives and adverbs. It provides the following key points: 1. Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns by describing which one, what kind, and how many. They can appear before or after a linking verb. 2. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs by telling where, when, how, why, and to what degree. They often end in "-ly" but some words ending in "-ly" are adjectives. 3. There are different types of adjectives including articles, possessives, predicate adjectives, proper adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, and more. Interrogative

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47 views5 pages

Grammar Adjectives and Adverbs

This document discusses adjectives and adverbs. It provides the following key points: 1. Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns by describing which one, what kind, and how many. They can appear before or after a linking verb. 2. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs by telling where, when, how, why, and to what degree. They often end in "-ly" but some words ending in "-ly" are adjectives. 3. There are different types of adjectives including articles, possessives, predicate adjectives, proper adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, and more. Interrogative

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Esme Encallado
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Adjectives and Adverbs

ADJECTIVES
Although there are many kinds of adjectives, the following two rules apply to all of
them:
1. Adjectives modify (describe) nouns and pronouns.
2. adjectives tell which one, what kind, and how many.
An adjective usually appears before the noun it modifies.
I love my new car.
What word does new describe? It describes the noun car. Thus, you know that
new is an adjective because it describes a noun. It tells which car or what kind of car –
my new car.

Articles
English has two indefinite articles, a and an, and one definite article, the. Since articles
modify nouns and pronouns, they are adjectives. Articles are like signposts on a
highway. They show that a noun is coming, though it may not be the very next word.
They are noun indicators.
The rusty hinge broke.
This sentence contains a noun indicator, the article the; however, it does not
directly precede the noun it indicates.

Possessives
A possessive shows ownership. Possessive words are adjectives when they modify
nouns and pronouns.
I love Angie’s car.
What word does Angie’s describe? It describes car. Because car is a noun, the
word Angie’s must be an adjective. The adjective Angie’s tells which car. Possessives
also imply indirect ownership: today’s news, society’s values.
* Most authorities list all the possessives as personal pronouns. When analyzing
possessiveness in a sentence, however, you should distinguish between
possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives.
Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs) take the place of
nouns.
Pronoun: Yours is on the bottom.
Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, our, their) modify nouns.
Adjective: Your test is on the bottom.

Predicate Adjectives
Adjectives don’t always appear next to the word they modify.
My car was new.
New describes the noun car. It tells what kind of car – a new car. This sentence
follows the Subject/Verb/Subject Complement sentence pattern.
Car is the subject, and was is a linking verb. What is the function of the word
new? Since it follows a linking verb, it is a subject complement. Subject complements
can be only three parts of speech – nouns, pronouns, or adjectives. In this sentence,
new describes car, so it is an adjective. When adjectives serve as subject complements,
they always appear in the predicate of the sentence. For this reason, they are called
predicate adjectives. Predicate adjectives follow linking verbs and modify the subject;
thus, new is a predicate adjective.

Adjectives has many technical names.


Proper Adjectives
Proper adjectives refer to particular persons, places, or things and begin with a capital
letter.
This renaissance painting is very valuable.
Demonstrative adjectives
When this, that, these, those modify nouns, they are demonstrative adjectives.
This meat is raw.
Indefinite Adjectives
When each, every, either, neither, another, all, some, many, most, and both modify
nouns, they are indefinite adjectives.
Every child deserves a good home.
Interrogative Adjectives
When what, which, and whose modify nouns within a question, they interrogative
adjectives.
Which answer is correct?
Relative Adjectives
When what, whatever, which, whichever, and whose modify nouns, they are relative
adjectives.
Whatever answer I choose will be correct.
Numerical Adjectives
When cardinal numbers (the whole numbers, like one, two, three) or ordinal numbers
(the numbers that show position like first, second, third) modify nouns, they are
numerical adjectives.
Two people offered to help me.
My first reason is simple.
ADVERBS
Two rules apply to all adverbs:
1. adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
An adverb modifying a verb:
She sang beautifully. (describes how she sang)
An adverb modifying an adjective:
He is very sorry. (describes how sorry he is)
An adverb modifying another adverb:
He walked quite slowly. (describes how slowly he walked)
2. Adverbs tell where, when, how, why, and to what degree.
An adverb telling where:
She placed the paper there.
An adverb telling when:
He never lies to me.
An adverb telling how:
She spoke angrily.
An adverb telling to what degree:
He is not happy.

Adverbs Ending in -ly


Adverbs often end in -ly. When modifiers have two forms, one with the -ly
ending and one without, distinguishing the adverb from the adjective is easy. For
example, real is an adjective and really is an adverb. However, some words that
are not adverbs end in -ly.
She is a lovely girl.
Although lovely ends in -ly, it modifies a noun, girl. Thus, it is an adjective,
not an adverb. Rather than simply noting the -ly ending, ask yourself what the
word tells and what part of speech the word modifies.
Interrogative Adverbs
The interrogative words how, when, why, and where are adverbs. We use these
adverbs to ask questions.
Why did you do that?
Where is my hat?

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