ENGLISH LANGUAGE

GRAMMAR
Lesson Four

ADJECTIVES
 OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
 identify the different types of adjectives
use the various forms of the adjective correctly.
 ADJECTIVES
An adjective is a word that describes, identifies or further defines a noun
or a pronoun. Adjectives presents learners with more specific
information about a noun or pronoun. For example, if I mention the word
lady, you might have a different mental image about the word lady.
That’s because the word lady by itself is too general. But if the words
beautiful and plump were added, the visual images would be more
similar because the lady has been described more specifically. An
adjective is what we call a modifier; it answers any of three specific
questions about the noun(s) or pronoun(s) it is modifying: what kind?
(friendly, robust, spiky), which one(s)? (this, that, these, those), or how
many? (nine, few, many, some).
Adjectives are usually placed BEFORE the nouns or pronouns they
modify. However, adjectives can occasionally be found AFTER nouns
and pronouns.
The trees, tall and leafy, lined the driveway.
The man with the umbrella stood in the rain.
 ADJECTIVES
Writers choose to place the adjectives after the noun to get a special
effect.
Adjectives which follow a noun are always surrounded by commas.
The clouds, puffy and white, sailed across the autumn sky.
A child, busy and happy, is the best thing a mother can think of.
The survivors, pale and fearful, huddled in the ambulance.
A sentence with a linking verb uses adjectives like this:
The trees were tall and stately.
The clouds were white and puffy.
I am happy about winning the lottery.
The counsellors were very angry.
The words tall, stately, white, puffy, happy, angry are all adjectives.
They are placed after the linking verb and give more information about
the person or thing which comes before the verb. These are a special
kind of adjective called a predicate adjective.
 ADJECTIVES
We use adjectives to say what a person, etc is like or seems like
For example, adjectives can give us information about
Quality a beautiful dress, a nice day…
Size a big car, a small coin, a tall man…
Age a new handbag, a young man…
Temperature a cool evening, a hot day…
Shape a round table, a square box…
Colour blue eyes, grey hair, a white horse…
Origin a Japanese camera, a Swiss watch…
 ADJECTIVES

An adjective can also describe the idea(s) contained in a whole group

of words, as in
 Professor Robert’s lecture on magnetism was fascinating.
 To maintain that we can survive a nuclear war is absurd.
Many adjectives can answer the question What like and, depending
on context, can give general or precise information
What's Tom like (to look at)? - He's dark/short/tall
What's Pam like (as a person)? - She's clever/kind/witty
What's the car like? - It's new/old/red/rusty
What's the car like to drive? - It’s difficult/fast /slow
 ADJECTIVES
The suffixes and prefixes of one-word adjectives
Some words function only as adjectives e.g. tall.
E.g. The tall lady is my sister. (adjective)
Others function as adjectives or nouns e.g. cold.
E.g.
 She received rather a cold respond (adjective)
 I must have caught a cold on my camping holiday.(noun)
Many adjectives which are related to verbs or nouns have a characteristic
ending (or suffix). E.g., -able added to a verb like enjoy gives us the
adjective enjoyable, -ful added to a noun like truth gives us the adjective
truthful
Present participle -ing forms often function as adjectives (running water)
Many of these -ing forms have -ed adjectival past participle equivalents
(interesting interested)
Some irregular past participles function as adjectives (broken)
 ADJECTIVES
Prefixes added to adjectives generally have a negative effect, For
example, dis- added to agreeable gives us disagreeable, un- added
to interesting gives us uninteresting.
The suffixes and prefixes of one-word adjectives
Not every 'positive' adjective can be turned into a negative one by the
addition of a prefix. Sometimes we have to use not (not taxable)
Similarly, not every 'negative' adjective (especially those formed with
past participles) has a positive equivalent (discontinued)

ARTICLES
Three words we use in our everyday language— a, an, and the — are
special adjectives called articles. There are two types of articles: the
definite article (the), which implies something specific (not just any
roadmap but this particular roadmap) and the indefinite article (a or an),
which is nonspecific (pick a roadmap; any one will do).
 ADJECTIVES
Proper Adjectives
Proper adjectives are modifiers formed from proper nouns and are
capitalized just like proper nouns. The phrases English grammar, and
Ghanaian food begin with a proper adjective, each answering the
question what kind? Or which one? about the noun it is modifying:
What kind of grammar? English
What kind of food? Ghanaian
Pronouns as Adjectives
Possessive Adjectives - These are possessive forms of personal
pronouns that are often used with nouns in the same way that
adjectives are used to modify nouns.
Example: Herbert forgot his coat.
Explanation: The possessive form of the pronoun he, which is his, is
used as an adjective modifying the noun coat. It also shows the coat
belongs to Herbert. Therefore, it is called a possessive adjective.
Examples: These are her gloves. (modifies gloves)
Did you bring your violin? (modifies violin) I bought their home. (modifies
home
 ADJECTIVES
Indefinite Adjectives - These are indefinite pronouns used as adjectives.
Examples: Each girl carried a flag. (modifies girl)
Both men received a promotion. (modifies men) Many cars were on that
ship. '(modifies cars) Several tables were ruined. (modifies tables)
Demonstrative Adjectives function as adjectives that have lost their
pointing out function. In the following examples, the demonstrative
pronouns are used as adjectives.
Examples: This camera belongs to June. (modifies camera) Those
apples are delicious. (modifies apples) That man is an army officer.
(modifies man) These cards are Easter cards. (modifies cards)
Interrogative Pronouns are often used as adjectives. Since the adjective
is the word that asks the question, these adjectives are called
interrogative adjectives.
Examples: What newspaper does he read? (What asks the question.
What is also an adjective that modifies newspaper.)
Whose name did he call? (Whose asks the question. Whose is also an
adjective that modifies name.)
 ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES
1) Possessive Adjective
2) Descriptive Adjective
3) Numeral Adjective
4) Demonstrative Adjective
5) Interrogative Adjective

1) POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE
A possessive adjective expresses possession of a noun by someone or
something. Possessive adjectives are the same as possessive
pronouns. The seven Possessive Adjectives are My, Your, Our, Their, His,
Her and Its (singular). Our, your, their, their and their (plural)
Example:
Our grandmothers were classmates
This is my book.
Your car is outside.
 His girl friend is waiting
 ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES

2) DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVE
DEFINITION: Among the different kinds of adjectives, descriptive
adjectives are probably the most common ones. They simply say
something about the quality or the kind of the noun or pronoun
they’re referring to.
Examples:
 Erika is witty.
 She is tired.
 Adrian’s reflexes are amazing.
 He is a tall man.
 They are good students.
 She is a beautiful girl.
 ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES
3. NUMERAL ADJECTIVE
DEFINITION: Numeral Adjectives show or denote the number or position of
a noun or pronoun. It shows the exact number of nouns or pronouns with
their positions or place.
For example
 There are ten students in the classroom.
 I stood first in class.
 Saturday is the last day of the week.
 The brilliant one of you can be the leader of this group.
 Two children make a family perfect.
 Few dogs are unhealthy. My legs have eight fingers and two
Numeral adjectives can be grouped into definite numeral adjectives (six,
second, one third, four, tenth, etc), indefinite numeral adjectives (too
many, certain, several, some, few, most, more etc.), distributive
numeral adjectives (every, neither, either, each, etc)
 ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES
4) DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE
DEFINITION: Demonstrative adjectives are adjectives that are used to
modify a noun so that we know which specific person, place, or thing
is mentioned. Like possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives
(this, that, these, those) answer which one? about the object, but
they always appear before the noun being modified.
Examples:
That pool looks so inviting on this sweltering day.
This channel always seems to have so many commercials.
These flowers are exceptionally beautiful in that vase.
Those shoes are so much more comfortable than that pair.
If the word this, that, these, or those is not followed by a noun, but is
replacing a noun in the sentence, it is considered a pronoun.
Examples:
This is broken. That belongs to Sheba. Those smell rotten.
These are sharp.
 ADJECTIVES
TYPES OF ADJECTIVES 
5) INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVE
DEFINITION: Interrogative Adjective is the adjective that is used to ask
a question. There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what,
and whose. Like all other types of adjectives, interrogative
adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these
words are used to ask questions.
 Which option sounds best to you?
 What time should we go?
 Whose socks are those?
 Which animal do you like?
 What food do you prefer?
 ADJECTIVES
COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES
Serving as modifiers adjectives are also used to indicate the position
on a scale of comparison. This can be done in three different levels
of adjectives: the positive degree , the comparative degree, and
the superlative degree.
In the positive degree, a simple statement is made when nothing is
compared with the noun:
 My house is large.
In the comparative degree, a contrast is made between two nouns:
 My house is larger than hers.
In the superlative degree, a comparison is made among more than two
nouns:
 My house is the largest one in the neighbourhood.
 ADJECTIVES
COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES
Forming the comparative or the superlative degree is easy. The form
depends on the number of syllables in the original adjective:
Rule 1. Add -er and -est to most one-syllable adjectives, like small,
smaller, smallest; hot, hotter, hottest.
Some one-syllable adjectives are irregular, like good (good, better,
best), bad (bad, worse, worst), and many (many, more, most).
Rule 2. For adjectives of two or more syllables, use more and most to
enhance the degree, or less and least to decrease the degree.
Examples:
agreeable: more agreeable, most agreeable; less agreeable, least
agreeable spotted: more spotted, most spotted; less spotted, least
spotted
 ADJECTIVES
COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES
Of course, there are always exceptions. Here are some two-syllable
adjectives that allow you to use -er and -iest in the comparative
degree. Note that the final –y is changed to an -i before the endings
are added.
happy, happier, happiest
picky, pickier, pickiest
silly, sillier, silliest
Lastly, some adjectives just cannot be compared no matter how hard
you try; they are called absolute adjectives or incomparables.
Consider, for instance, the word round. How could something be
rounder than round? Or take the word unique: How can anything that
is already one-of-a-kind be more unique?
Other absolute adjectives are favorite, true, false, perfect, square, free,
and complete.
 ADJECTIVES
The Order of Adjectives in a Series
In English, it is common to use more than one adjective to describe a
noun. These adjectives must be used in the proper order.
It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "little brown
house" and not "brown little house" or why we say "red Italian sports
car" and not "Italian red sports car." Most other languages dictate a
similar order, but not necessarily the same order. It takes a lot of
practice with a language before this order becomes instinctive,
because the order often seems quite arbitrary (if not downright
capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find many
exceptions to the pattern in the table below, but it is definitely
important to learn the pattern of adjective order if it is not part of what
you naturally bring to the language.
 ADJECTIVES
The Order of Adjectives in a Series
The categories in the following table can be described as follows:
Determiners — articles and other limiters.
Observation — post determiners and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real
hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure
(e.g., beautiful, interesting)
Size and Shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g.,
wealthy, large, round)
Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)
Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale)
Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French,
American, Canadian)
Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of
(e.g., woolen, metallic, wooden)
Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g.,
rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)
 ADJECTIVES
The Order of Adjectives in a Series
Determi Observatio Physical Description Qualifie
Origin Material Noun
ner n r
Size Shape Age Color
a beautiful     old   Italian   touring car
an expensive     antique     silver   mirror
long-
four gorgeous     red   silk   roses
stemmed
her     short   black       hair
sheepdo
our   big   old   English    
g
those     square       wooden hat boxes
that dilapidated little           hunting cabin
some delicious         Thai     food
 ARTICLES
 Definite Article
 Indefinite Article
 When articles are not used
 Difference in meaning with use of articles
 Difference in meaning with or without the use of articles
The articles are the words: a, an, the, and are of two kinds:
Definite Article – The
Indefinite Article – A or An
There are rules governing the usage of a, an and the. By learning the
rules, we may still not fully understand their usage. However, there
are ways to better understand how to use them and one effective
way is to read as much as we can.
 ARTICLES
Definite Article  
The is the definite article as it identifies a definite or particular noun that
we know of. It is not about a noun that has not been mentioned
beforehand or a noun that we are unaware of.
EXAMPLE:
I received a letter. The letter is from a former classmate.
(CORRECT)
NOT: I received the letter. The letter is from the former classmate.
First sentence: I received the letter. – Which letter is referred to?
Second sentence: The letter is from the former classmate. – We
know 'The letter' as it refers to the letter I received (in the first
sentence). / the former classmate – There are many former
classmates, which one?)
This shows how easily we can confuse the reader if we do not
exercise care in using the.
 ARTICLES
Definite Article  
The is used:
1. when the same thing or person is mentioned again, that is, a
particular thing or person.
Example: I bought an orange. The orange is sweet.
2. when there is only one such thing.
Example: the earth, the sun, the moon.
3. before the names of famous buildings, etc.
Example: The Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall of China.
4. when a singular noun is used to point out a whole class, race,
group, etc.
Example: The bear is a strong animal.
5. before the special names of a rivers, seas, oceans, mountain
ranges, groups of islands, certain organizations, political parties, and
countries such as the U.S.A., the U.K., the U.S.S.R. and the U.A.R.
Example: The Nile, The Dead Sea, The Pacific Ocean, The Himalayas,
The United Nations, The Republican Party, etc.
 ARTICLES
Definite Article  
6. before the names of holy or important books.
Example: The Koran, The Bible.
7. before an adjective when the noun is understood.
Example: The poor need help.
Example: No one seems to care for the homeless in the city.
More examples:
This is the boy you are looking for. (This means this is the particular
boy you are looking for, not any other boy.)
That is the cinema I went to yesterday. (I remember and am sure that
is the cinema I went to and not another cinema.)
While they were there, they visited the science museum. (They visited
the particular museum which is the only one in the country.)
Indefinite Article
 
 ARTICLES
Indefinite Article   
The indefinite articles are a and an. We use them to show an
unspecified noun, and not a special one, or when we are speaking in
general.
A is used:
before a word which begins with a consonant.
Example: There is a woman waiting for you.
before a singular, countable noun.
Example: A banana was all I had for lunch.
when we mention something for the first time.
Example: I saw a dog.
before a word with a long sound of u
Example: a university, a uniform, a useful book, a European, a unique
opportunity.
 ARTICLES
Indefinite Article   
Example: It would be a unique opportunity to travel in space.
before the word one because one is pronounced wun, as if it began
with W.
Example: a one-way street, a one-eyed man, a one-year course, a
one-day holiday, etc.
Example: I have a one-way ticket to travel from one place to
another as I don't intend to visit a place twice.
An is used:
before a noun which begins with a vowel.
Example: They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
before a word which begins with a vowel sound or a silent h.
Example: an hour, an honest man, an heir, an honour, an honourable
man, etc.
Example: An hour passed and she still hadn't arrived.
 
 ARTICLES
Indefinite Article    
When Articles are Not Used
Articles are not used:
1. before the name of a person:
Example: I am a fan of Michael Jackson. (NOT: I am a fan of the
Michael Jackson)
2. before the name of a place, town, country, street, or road.
Example: Barcelona is a beautiful city. (NOT: The Barcelona is a
beautiful city.)
3. before names of materials.
Example: Gold is found in Australia. (NOT: The gold is found in
Australia.)
4. before abstract nouns used in a general sense.
Example: You cannot buy happiness. (NOT: You cannot buy a/the
happiness.)
 
 ARTICLES
 Difference in Meaning with Use of Articles
It helps to observe the following rules:
When we use two or more adjectives to describe the same person or
thing, we use the article only before the first adjective.
EXAMPLE: He talked to a tall and blonde woman. (He talked to a (one)
woman who was tall and blonde.)
When we use two or more adjectives to refer to more than one person
or thing, we use the article before each adjective.
EXAMPLE: He talked to a tall and a blonde woman. (He talked to two
women, one of whom was tall and the other was a blonde.)
Difference in Meaning with or without the Use of Articles
He is at the school. (We know which school.)
He is at a school. (We don't know which school.)
He is at school. (He is a student and is learning.)