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Definition
Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.
The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.
Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use — or over-
use — of adjectives: Adjectives are frail; don't ask them to do more work than they
should. Let your broad-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be
particularly cautious in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first
place: interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and
excitement and interest, and when you simply insist on its presence without showing it to your
reader — well, you're convincing no one.
Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas
Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in
this color; participles, verb forms acting as adjectives, are highlighted in this blue. Some people
would argue that words that are part of a name — like "East India Tea House — are not really
adjectival and that possessive nouns — father's, farmer's — are not technically adjectives, but
we've included them in our analysis of Wolfe's text.
He remembered yet the East India Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the
robes, the cool interior and the smell of India tea; and he had felt now thenostalgic thrill of dew-
wet mornings in Spring, the cherry scent, the cool clarion earth, the wet loaminess of the
garden, the pungent breakfast smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew
the inchoate sharp excitement of hot dandelions in young earth; in July, of
watermelons bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe
and crated peaches; and the scent of orange rind, bitter-sweet, before a fire of coals. He knew
the good male smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smooth wornleather sofa, with
the gaping horse-hair rent; of the blistered varnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated calf-
skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of apple tobacco, stuck with ared flag; of wood-smoke
and burnt leaves in October; of the brown tired autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night;
of warm nasturtiums, of a clean ruddy farmer who comes weekly with printed butter, eggs, and
milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; of large deep-
hued stringbeans smoking-hot and seasonedwell with salt and butter; of a room
of old pine boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long closed;
of Concord grapes in their long white baskets.
Position of Adjectives
Unlike Adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a sentence,
adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify.
Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order
according to category. (See Below.) When indefinite pronouns — such as something, someone,
anybody — are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:
And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always
"postpositive" (coming after the thing they modify):
The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper.
See, also, the note on a- adjectives, below, for the position of such words as "ablaze, aloof,
aghast."
Degrees of Adjectives
Adjectives can express degrees of modification:
Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie is
the richest woman in town.
The degrees of comparison are known as the positive,
the comparative, and the superlative. (Actually, only
the comparative and superlative show degrees.) We
use the comparative for comparing two things and the
superlative for comparing three or more things. Notice
that the word than frequently accompanies the
comparative and the word the precedes the
superlative. The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to Click on the "scary bear" to
read and hear George
form most comparatives and superlatives, although we Newall's "Unpack Your
need -ierand -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends Adjectives" (from Scholastic
in y(happier and happiest); otherwise we Rock, 1975).
use more andmost when an adjective has more than Schoolhouse Rock® and its
characters and other
one syllable. elements are trademarks
and service marks of
American Broadcasting
Companies, Inc. Used with
permission.
Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:
Grammar's Response
According to Bryan Garner, "complete" is one of those adjectives that does not admit of
comparative degrees. We could say, however, "more nearly complete." I am sure that I have not
been consistent in my application of this principle in the Guide (I can hear myself, now, saying
something like "less adequate" or "more preferable" or "less fatal"). Other adjectives that Garner
would include in this list are as follows:
From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright
1995 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and
used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Press.
Be careful, also, not to use more along with a comparative adjective formed with -er nor to
use most along with a superlative adjective formed with -est (e.g., do not write that something
is more heavieror most heaviest).
He is as foolish as he is large.
She is as bright as her mother.
Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives
Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied
by premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.
And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose:
Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing
being modified is understood:
Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most.
The quicker you finish this project, the better.
Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster.
Authority for this section: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman
Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.
In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.
Taller than I / me ??
When making a comparison with "than" do we end with a subject form or object form,
"taller than I/she" or "taller than me/her." The correct response is "taller than I/she."
We are looking for the subject form: "He is taller than I am/she is tall." (Except we
leave out the verb in the second clause, "am" or "is.") Some good writers, however,
will argue that the word "than" should be allowed to function as a preposition. If we
can say "He is tall like me/her," then (if "than" could be prepositional like like) we
should be able to say, "He is taller than me/her." It's an interesting argument, but — for
now, anyway — in formal, academic prose, use the subject form in such comparisons.
We also want to be careful in a sentence such as "I like him better than she/her."
The "she" would mean that you like this person better than she likes him; the "her"
would mean that you like this male person better than you like that female person. (To
avoid ambiguity and the slippery use of than, we could write "I like him better than she
does" or "I like him better than I like her.")
This chart is probably too wide to print on a standard piece of paper. If you click HERE, you
will get a one-page duplicate of this chart, which you can print out on a regular piece of
paper.
It would be folly, of course, to run more than two or three (at the most) adjectives together.
Furthermore, when adjectives belong to the same class, they become what we call coordinated
adjectives, and you will want to put a comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes.
The rule for inserting the comma works this way: if you could have inserted a conjunction —
and or but — between the two adjectives, use a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive
but comfortable shoes," so we would use a comma between them (when the "but" isn't there).
When you have three coordinated adjectives, separate them all with commas, but don't insert a
comma between the last adjective and the noun (in spite of the temptation to do so because you
often pause there):
See the section on Commas for additional help in punctuating coordinated adjectives.
We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed there until the town's annual Fall
Festival of Small Appliances.
Collective Adjectives
When the definite article, the, is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of
people, the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the
lonely, the unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dear departed. The difference between
a Collective Noun (which is usually regarded as singular but which can be plural in certain
contexts) and a collective adjective is that the latter is always plural and requires a plural verb:
Adjectival Opposites
The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of ways. One
way, of course, is to find an adjective to mean the opposite — an antonym. The opposite
of beautiful isugly, the opposite of tall is short. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate
opposite. Another way to form the opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The
opposite of fortunate isunfortunate, the opposite of prudent is imprudent, the opposite
of considerate is inconsiderate, the opposite of honorable is dishonorable, the opposite
of alcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of being properly filed is misfiled. If you are not sure
of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way by prefixes (or which is the appropriate prefix),
you will have to consult a dictionary, as the rules for the selection of a prefix are complex and
too shifty to be trusted. The meaning itself can be tricky; for instance, flammable and
inflammable mean the same thing.
A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less or least to
create a comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and
tone become available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the least beautiful city in
the state." than it is to say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly
different meaning.) A candidate for a job can still be worthy and yet be "less worthy of
consideration" than another candidate. It's probably not a good idea to use this construction with
an adjective that is already a negative: "He is less unlucky than his brother," although that is not
the same thing as saying he is luckier than his brother. Use the comparative less when the
comparison is between two things or people; use the superlative least when the comparison is
among many things or people.
Review the section on Possessives for a distinction between possessive forms and
"adjectival labels." (Do you belong to a Writers Club or a Writers' Club?)
Adjectives that are really Participles, verb forms with -ing and -ed endings, can be
troublesome for some students. It is one thing to be a frightened child; it is an altogether different
matter to be afrightening child. Do you want to go up to your professor after class and say that
you are confused or that you are confusing? Generally, the -ed ending means that the noun so
described ("you") has apassive relationship with something — something (the subject matter, the
presentation) has bewildered you and you are confused. The -ing ending means that the noun
described has a more active role — you are not making any sense so you are confusing (to
others, including your professor).
The -ed ending modifiers are often accompanied by prepositions (these are not the only
choices):
A- Adjectives
The most common of the so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert,
alike, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily
show up as predicate adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking verb).
Occasionally, however, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the alert patient,
the aloof physician. Most of them, when found before the word they modify, are themselves
modified: the nearly awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And a- adjectives are sometimes
modified by "very much": very much afraid, very much alone, very much ashamed, etc.