LESSON 4:

ADJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES
 At the end of this unit, you are expected to have:
1. gained more practice in identifying and using adjectives,
as well as distinguishing shades of meaning among closely
related adjectives;
2. created own narrative, using precise and vivid adjectives
to their writing; and,
3. acquired more practice in identifying the different ways
adjectives are used, as employed in writing
1. The young hikers walked through the dark woods.
2. A few boys knew that they were lost, but most simply enjoyed the sweet smell of dried pine needles
and autumn leaves that littered the ground.
3. The weather was warm, and the hills were gentle, but as they continued on their way the sunlight
became paler.
4. The youngest boys started to ask their Scout leader when they could stop and eat their sandwiches.
5. He told them that they would have to wait until they reach the little lake on the other side of the steep
blue ridge ahead.
6. After two long hours, the group of tired boys still had not reached the isolated lake that was their final
destination, and one older boy suggested that they set up camp beside a babbling brook.
7. They set up their canvas tents, lit a huge crackling fire, and ate their supper.
8. Just as they were climbing into their snug sleeping bags, they saw a light beam, bright and narrow,
piercing the inky darkness.
9. With relief, the leader realized that they were six miles south of where they should have been.
10. The car was obviously travelling on the Black River Road and they were only a mile from Mr.
Jensen’s chicken farm.
11. They weren’t lost at all!
ADJECTIVES
 An adjective is the part of speech we use to modify, describe, or limit a noun or
pronoun. That seems simple enough:

 Examples:
1. beautiful writings
2. great show
3. tall buildings
4. sweet candies
Adjectives add details about the nouns or pronouns they modify and
usually precede those nouns or pronouns. Additionally, English has no plural
form for adjectives; they are always singular.
MULTIFUNCTION ADJECTIVES
 Many words we normally think of as nouns, pronouns, verbs, and
adverbs are also used as adjectives – sometimes functioning
simultaneously as two different parts of speech.
 For example, if a word modifies a noun, then it is functioning as an
adjective. If that same word replaces a noun, then it is functioning
as a pronoun. Or if the word names a person, animal, place, thing,
etc, then it is functioning as a noun.
 The word his has functional qualities of both a pronoun and an adjective.
His obviously replaces a noun (a male antecedent in some prior sentence), which
is clearly a pronoun function; and at the same time, his modifies the noun
restaurant, which is clearly an adjective function. Similarly, tenderloin names a
very tasty and expensive part of a cow, so it functions as a noun; and it also
modifies steak by telling us that the steak is tasty and expensive, so it functions as
an adjective as well. That is why such dual-function adjectives are sometimes
called adjectival nouns or adjectival pronouns. The adjective cheaper is just a
plain, ordinary adjective. It functions as a single part of speech in this sentence.
CLASSES OF ADJECTIVES
The most common classes of adjectives are descriptive, limiting,
proper, predicate, and compound. These classifications describe how
the adjective modifies a noun or pronoun. In addition to these common
classes, many special case adjectives exist. These include articles and
other determiners, as well as complete clauses that function as adjectives
in a sentence (adjectival clauses).
1. DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES
 A descriptive adjective simply describes the attributes of the noun it modifies.
Example:

2. LIMITING ADJECTIVE
 limit the meaning of the nouns or pronouns they modify. They tell “which one,”
“how much,” “how many,” or “whose.”

Example:
WHICH ONE
 I like that haircut.
‘That’ is a limiting adjective as it restricts the noun ‘haircut’ meaning a particular
haircut and not any haircut in general.
 You should read this lesson.
 ‘This’ is a limiting adjective as it restricts the noun ‘lesson’ meaning a particular
lesson.

HOW MUCH/MANY
• The three boys in the car are my brothers.
‘Three’ is a limiting adjective, referring to a number modifying the noun ‘boys’
• There was little sugar left in the jar.
‘Little’ is a limiting adjective meaning ‘not much’.
WHOSE
 I forgot my hat at home.
The speaker restricts the meaning to his own hat.
 Did you see Meg’s book?
The speaker means the particular book that belongs to Meg.

TYPES OF LIMITING ADJECTIVES

2.1. Articles as Limiting Adjectives
To restrict the meaning of a noun, we can use articles. They are the most commonly
used limiting adjectives, and besides, they are the shortest.

‘The” is called a definite article because it points out nouns more specifically.
 ‘A’ and ‘an’ are called indefinite articles because they refer to
nonspecific nouns. We use them when we talk about any person,
place, thing, or idea.

Examples:
I would like to go to a beach.
Please give me a banana. I’d like the one with the green stem.
2.2. POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
 The possessive adjectives, as the names implies, modify nouns by
showing possession or ownership. The possessive adjectives are my,
your, his, her, its, our, and their. They answer the question ‘WHOSE?’
 Are you using your grammar book? (‘your’ modifies the noun ‘book’ to
specify whose book it is)

2.3. DEMONSTRATIVE LIMITING

ADJECTIVE (THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE)
• Demonstrative adjectives are used to modify a noun so that we know which
specific person, place, or thing is mentioned.
 Note: Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with demonstrative adjectives. They are
identical, but a demonstrative pronoun stands alone, while a demonstrative adjective
qualifies a noun.

 This ice cream is soft. (demonstrative adjective )

 This is chewy. (demonstrative pronoun)

2.4. INDEFINITE LIMITING ADJECTIVE

Indefinite adjectives offer general information about the amount of the noun
they modify. They answer the question ‘HOW MANY or HOW MUCH?’ but they
don’t show exactly the amount of something.
Examples:
All children will be taught to swim.
Will you please buy some milk on your way home?
We have to walk several kilometers to reach the village.
Note: Do not confuse indefinite adjectives and indefinite pronouns. They look similar but function
differently. Indefinite pronouns take the place of nouns, while indefinite adjectives modify nouns.

I don’t have any money (indefinite adjective )

I don’t have any. (indefinite pronoun)

2.5. INTERROGATIVE LIMITING ADJECTIVES

Interrogative adjectives ‘what’, ‘which’ and ‘whose’ modify nouns and pronouns
in questions. They are similar to interrogative pronouns, but unlike the latter, they can’t
stand on their own.
Examples:
Whose performance did you enjoy most?
What table should we get for our living room?
The important point to keep in mind is that interrogative adjectives stand for the
thing we do not know.
 2.6 CARDINAL AND ORDINAL NUMBERS AS
LIMITING ADJECTIVES
 Numbers (cardinal or ordinal) can function as limiting adjectives telling
HOW MANY. There are quite many of them – one, two, three, the fifth,
the 25oth, etc. an unlimited number.
 Examples
 I bought four sets of baking tools for my sisters. (Cardinal)
 This is the third month of the lockdown due to the pandemic. (Ordinal)
 3. PROPER ADJECTIVES
 is actually a proper noun used as adjectival noun. It effectively changes the
sense of the noun it modifies from a common noun to a proper noun. In the
following example, Unix changes the sense from any operating system to the
Unix operating system.

Proper adjectives are usually capitalized in a sentence, but only if the proper noun
from which they are derived is also normally capitalized. For example, some proper nouns,
especially distinctive trademarks like eTrade Financial® or eBay©, may not capitalize the
first letter while capitalizing other letters. In this case, the proper adjective must match
precisely the proper noun.
4. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES
 A compound adjective is one made up of two or more parts, each of which
describes or limits the noun in some way. In the following example, thick,
asphalt is the compound adjective. Thick describes how deep the
surface is, while asphalt describes the material from which the surface is
made.
THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES IN
ENGLISH
Cumulative Adjectives Coordinate Adjectives
- work together to modify their noun - modify the same noun
- They cumulate (or combine together) as - their order is far less important because
they get nearer to the noun to create a they can be used individually with the
more specific meaning. noun.
- must appear in a specific order, and they - should be separated with commas or
cannot be separated by commas or the "and" to make it clear they're not
word "and." cumulative adjectives.
- a handmade mixing bowl - Often, they will come from the same
- those unsold goalkeeper gloves category. When this happens, it is normal
- my first yellow taxi cab to use "and" between them.
For example:

sweet, black and yellow, sticky toffees.

Exercise:
1. three traveling old the Thai
ladies.
2. wooden huge that round spoon.
3. beautiful five dancing his
daughters.
4. long amazing black rough all-
purpose an bed.
5. American ten young intelligent
basketball our players.
5. PREDICATE ADJECTIVES
- An adjective that follows a linking verb and modifies (i.e., describes) the subject of
the linking verb.
- The children are excited.
- You look good!
- Kay seems happy.

6. ABSOLUTE ADJECTIVES
an adjective, such as supreme or infinite, with a meaning that is generally not capable
of being intensified or compared.
Dead men tell no tales. ("He's deader than me.“)
Perfect people make no mistakes. (we can still modify the absolute adjectives but we
cannot qualify)

nearly dead / really dead (x)

almost perfect / somewhat perfect (x)
DEGREES OF COMPARISON
1. The Positive Degree
 This offers no comparison. It just tells us about the existence of a quality. For
example:
 adjectives: slow, beautiful, happy
 adverbs: slowly, beautifully, happily
2. The Comparative Degree
This compares two things to show which has the lesser or greater degree of the
quality.
For example:
adjectives: slower, more beautiful, happier
adverbs: more slowly, more beautifully, more happily
3. The Superlative Degree
This compares more than two things to show which has the least or greatest
degree of the quality.
For example:
adjectives: slowest, most beautiful, happiest
adverbs: most slowly, most beautifully, most happily