Adjective
Adjectives Adjectives describe nouns by nouns by answering one of these three questions: What kind is it? How many are there? Which one is it? An it? An adjective can be a single word, a phrase, phrase, or a clause. clause.
Examples 1. Ten Ten puppies are playing in the tall, green grass. gr ass. 2. Where is the small frying pan? . !am has a "lue racing "icycle. #. The "lac$ $itten %as playing %ith a small red "all. &. 'o you $no% the man in the "lac$ leather jac$et? (. ) have seven colored mar$ing pens for school. *. The city ci ty is "ig, dirty, and noisy. noisy. +. Three ugly %itches made a magic potion. . That is the "iggest stu-ed toy in the shop. 1. /e ran through the %et muddy 0eld.
* 3E! 45 A'6E7T)8E Rule 1. Many adverbs end in -ly , but many do not. Generally, if a word can have -ly added to its adjective form, place it there to form an adverb. Examples: She thinks quick/ quickly . How does she thin! Quickly. She is a quick /quickly thinker. Quick is an adjective describing thinker , so no -ly is attached. She thinks fast /fastly. Fast answers the question how, so it is an adverb. "ut fast never has -ly attached to it. We performed bad/ badly . adly describes how we performed, so -ly is added.
Rule 2. Adverbs that answer the question how sometimes cause grammatical problems. #t can be a challenge to determine if -ly should be attached. Avoid the trap of -ly with lining
verbs, such as taste! smell! look! feel! etc., that pertain to the senses. Adverbs are often misplaced in such sentences, which require adjectives instead. Examples: "oses smell sweet /sweetly. $o the roses actively smell with noses! %o& in this case, smell is a lining verb'which requires an adjective to modify roses'so no -ly. #he woman looked angry /an$rily to us. $id the woman loo with her eyes, or are we describing her appearance! (e are describing her appearance )she appeared angry*, so no -ly. #he woman looked an$ry/ angrily at the paint splotches. Here the woman actively looed )used her eyes*, so the -ly is added. She feels bad /badly about the news. +he is not feeling with ngers, so no -ly.
Rule 3. -he word $ood is an adjective, whose adverb equivalent is well.
Examples: %ou did a $ood &ob. 'ood describes the job. %ou did the &ob well. Well answers how. %ou smell $ood today. 'ood describes your fragrance, not how you smell with your nose, so using the adjective is correct. %ou smell well for someone with a cold. ou are actively smelling with your nose here, so use the adverb.
Rule 4. -he word well can be an adjective, too. (hen referring to health, we often use wellrather than $ood. Examples: %ou do not look well today. ( don)t feel well! either.
Rule 5. Adjectives come in three forms, also called degrees. An adjective in its normal or usual form is called a positive degree adjective. -here are also the comparative andsuperlative degrees, which are used for comparison, as in the following e/amples: 9ositive
7omparative
!uperlative
sweet
sweeter
sweetest
bad
worse
worst
e*cient
more e*cient
most e*cient
A common error in using adjectives and adverbs arises from using the wrong form of comparison. -o compare two things, always use a comparative adjective: Example: She is the cleerer of the two women +ne,er cle,erest -he word cle,erest is what is called the superlative form of cle,er . 0se it only when comparing three or more things: Example: She is the cleerest of them all. !nc"rrect: hocolate or ,anilla which do you like best?
#"rrect: hocolate or ,anilla which do you like better$
Rule %. There are also three degrees of adver"s. #n formal usage, do not drop the ly from an adverb when using the comparative form. !nc"rrect: She spoke quicker than he did. #"rrect: She spoke m"re quickly than he did. !nc"rrect: #alk quieter. #"rrect: #alk m"re quietly.
Rule &. (hen this! that! these! and those are followed by a noun, they are adjectives. (hen they appear without a noun following them, they are pronouns. Examples: #his house is for sale. #his is an adjective. #his is for sale. #his is a pronoun.
