Adjectives

1. Adjectives By: Chrarett (Christian and Garrett)

2. What is an Adjective? • An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. They modify nouns and pronouns by telling what kind, which one, how many, or how much. • An adjective can be one or more words.

3. Examples • I ate a double-decker, pudding skin, skittle, and cheese sandwich. What kind? A double-decker, pudding skin, skittle, and cheese sandwich. • There are three birds. How many? Three birds. • The closest pencil to the student was snatched by the teacher. Which one? The closest pencil.

4. Different Forms of Adjectives • There can be different forms of the same adjective. • Comparative adjectives make more of something. Examples – “dark or darker”, “cold or colder”, hot or hotter.” • Superlative adjectives describe the most of something. Examples – “dark or darkest”, cold or coldest”, hot or hottest.”

5. More Forms • Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. Examples are “European” or “Mexican.” • Common adjectives come from common words. Examples are “hot”, “cold”, “red”, or “slimy.”

6. Rules for Adjectives • Generally, an adjective come before the noun it describes, but there are exceptions. Something like a “black dog” could also be described with “The dog is black.” • Comparative adjectives end in “er.” The word “more” could also be used, but never together with “er” like “more blacker dog.” • Superlative adjectives end in “est.” The word “most” could also be used, but never together with “est”, like “most blackest dog.”

7. More Rules • Avoid “deadwood” adjectives. These are adjectives that are redundant. An example would be something like “The crazy, insane person.” • When describing a noun, you might want to use two or more adjectives. Sometimes they will require commas between them, and sometimes not. If the order can be changed or the word “and” can be inserted between them, they will require commas. If the sentence ends up not making sense when doing that, they do not require commas.

8. Examples • “The smelly, black, fat dog ran into the street.” could also be “The fat, smelly, black dog ran into the street.” or “The smelly and black and fat dog ran into the street.” • A sentence such as “Christian’s three noisy friends would not be quiet.” could not be changed to “Noisy three Christian’s friends would not be quiet.” The sentence would not make sense.