English Grammar: Intro to Adjectives

Adjectives

Adjectives are words used to describe or modify nouns that are places or people or ideas or things. Examples:

One year’s salary

–A heartfelt melody

–An obnoxious businessman

–The irate teacher

Use of adjectives is very common, and they appear everywhere. They usually appear before the noun which they are modifying. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Using too many adjectives is considered overkill, and it can be detrimental to your text. It can cause your words to be overburdened by adjectives, instead of enriched by them.

One golden rule of writing is “show, don’t tell”. To use an example from a few lines up: if you are dealing with an irate teacher, don’t simply state that he or she is irate, but rather show it in your text. Adjectives are okay in small doses. A well thought-out adjective, properly placed, can help make a good sentence great. It is all about using them in a smart way that doesn’t take away from your writing.

Positives, Comparatives, and Superlatives

Adjectives can also show varying degrees of modification or change. These are known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. Comparatives are used for comparing pairs, and superlatives are used for comparing three or more. Examples:

Jane is a lovely woman, Jessica is even lovelier than Jane, and John is the loveliest guy in town.

  • Lovely – positive
  • Lovelier – comparative
  • Loveliest – superlative

My daughter is beautiful, my wife is even more beautiful than she, and I am the most beautiful of all!

  • Beautiful – positive
  • More beautiful – comparative
  • Most beautiful – superlative

Note that the word than usually goes with a comparative, and the word the usually precedes a superlative. The suffixes –er and –est are often used, and they work with most words. However, there are times – for example, with the word lovely – that the -er becomes –ier and -est becomes ­–iest.

 

Another example would be the word lucky:

John is a lucky man, his wife Jane is luckier, and their son Jeremy is the luckiest baby this side of New Jersey.

  • Lucky – positive
  • Luckiercomparative
  • Luckiest – superlative

Words of two syllables or more which end in a y get this treatment. Otherwise, we will use more and most.

Irregularities occur in any set rules. There are several examples of exceptions to the rule:

The burger was good, the French fries were better, but the ice cream was the best part.

  • Good – positive
  • Better – comparative
  • Best – superlative

My table manners are bad, my brother’s manners are worse, and my baby sister’s manners are the worst.

  • Bad – positive
  • Worse – comparative
  • Worst – superlative

 

Some adjectives already have some degree of measure or comparison built into them. Comparisons could technically still be made, but superlatives must be made in other ways. The word fatal, for instance, is one which falls under this category. There is already some focus within the word fatal itself, and no degrees of comparison can truly affect it.

There is an ongoing debate between researchers over the possibility of applying comparatives to such words, but no one would ever consider fatal, less fatal, more fatal, and most fatal to be completely accurate, since fatal is an extreme all on its own. Something either is fatal, or is not. There are no degrees, but as I said linguistics are still debating this issue.

One thing to look out for is proper use. Do not use more with comparatives ending in –er, or most with superlatives ending in –est . You cannot say that something is more taller, or that someone is the most tallest. After a while, you will be able to spot these errors and correct them in your mind. It will simply sound wrong to you, and you will know which word to use.

There are ways of intensifying superlatives to higher degrees, and that is with words and phrases which are known as pre-modifiers. This is done to indicate levels of intensity. Examples:

-The remote works so much better than it did earlier

-You should be a lot more careful when handling an iron

The same type of wording can indicate less intensity. Examples:

It's not always easy to find a funny picture...

It’s not always easy to find a funny picture…

-The remote works somewhat better than it did earlier

-You should be a little more careful when handling an iron

It is also possible for the word very to be added to the superlative. Examples:

-He wore his very finest suit for his child’s birthday

-He is doing the very best that he can

 

This has been a basic introduction to Adjectives. Hopefully you’ll be able to use these tips to understand the difference between nouns and adjectives. I’ll follow up soon with a more advanced write up. Thanks for reading!

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