ADJECTIVE

An Adjective is a word used to qualify a noun or a pronoun. The word ‘Adjective’ means ‘added to’ and an Adjective is a word used to ‘add something’ to the meaning of a noun or a pronoun.

Sometimes, an adjective does not precede a noun/pronoun. However, it is still the attribute, as in (2). All the examples given below have the adjectives underlined.

1. Shan is a tall boy.

2. Shan is sad.

3. Shan does not have much money.

4.

DEGREES OF COMPARISON:

There are three degrees of comparison

◙ Positive Degree

◙ Comparative Degree

◙ Superlative Degree

An example in the different degrees with the adjective ‘red’

Positive Degree:

Very few fruits are as red as tomato.

Comparative Degree:

Tomato is redder than most other fruits.

Superlative Degree:

Tomato is one of the reddest fruits.

CORRECT USAGE OF ADJECTIVES

1. When to use the comparative degree:

The comparative degree denotes a higher degree of the attribute than the positive degree and is used when two things or two sets of things are compared:

This child is healthier than that one.

Who is better— your aunt or my cousin?

But avoid double comparatives:

Incorrect

Ooty is considered to be a more better hill station than Mahabaleshwar.

Correct

Ooty is considered to be a better hill station than Mahabaleshwar.

2. Adjectives that do not have superlatives:

a. Some adjectives are considered to be in the superlative degree, hence, an extra word to convey the idea would be redundant.

Examples:

unique, universal, extreme, square

b. Some adjectives like ‘former’, ‘latter’, ‘ulterior’, ‘exterior’, ‘major’, ‘minor’ do not have the comparative or superlative form.

Example:

The minor faults can be corrected.

Our former P.M. was a lawyer.

c. Never use other or any in the superlative degree.

Example:

Incorrect: King James was the wisest of all other fools in English history.

Correct: King James was the wisest of all fools in English history.

3. The use of many a:

Many a means many times one thing.

Example:

Many a struggler knocks the door of producers.

The noun and the verb following ‘many a’ must always be in the singular.

4. Some adjectives like ‘elder’, ‘prior’, ‘inferior’, superior’ and ‘junior’ takes ‘to’ instead of ‘than’ in the comparative degree.

Examples:

Forgiveness is not always superior to revenge.

This employee is junior to that one.

SOME IMPORTANT ADJECTIVES DISTINGUISED

a. Less and few

Less refers to quantity or size only; few denotes number.

Less milk than usual was delivered.

Few people are on the streets.

b. Older and elder

Older applies to both people and things:

Examples:

He was older than her brother.

This monument is older than that one.

Elder is used to compare members (in basis of age) of one’s family.

His elder brother helped to finance his studies abroad.

c. Few, a few and the few

A few means some; few means not many and the few means not many but all of them:

Examples:

A few chairs are lying outside the room. (Some)

Few people in Indian public life are known for their honesty. (Hardly any)

She lost the few friends she had. (Not many, but all of them)

d. Later and latter; latest and last

Later and latest refer to time:

Examples:

See you later.

Do not always run after latest fashion trends, develop your own style.

Latter and last refer to position:

Examples:

The latter part of the novel was boring.

Akhtar-ujjaman Ilias’ last novel is Khoabnama.

e. Farther and further

Farther denotes distance. Further means ‘in addition to’. Examples:The place you are searching is farther down this road.The task should be completed without further delay.

f. Little, a little, the little Little means ‘hardly any’. A little means ‘some’. The little means ‘not much but all of that much’.Examples: Give me only a little of it.The tyrant cared little for his people.The little he had, he gave away. g. Fewer and manyIncorrect: A huge amount of mourners came to attend to Arthur Miller’s funeral. Fewer number of food was left than previously thought.

When you are mentioning things that can be counted use fewer or many; and when mention is made of quantities that cannot be measured use less, amount, much.

Correct:Many mourners came to attend to Arthur Miller’s funeral.

Less food was left than previously thought. h. Some and anyIncorrect:I can spare any time.I cannot find some books.

Some has to be used in affirmative sentences and any with negative and interrogative sentences.

Correct:I can spare some time.I cannot find any books.

Adjective phrase

Definition:

A word group with an adjective as its head. This adjective may be accompanied by modifiers, determiners, and/or qualifiers.Adjective phrases modify nouns. They may be attributive (appearing before the noun) or predicative (appearing after a linking verb), but not all adjectives can be used in both positions. See Examples and Observations, below.

Examples and Observations:

Merdine opened a sweet young coconut. "Humans can be fairly ridiculous animals." Buddy thinks the shampoo tastes awfully funny. Tony lost his dark brown briefcase. After Don's accident, his behavior grew stranger and stranger. He looked sad and gloomy. "An adjective phrase consists of an adjective which may be preceded and/or followed by other

words. The premodifier is always an adverb phrase, but the post-modifiers can be an adverb phrase, a prepositional phrase, or even a clause. It is also possible to have a modifier that is partly in front and partly behind the head, called a discontinuous modifier, abbreviated as disc-mod."(Marjolijn Verspoor and Kim Sauter, English Sentence Analysis: An Introductory Course. John Benjamins, 2000)

Marge, you're as pretty as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda."

"There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary."

Noun Phrases and Adjective Phrases"There may be very little difference between a noun phrase and an adjective phrase in structures where the adjectives occur before the word it qualifies. Most noun phrases consist of a head noun plus one or more adjectives, or indeed an adjective phrase itself. Consider the examples in a, below.

a. [ADJECTIVE PHRASES]'It was cold, bleak, biting weather.'

'He's an extraordinary looking man, and yet I can really name nothing out of the way.'

'In Beijing these days, one of the fastest-growing fortunes the world has ever seen is managed by fewer than two-dozen traders.'

'This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white, and a boisterous and decided manner.'

In each of these examples, if we include the italicized head nouns, we have noun phrases with embedded adjective phrases; without the head nouns, we have adjective phrases. The focus is always on the head word (HW)."(Bernard O'Dwyer, Modern English Structures: Form, Function, and Position. Broadview, 2006)

Phrases Within Phrases"[C]onsider . . . our example:The young man picked the best bloom from the very delicate orchid.

The sequence from the very delicate orchid is a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase consists of a noun phrase and a preposition. One can demonstrate that the sequence from the very delicate orchid is a coherent/connected group of words by moving it as in:From the very delicate orchid the young man picked the best bloom.

The word very is an intensifying adverb and it modifies delicate to form an adjective phrase within the noun phrase within the prepositional phrase. This phrase-within-a-phrase structure is shown by bracketing below:[The young man] picked the best bloom [from [the [very delicate] orchid]].

We could add very carefully to this sentence. Since carefully is an adverb and very is an intensifying adverb modifying it, very carefully would be an adverb phrase."(Barry J. Blake, All About Language. Oxford University Press, 2008)