Adjectives & Adverbs

Revision Supply the plural form of the following singular nouns.

Salmon, chimney, soprano, knife, hoof, dice, aircraft, quiz, goose, ox, thesis, alga, advice, cactus, handkerchief, criterion, analysis, merry-go-round, Eskimo, Kennedy.

Analyse the following nouns. Say if they are common or proper; concrete or abstract; countable or uncountable; simple, derived or compound; singular or plural, in nominative or genitive case.

Boyfriends, weather, parents’, sheep, education, Sunday, health, Mari’s

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Adjectives Adverbs March 16, 2012

TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e-post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Adjectives http://www.schooltube.com/video/964198d6a8d99911f4dc/ Adjectives are words expressing properties and characteristics of objects. They describe a noun.

They may be attributes or predicatives in a sentence.

Adjectives can give us information about quality (beautiful, nice), size (big, small), age (new, young), temperature (cool, hot), shape (round, square), colour (blue, grey), origin (Japanese, Swiss), etc.

Adjectives never vary in form to ‘agree’ with nouns, e.g. a tall man, tall men NOT talls men.

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Adjectives Simple adjectives, e.g., huge, sad, red, small.

Compound adjectives are often written with hyphens, e.g., a selfemployed author, a cross-eyed man, a three-year-old boy, a ten-minute walk.

Many adjectives are formed from other parts of speech by adding different suffixes, e.g., cultural, dangerous, childish, sleepy, wooden.

There is also a big number of adjectives formed with prefixes, e.g., impolite, dishonest.

In English there is a large number of adjectives ending in –ing (the present participle) and -ed (the past participle) E.g., His answer was surprising. He was surprised.

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Adjectives Adjectives are also distinguished as gradable and nongradable.

Most adjectives are gradable. It means that they can be modified by adverbs of degree and have degrees of comparison.

E.g., Your brother is so (very, extremely, too) young. Tom is stronger than John.

There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is the plain stem of an adjective (slow, heavy).

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Comparison of Adjectives There are two methods of forming the comparative and the superlative degrees: 1) by adding the suffixes –er and –est; 2) by using more/less and the most/least (they are premodifiers) before the adjective.

The first method is used for: • monosyllabic adjectives: new – newer – the newest • disyllabic adjectives ending in –er, -ow, -y, -le: clever – cleverer – the cleverest TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e-post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Comparison of Adjectives The following spelling rules should be observed in forming the comparative and the superlative: – adjectives ending in –y preceded by a consonant, change the –y into –ier and –iest: heavy – heavier – the heaviest – adjectives ending in –y preceded by a vowel, remain unchanged: gay – gayer – the gayest – monosyllabic adjectives with a short vowel double their final consonant (except the consonant –w): big – bigger – the biggest – adjectives with a mute –e in the end, add only –r and –st: pale – paler – the palest TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e-post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Comparison of Adjectives The second method is used for: • most disyllabic adjectives: careful – more careful – the most careful • adjectives of more than two syllables: personal – more personal – the most personal • adjectives formed from participles: tired – more tired – the most tired • adjectives used only predicatively: afraid – more afraid.

(The superlative need not be given here because it is hardly ever used in English.)

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Comparison of Adjectives A few adjectives have irregular forms for the degrees of comparison. They do not use inflections, but are derived from a different root.

E.g., good – better – the best; bad – worse – the worst; far – farther – the farthest (for distance), further – the furthest (for time and distance); near – nearer – the nearest (for distance), next (for order); late – later – the latest (for time), last (for order); old – older – the oldest (for age), elder – the eldest (with reference to people in a family)

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Adjectives Non-gradable adjectives do not admit of comparison at all, e.g. blind, deaf, dead, asleep, alive, perfect, unique, full, empty, round, wooden, daily, upper, etc.

They themselves imply ‘to a large degree’ and are seldom used with adverbs like very, too, or extremely (e.g. awful, furious, huge, impossible, wonderful). Instead, we can use adverbs such as absolutely or totally.

So, very good – absolutely fabulous, very big – absolutely enormous

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Substantivization Sometimes adjectives become substantivized. In this case they function as nouns and are always preceded by the definite article.

Substantivized adjectives may be of two kinds: • They may refer to a class of persons considered in a general sense.

Such adjectives are plural in meaning and take a plural verb. To this group belong the following adjectives: – adjectives describing human condition or character, e.g. the blind, the brave, the rich, the dead, the disabled, the elderly, the injured; – adjectives denoting nationalities and ending in –ish (British, English, Swedish), in –ch (Dutch, French) and in –ese (Chinese, Japanese) and the adjective Swiss.

• They may refer to abstract notions. Then they are singular and take a singular verb. E.g., The good in him overweighs the bad. Do you believe in the supernatural?

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Adverbs The word ‘adverb’ suggests the idea of adding to the meaning of a verb. This is what many adverbs do. They can tell us something about the action in a sentence by modifying a verb, i.e. by telling us how, when, where, etc. something happens or is done.

E.g., Paganini played the violin beautifully. (How did he play?)

However, adverbs can also modify adjectives, as in the case of the word ‘very’, e.g. I’m very hungry; and other adverbs – awfully quickly.

Most adverbs are formed by adding –ly to an adjective or –ally after –ic, e.g., slowly, happily, romantically Adjectives ending in –ly are usually used as adverbs like this: friendly – in a friendly way TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e-post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Adverbs Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives: This is hard work. I worked hard.

Adverbs can be single words (slowly) or phrases (in a friendly way).

Adverbs usually express a relation of place, time, manner, number or degree with the verb.

When adverbs answer the question ‘where?’, they express a relation of place: here, there, inside, outside, everywhere.

When adverbs answer the question ‘when?’, they express a relation of time: after, before, already, soon, then, now.

When adverbs answer the question ‘how?’/’in what manner?’, they express a relation of manner: hard, easily, quickly, sadly, happily, silently.

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Adverbs When adverbs answer the question ‘how often?’, they express a relation of number / frequency: always, never, seldom, frequently, once, often.

When adverbs answer the question ‘to what extent?’, they express a relation of degree: almost, also, only, very, enough, rather, too.

Adverbs may also express affirmation or denial: certainly, probably, perhaps.

All question words are also adverbs: how, why, where, when.

There are also adverbs of cause: therefore, consequently.

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Comparison of Adverbs Only gradable adverbs (that can be measured on a scale) can have comparative and superlative forms. Comparison is not possible with adverbs such as daily, extremely, only, there, really, then, because they are not gradable.

1. Same form as adjective: fast – faster – fastest 2. –ly adverbs of manner: easily - more easily - most easily 3. Some adverbs of frequency: often – more often – most often 4. Exceptions: badly – worse – worst, well – better – best

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Adverbs Some adverbs have two forms, which may have: • different meanings, e.g. I work hard. I did hardly any work today. I arrived late – lately I’ve seen, I’m real glad – I really like, at 10 am sharp – speak sharply, open wide – widely believed

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Bibliography Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. CUP Adjectives http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm Adverbs http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm

TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e-post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee