Adjectives Mrs. Pope
What are Adjectives? Adjectives are modifiers. They modify nouns or pronouns. This means they change the image of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be located by asking the questions: What kind? Which one? How many? How much?
What are Adjectives? Picture a car in your mind. Do you have an image in your head? Now make it red.
What is an Adjective? Now make it fast.
What is an Adjective? Now make it old-fashioned.
What is an Adjective? Now make it broken.
What is an Adjective? Now make it green.
What is an Adjective? Adjectives change the meaning of a noun by somehow changing the image of it. That s why they are called modifiers. There are two kinds of adjectives: descriptive and limiting.
Descriptive Adjectives Descriptive adjectives DESCRIBE! The add some sensory image to your sentence which allows the reader to see, smell, hear, touch, or taste something in the sentence. All of the modifiers in the earlier section of the slide show concerning the car were descriptive adjectives. They made the car red, fast, oldfashioned, broken, and green. Those words are all adjectives! Descriptive adjectives make writing much better!
Proper Adjectives One type of descriptive adjective is called the proper adjective. Proper adjectives are derived from, or come from, proper nouns. This means that they must always be capitalized. Proper adjectives sometimes are formed by adding a suffix to the proper noun.
Proper Adjectives Examples of Proper Adjectives Proper Noun America France China Pennsylvania Proper Adjective American French Chinese Pennsylvanian
Proper Adjectives Sometime proper nouns don t change in form at all when they become proper adjectives. Ex. President Kennedy was a good leader. (In this sentence President Kennedy is a person; therefore, he is a noun.) Ex. The Kennedy Library is very large. (in this sentence Kennedy is describing the library; therefore, it is an adjective.)
Limiting Adjectives Limiting adjectives point out nouns. There are five kinds of them: Articles Possessives Demonstratives Indefinites Interrogatives
Articles There are three articles: a an the The is called a definite article because it points out nouns more specifically. A and an are called indefinite articles because they do not point nouns out as specifically.
Articles The can be used before both singular and plural nouns. Ex. the cat, the houses A and an can only be used before singular nouns. Ex. a book, an elephant
Articles The can be used before both vowels and consonants. Ex. the ant, the car A must be used before consonant sounds. Ex. a duck, a fossil, a uniform An must be used before a vowel sounds. Ex. an umbrella, an excuse
Possessive Adjectives Possessive adjectives show ownership of a noun. These words are the same as the possessive pronouns. There are fourteen possessive adjectives: my, mine your, yours his, her, hers, its our, ours your, yours their, theirs
Demonstrative Adjectives Demonstrative adjectives point out a noun. They are the same words as the demonstrative pronouns. There are four demonstratives: this that these those
Indefinite Adjectives Indefinite adjectives point out nouns. They often tell how many or how much of something. There are seventeen of them: all, any, another, both, each, either, few, little, many, more, most, much, neither, one, other, several, some
Interrogative Adjectives Interrogative adjectives are used to ask questions. Three of them were also interrogative pronouns: which what whose
Limiting Adjectives Many limiting adjectives have also been studied as pronouns. How do you tell when they are pronouns and when they are adjectives? -If a word is a pronoun, it will be renaming a person, place, or thing. Ex. That is a pencil. (That is renaming the pencil; therefore, it is a pronoun.) -If a word is an adjective, it will be pointing out a noun. Ex. That pencil is big. (That is pointing out a pencil, and pencil is a noun; therefore, it is an adjective.)
Location of Adjectives Adjectives can be located in three places in a sentence. 1. The most common location is directly in front of the noun it is modifying. Ex. the big dog, the new toy 2. Another location is after a linking verb or verb of condition. These are called predicate adjectives. Ex. The game was interesting. 3. The final location of adjectives occurs after a noun when it is set off by commas. Ex. The book, well-written and suspenseful, kept my interest.