[Hong Kong - February 21, 2018]
Have you ever wondered about the nitty-gritty of adjectives?
Yes? Well this is the article for you.
No? Well, now is a perfect time to start wondering!
As editors, naturally we deal with words every day. It's our job to know the English language and its rules inside and out. Being native English speakers, we inherently know the details about spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Based in Hong Kong, we are perfectly placed to help people and businesses with their copywriting, editing, and proofreading; which means they don't have to worry about the details. They leave that to us.
To share our editing and proofreading knowledge, we will regularly be writing and posting a different article covering a specific aspect of the English language. From nouns and verbs to metaphors and similes, you will find everything you need to help improve your own writing, or learn about the rules that govern copywriting, editing, and proofreading. Whether you are an author, student, business professional, or just enjoy writing, you'll find something interesting in the upcoming editorial articles.
Now what you came here for! Adjectives...
An adjective describes the attributes, state of being, or quantity of a noun. For example: tall, short, happy, sad, hundreds, or few. They modify nouns in some way, but while they never modify verbs, adverbs, or other adjectives, they can compliment linking verbs or the verb to be. The most common linking verbs are: am, is, are, was, were, being, and been. When an adjective compliments a linking verb it is called a predicate adjective. A few examples of predicate adjectives are:
“The car is fast.”
“The dog was happy.”
“The flowers are yellow.”
You can have multiple adjectives that modify a noun as well, for example:
“He gave her a dozen red roses.”
Both dozen and red are modifying the noun roses. It is generally a good idea when using multiple adjectives, to separate them by using a comma or the word and. As in:
“The fast, expensive sports car was parked on the road.”
Multiple adjectives that modify the same noun in a sentence are called coordinate adjectives. Furthermore, adjectives absolutely must go in a specific order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose, and then the noun. For example:
“A charming little old square red English wooden writing desk.”
However, if you swap any of those words around none of it will sound right.
There are three types of adjective: absolute, comparative, and superlative. Absolute adjectives describe something in its own right. Comparative adjectives compare two or more things. Superlative adjectives tell the reader that something is the best it can be, the highest level possible. Here are examples of all three:
“A fast car.”
“A faster car.”
“The fastest car.”
In most cases, one-syllable comparative adjectives are constructed by adding er to the end of the adjective, as in faster. With two-syllable comparative adjectives ending in y, you replace it with ier, as in happier. In the case of comparative adjectives with three or more syllables, just add the word more in front of the adjective, as in more generous.
When dealing with superlative one-syllable adjectives you add est to the end of the word, as in fastest. For two-syllable comparative adjectives, you replace the y with iest, as in happiest. With superlative adjectives of three or more syllables, you add the word most to the front of the adjective, as in most generous.
When you use an article with a superlative adjective you’ll notice that, for the most part, it will be the definite article the, rather than the more general article a or an. This is because a superlative article tells the reader you are dealing with a specific thing. For example, you couldn’t say “a fastest car”; it has to be “the fastest car”.
Adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs. As we discussed above, adjectives can compliment a linking verb in the form of a predicate adjective. However, you have to be careful not to substitute an adverb in place of a predicate adjective. An example of this would be:
“I feel badly for them.”
Feel is the verb, and you would think deserves an adverb. However, feel isn’t a standard verb, it’s a linking verb. Adverbs describe how someone performs the action of feeling; adjectives describe what someone is feeling. In the example above, the person is bad at feeling, as in touching, not that they are experiencing negative emotions. It should read:
“I feel bad for them.”
Words that are usually nouns can also, on occasion, function as adjectives. For example: “their guide dog”. Guide is a noun but in this instance because if modifies the word dog it is an adjective. It also works the other way around too – “They shelter the homeless”. Homeless is usually an adjective but in this case it is a noun.
And that's adjectives. We hope that as editors and proofreaders here in Hong Kong, we have been able to illuminate you a little more about the English language. But as we said before, you don't have to worry about learning the details of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We'll do all that for you, whether you require copywriting, editing, or someone to just proofread a final draft of your essay, manuscript, or journal article.