Adjectives
a.k.a describing words
Adjectives often destroy a sentence. You could have an exquisite sentence only to be ruined by the overuse of clumsy bewildering adjectives.
Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns and tell us something about them.
They do not modify verbs, adverbs or other adjectives.
If you want to sound sophisticated and sanctimonious, you can derive adjectives from proper nouns. Simply add the suffix (a morpheme (a unit of language that cannot be further divided) to the end of a word derivative) an/ian/ean.
Elizabeth → Elizabethan
Shakespeare → Shakespearean
Dickens → Dickensian
the ‘an/ian/ean’ means ‘of or pertaining to.’
you can also add ‘esque’ to mean ‘in the style of.’
Dante → Dantesque
Franz Kafka → Kafkaesque
Adjectives come in 3 forms: absolute, comparative and superlative.
Absolute
Absolute adjectives describe something in its own right.
A great writer.
A beautiful women
That clumsy cat
Comparative
comparative adjectives, compare things!
A better writer
A clumsier cat
Superlative
Superlative adjectives indicate something has the highest level of quality.
The best writer
The clumsiest cat
Coordinate adjectives
Here is one for the grammar nerds
You have coordinate adjectives when they both modify the same noun in a sentence. The adjectives should be separated by a comma or the word ‘and’.
This is a long, meandering blog post.
This bloggers tireless and dedicated attempt to learn to write is remarkable.
Adjectivals
Many words can join together to form an adjective. If they contain a subject and a verb, they are known as an adjectival clause.
My fellow bloggers, who are much better at writing than me, are more successful.
If the clause doesn’t contain the subject and verb, then you have yourself an adjectival phrase.
This blog was not too terrible.
Sometimes, a noun can become an adjective depending on where it is positioned in a sentence. For example ‘guide’ is normally a noun but in the following sentence, it functions as an adjective.
Never try to pet someone’s guide-dog without asking permission first.
This example was taken from this blog
A general rule for the use of Adjectives is to not use them unless they do something.
Great start to my morning. English lessons!!!! 😉
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Haha. With a coffee and nice breakfast!
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Important, useful information – even though my head is spinning in a crazy, I-should-have-had-coffee-first kind of way!
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People either love my obnoxious use of adjectives in my ornate prose style or they hate it. Especially when I use a proper noun based one like Sisyphean. I know I sound like a pompous ass, but that’s kind of the point. Hahaha. I like this blog. Going to follow.
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Well, the rules often exist to be broken!
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That’s my favourite part about living with rules!
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So concise!
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This is very true. Using an adjective just to fatten up a sentence is always a bad idea
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The banal phrase ‘less is more’ almost always applies.
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Very clear and useful. I almost remember this stuff again! Excellent resource.
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Thanks man
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“… who are much better writers than myself…”
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Is that a correction? Thanks, I will have to look up the rule on this.
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😘
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Beautiful language beautifies beautiful streams and flows of words making it a beautiful experience to have a sounding own moving and addictive continuous interpretation of what the writer intends to say. Beautiful, right?
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Wow! Is that your own?
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Entirely! Plagiarism is ugly
😜
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