THINGS TO LEARN ABOUT ADJECTIVES | POSITION, RULES, ORDER

 

Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns.

That is a beautiful dress.

BEAUTIFUL is the adjective that modifies the noun “dress”. Hence, “beautiful” describes the dress.

I pity the Santoses. I couln’t believe they are

 really poor.

POOR is the adjective that modifies the pronoun “they”. Hence, “poor” describes “they” which refers to the Santoses. Thus, it simply means that the Santoses are poor which caused the speaker to pity them.

POSITIONS OF ADJECTIVES

·         Adjectives could be found directly before the noun it modifies. These adjectives are called the ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES.

That is a beautiful dress.

BEAUTIFUL is the adjective which is found before the noun “dress”.

·         Adjectives could also be found after a linking verb. These adjectives are called PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES.

I couln’t believe they are really poor.

POOR is an adjective that is found after the linking verb “are” but it still modifies or describes the pronoun “they”.

·         Adjectives could also be found immediately after the noun. These adjectives are called POSTPOSITIVE ADJECTIVES.

I got you the best seats available.

AVAILABLE is the postpositive adjective as it is found immediately after the noun “seats”. “Best”, on the other hand, is an attributive adjective as it is found before the noun “seats”.

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Yes, there is a uniform or shall we say, acceptable order of adjectives depending on whether they cumulatively describe a noun or is it that multiple adjectives modify the same noun.

RULES

1.      OPINION FIRST BEFORE A FACT

•     delicious Korean barbecue

 

“Delicious” is opinion because how delicious food is depends on the person’s food preferences. So, it should come before the proper adjective “Korean”, which is a fact since it indicates the origin of the said barbecue; no one can argue with that.

 

General ideas first before

 specific ideas

•     Long wooden bench
•     Old black and white films
•     New leather jacket

“Long, old and new” are general ideas. We don’t really know how long it is we are talking about, or how old exactly and object is, or even how new it is. “Wooden, black and white, leather” are very specific adjectives. Specifically, the bench is made of wood but we don’t know how long it is. We know for sure that the films are black and white but we do not know exactly how long it has existed. We know the jacket is made of leather but we do not know for sure how many days has it been since it was acquired by the owner.

When two or more adjectives describe the same noun, therefore these adjectives are called COORDINATE ADJECTIVES. These adjectives should be separated by commas, or joined by “and” but it does not follow a specific order. In other words, the order can be reversed without changing the meaning.

Here comes our smart, funny leader.
Here comes our smart and funny leader.
Here comes our funny, smart leader.

 

CUMULATIVE ADJECTIVES on the other hand, does follow a specific order. Here’s how:

DETERMINER	OPINION	SIZE	PHYSICAL QUALITY	AGE	SHAPE	COLOR	ORIGIN	MATERIAL/ TYPE	PURPOSE	NOUN
his			wrinkled	old	thin			widowed		mother
the	obedient			young						son
	cruel			young			Japanese			ruler

 

DETERMINER. This includes the pronominals. These are pronouns that are used as adjectives, mostly dubbed as determiners.

      Article: a, an, the

      Number: one, two, three, etc.

      Ordinal: first, second, third, etc.

      Demonstrative: this, that, those, these

      Indefinite: some, several, many, all

      Distributive: each, every

      Possessive:  his, her, my, their, its

OPINION. This refers to one’s observation or description which is mostly subjective, thus opinionated.

clever, funny, wonderful, acceptable, innocent, talkative

 

SIZE. The over-all dimension or magnitude which shall determine how big or small something or someone is.  

big, small, massive, huge, colossal, gigantic, tiny

 

PHYSICAL QUALITY. This includes what you see in the physical aspect or the appearance of something or someone.  

Messy, cluttered, murky, rough, thin, untidy, neat, clean

 

AGE. The length of time a person has lived or the length of existence of something.

young, old, youthful, ancient

SHAPE. The quality of a certain object, body or surface that consist of an outline to create a form or figure.  

Square, round, long, rectangular, triangular, spherical

COLOR. The quality of an object or substance with respect to how light is reflected by the object which then is caught by the eyes of the on-looker.

Red, blue, purple, pinkish, bluish, green

ORIGIN. This refers to where someone or something came from. It could also refer to someone’s religion. They are also called PROPER ADJECTIVES.

Catholic, British, American, Thai, Buddhist, Singaporean, Spanish, Chinese

MATERIAL. This refers to that something is made from. This also could include the type of material the object is made from.  

Metal, plastic, leather, two-sided, wooden, gold, silver

PURPOSE. This refers to the special usage of an object. This could also refer to an ATTRIBUTIVE NOUN, a noun that comes before the head noun.  

big, small, massive, huge, colossal, gigantic, tiny