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Adjectives
Adjectives
An adjective is defined as "a word or phrase that modifies (gives more information about) a noun."
An adjective works with a noun to tell more about it.
Examples:
beautiful, heavy, sixteen, large, scary/scarier/scariest
She wore a beautiful dress. (Beautiful is an adjective that tells more about the noun dress.)
The heavy luggage was difficult to carry. (Heavy is an adjective that tells more about the noun luggage.)
Her birthday cake was decorated with sixteen candles. (Sixteen is an adjective that tells more about the noun candles.)
The scariest mask in the Halloween contest was worn by Mel. (Scariest is an adjective that tells more about the noun mask.)
Degrees of comparison
Degrees of comparison
Adjectives come in three forms: absolute, comparative, and superlative.
Absolute adjectives
Absolute adjectives
Absolute adjectives are a straight-forward form of the adjective.
Examples
A cool guy
A messy desk
A mischievous cat
Garrulous squirrels
Comparative adjectives
Comparative adjectives
Comparative adjectives make a comparison between two or more things.
Examples
A cooler guy
A messier desk
A more mischievous cat
More garrulous squirrels
The comparative forms of adjectives are created in the following ways:
For most one-syllable adjectives, the comparative is formed by adding the suffix -er (or just -r if the adjective already ends with an e).
For two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, replace -y with -ier.
For multi-syllable adjectives, add the word more.
Superlative adjectives
Superlative adjectives
Superlative adjectives indicate that something has the highest degree of the quality in question. Using a superlative inherently indicates that you are talking about a specific item or items. When you use an article with a superlative adjective, it will almost always be the definite article the rather than a or an.
Examples
The coolest guy
The messiest desk
The most mischievous cat
The most garrulous squirrels
The superlative forms of adjectives are created in the following ways:
One-syllable adjectives become superlatives by adding the suffix -est (or just -st for adjectives that already end in e).
Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y replace -y with -iest.
Multi-syllable adjectives add the word most.
Adverbs
Adverbs
An adverb is defined as "a word or phrase that modifies (gives more information about) a verb, an adjective, or another adverb."
An adverb works with verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. It can tell how, where, when, how much, and how often. See this chart for more information.
You might have learned that adverbs modify verbs and end in -ly. While that is partially true, not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. In addition, many adverbs don't end in -ly. And finally, as you can see from the definition, adverbs also modify adjectives and other adverbs.
Examples:
secretly, last year, quickly, here, eagerly, normally, very
They secretly held a meeting. (Secretly is an adverb that tells more about the verb held. It tells how the meeting was held.)
I celebrated my birthday with a huge party last year. (Last year is an adjective phrase that tells more about the verb celebrated. It tells when the party was celebrated.)
Get over here! (Here is an adverb that tells more about the verb get. It tells where one should get.)
He wore a very nice shirt. (Very is an adjective that tells more about the adjective nice. It tells more about how nice the shirt was.)
Degrees of comparison
Degrees of comparison
Like adjectives, adverbs come in three forms: flat, comparative, and superlative.
Flat adverbs
Flat adverbs
Flat adverbs are a straight-forward form of the adverb.
Examples
He smiled warmly.
A hastily written note
Comparative adverbs
Comparative adverbs
Comparative adverbs make a comparison between two or more things.
The comparative forms of adverbs are created by adding the word more.
Examples
He smiled more warmly than the others.
The more hastily written note contained the clue.
Superlative adjectives
Superlative adjectives
Superlative adverbs indicate that something has the highest degree of the quality in question. The superlative forms of adverbs are created by adding the word most.
Examples
He smiled the most warmly out of everyone in the group.
The most hastily written note was the one we focused on.
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