Lesson by Safrianna DeGroat

ADJECTIVE  “a word that modifies a noun.”  Refers to a word class with particular characteristics (describing the noun).  This does not have a grammatical function. ADJECTIVAL  A phrase that modifies a noun  Does not have a grammatical function

The stuff that comes before your headword!

 Most nouns require one  A signaler that is in the opening of the noun phrase  Articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, numbers, and other common words  In writing, you should give deliberate though to it

 “The idea you had about the mission is great.”  “That idea you had about the mission is great.”  “Your idea about the mission is great.”  “Every idea you have for the mission is great.”  “His idea for the mission was great.”  “Such an idea can only be described as great.”  “An idea like that could turn out great.”

 When you select a determiner, you have a chance to make distinctions and help your readers move easily from one idea to the next  Demonstratives – this, that, these, those – always refer to KNOWN information; you need to be referring to something  Pronouns must clearly refer to someone to be useful  You can add headwords to make things more clear:  The engineer told me he was going to the parts shop. (vs. “He told me he was going to the parts shop.)  That fight was really tough! (vs. “That was really tough!”)

 These are the words that go between the determiners and headwords  When a noun phrase has both, the order is:  Determiner, Adjective, Noun, Headword  Sometimes we use more than one adjective:  “a fresh exciting floral scent”  “the innovative computer system”

 Use a comma between prenoun modifiers if it’s possible to use and.  You wouldn’t say, “The blue and embossed and book cover;” instead, it’s “The blue embossed book cover.”  Technically, “The blue, embossed book cover” is also correct by this rule.

 Sometimes prenoun modifiers are modified themselves:  “a highly unusual girl”  “the really important paperwork”  In these two examples, we are using a –ly adverb. We do not need to connect highly and unusual with a hyphen, or really and important.  However, sometimes an adjective or noun is used to modify another as in:  “the Basic-speaking audience”  “a four-legged beast”  In these examples, the hyphen shows us that the word preceding the hyphen modifies the following word, rather than the subject.

The stuff that comes after the headword!

 The adjectival prepositional phrase is the most common postnoun modifier  Its identical to an adverbial prepositional phrase, but with a different function  It adds a distinguishing feature to the noun (it often defines “which one”)  The soldier stationed at the west outpost really knows his stuff.  The Olive Garden near the mall has really good service.  The lady with the powder pink hat is in the cook book aisle.

 Usually an adjective is between the determiner and noun headword  When the adjective is expanded into a phrase with qualifiers or becomes compounded, it can occupy a position after the headword where its set off by commas  “The hot, tired Boy Scouts trudged the last mile to their campsites.” vs. “The Boy Scouts, hot and tired, trudged the last mile to their campsite.”

 This is a versatile type of adjectival where a verb phrase is headed by the present or past participle form of a verb  “The helicopter hovering over the roof frightened the dogs.”  Note that it resembles a sentence, but lacks an auxiliary (“The helicopter is hovering over the roof).  Pronoun participles are a single word – the verb has no complements or modifiers:  “Our snoring visitor kept the house away.” “The barking dog next door drives us crazy.”  Moving participles are when you move a patriciple to the beining, but only if it modifies the subject, and is set off by commas.  “Looking out the window, my mother waved to me.” “Laughing uproariously, the audience stood and applauded.”  Dangling participles change the focus of the sentence, but can only open or close the sentence if it modifies the subject. A participle modifies its own subject; so a dangling participle is a verb without a subject.  “Carrying all of our supplies for miles, the campground was a welcome sight.”

 A relative clause or adjective clause is a structure with a subject and predicate, enabling the writer to put an entire subject-predicate idea into a noun phrase.  A participle phrase is really only a shortened version of a relative clause.  “The helicopter that is hovering over the roof frightened the dogs.”  A relative clause does not have the participle’s ability to be moved around. It follows its noun.  Relative pronoun who – who (subjective), whose (possessive) and whom (objective)  “The girl whose notes I borrowed wasn’t here today.”

It’s broad!

Punctuation: It can be really fun! Conversely, it can be quite complex – as you will soon see.

The Royal Order of Adjectives This is a basic order you should strive to put your adjectives in. It is what comes naturally to us when we do describe things.