ADJECTIVES by Busungu Joseph

 ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word used to express quality, quantity, number and point out the person or thing.

Types of adjectives

1.    Adjective of quality: it is used to talk about the quality of a person or something. For example, beautiful, industrial, good, kind, rough, rude, handsome, nice, large, etc. Adjectives of quality are also called qualifying/describing words.

ü This is a wonderful city

ü He married a kind woman

ü Pwani is an industrial region

ü My father owns a large plantation

ü I saw a beautiful girl

ü Kind people are successful

2.    Adjective of quantity: It is an adjective used to show the amount of something. For example, few, enough, little, many, much, any, whole, sufficient, all, etc. They also known as quantifying words or quantifiers.

ü We collect many broken chairs

ü I have enough food to eat

ü I don’t have any information

ü All curtains were washed

3.    Demonstrative adjectives: These are adjectives used to point people or things. For example, that, this, these, those and such. They can be differentiated from demonstrative pronouns depending on how they are used in the sentence. In order to function as adjectives, they must come before a noun.

ü This house was built in 1990

ü Those apples are sweet

ü I want that seat

ü Are these mattresses for sale?

ü Such behaviour is very dangerous

4.    Distributive adjectives: These adjectives used to refer to each person or thing separately. Examples of distributive adjectives include; every, each, either, neither, both, etc.

ü Each student was punished

ü Every Tanzanian must work hard

ü Neither the group have completed the work

ü Either the two sisters come from Rwanda

5.    Interrogative adjectives: These are adjectives used to ask questions. For example; what, which, whose.

ü What language do you speak?

ü Which city do you like?

ü Which book did your friend buy?

ü Whose shop was broken yesterday?

ü What advice will you advise him?

6.    Possessive adjectives: These are adjectives used to show possession or ownership. For example; my, our, his, their, your, her and its.

ü My house is painted blue

ü Your enemy was arrested

ü We bought our land

ü They should show their materials

ü The dog twisted its tail

ü His girlfriend was married

7.    Emphasizing adjectives: These are adjectives used to emphasize a noun. For example; own and very.

ü I saw him with my own eyes

ü I built my own house

ü This is the very moment to enjoy

ü It is a very day I have waited for.

ü This is the very book to learn syntax

8.    Exclamatory adjectives: Sometimes a word ‘what’ functions as an adjective showing exclamation.

ü What a goal!

ü What a beauty!

ü What a fun!

ü What an insult!

9.    Proper adjective: These are adjectives derived from proper nouns. For example, Tanzanian, Chinese, Japanese, Indians.

ü A Tanzanian student was awarded

ü I wish to marry a Rwandese woman

ü Chinese companies are very stable

ü American president will pay a visit to Ukraine

ü The Russian army was defeated

NB:

Adjectives usually come before nouns. Some words can either function as adjectives or other word classes. In such scenarios, a word is treated as an adjective only if it comes before a noun. Look at the following examples of the underlined words;

ü That is a smart boy (pronoun)

ü That boy is smart (adjective)

ü Which book is yours? (adjective)

ü Which is your book? (pronoun)

ü Those students are very bright (adjective)

ü Those are bright students (pronoun)

 

 

1.    Order of adjectives

In a sentence, we may have more than one adjective at a time. At this time, they should follow the following order;

ü Adjectives of quantity and all determiners,

ü Adjectives of quality/opinion,

ü Adjectives of size,

ü Adjectives showing age,

ü Adjectives showing shape,

ü Adjectives of colour,

ü Proper adjectives origin,

ü Adjectives showing material,

ü Adjectives of purpose.

Order of adjectives

Quantity or number	General /Quality	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Origin	Material	Purpose	Noun
Three	Beautiful	Tall	Old			Tanzanian			women
					Red	Spanish	Leather	Riding	Shoes
	Amazing			Heart-shaped	white				Sofa
Many	Beautiful	Long	Old			Italian		Sports	Cars
					Blue	Kenyan	Wooden	Flower	Vase
Two	Beautiful	Big	Old	Round-faced	Black	Ethiopian			Women

That is,

ü Three beautiful tall old Tanzanian women won the medal

ü Red Spanish leather riding shoes are sold at Karume market

ü Amazing heart-shaped white sofa attracts everyone

ü Many beautiful long old Italian sports car run very fast

ü Blue wooden Kenyan flower vase can be available at Msimbazi

ü Two beautiful big old round-faced black Ethiopian women were training to drive a car.