Lesson 152 - Parts of the Sentence - Adjectives

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Adjectives modify or affect the meaning of nouns and pronouns and tell us which, whose, what kind, and how many about the nouns or pronouns they modify. They come before the noun or pronoun they modify except for the predicate adjective which comes after a linking verb and modifies the subject.

 

Examples of adjectives:

The big brown bear grabbed the scared small man.

(The, big, and brown modify the subject bear and the, scared, and small modify the direct object man)

Examples of predicate adjectives:

The big bear is brown. The brown bear was big.

(brown and big come after the linking verbs is and was and modify the subject bear)

 

There are seven (7) words in the English language that are always adjectives. They are the articles a, an, and the and the possessives my, our, your, and their. (The possessives are from the possessive pronoun list but are always used with nouns as adjectives.) One should memorize them so they are immediately recognized as adjectives.

Adjectives that point out what kind are most common and too numerous to list. Big, brown, scared, and small above are examples.

Instructions: Find the adjectives that tell what kind in these sentences and tell what they modify.

1. The tall man is a professional baseball player.

2. That lovely old lady wrote realistic short plays.

3. A loud and noisy group greeted the returned missionary.

4. The small but strong man helped the cute little girl.

5. A tall slender girl won the beauty contest.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. The tall man is a professional baseball player.

- tall modifies man

- professional and baseball modify player

2. That lovely old lady wrote realistic short plays.

- lovely and old modify lady

- realistic and short modify plays

3. A loud and noisy group greeted the returned missionary.

- loud and noisy modify group

- returned modifies missionary

4. The small but strong man helped the cute little girl.

- small and strong modify man

- cute and little modify girl

5. A tall slender girl won the beauty contest.

- tall and slender modify girl 

- beauty modifies contest

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