REVIEW OF ADJECTIVES
We have now reviewed, to some extent, three parts of speech—the preposition, the noun, and the verb. Two of the eight parts of speech are what we call modifying words; they are the adjectives and adverbs.
An ADJECTIVE always modifies a noun or pronoun. When we say “modifies” we mean that the adjective tells something about the noun or pronoun. An adjective will always answer one of the following questions:
What kind?
How many?
Which one?
Examples:
What kind? Healthy children; sunny days.
How many? Several chairs; thirty pupils.
Which one? That pencil; the-first boy.
Ways in Which Adjectives are Used:
1. The adjective may directly modify a noun or pronoun. (This is called the attributive position.) Examples:
The delicate flower was shattered by the wind.
This is the Jast one in the box.
2. The adjective may follow the noun or pronoun it modifies. (This is called the appositive position.) This arrangement is often very effective and gives variety to your sentences.
Examples:
“The night had just fallen, moist and heavy, over the jungle...
The jungle, vast and mysterious and still, closed its gates behind them.”
—Edison Marshall, The Elephant Remembers 3. When an adjective follows the verb and describes the subject, it is called a predicate adjec- tive. (Sometimes the order is changed, but the predicate adjective never directly modifies the subject.
In poetic phrasing one may say, “Green are the meadows,’ but the natural order would be, “The meadows are green.”)
Examples:
“Her figure and features were singularly delicate . . . The day was windless and bright, with only a few white clouds floating at a great height above and casting traveling shadows over that wild, broken country, where forest, marsh, and savanna were only distinguish- able by their different colors, like the greys and greens and yellows on a map.”
—W. H. Hudson, Green Mansions 4. An adjective may follow the direct object and modify it, telling the result. (This is called the object complement. and it will be studied later in connection with nouns, which may be object complements also.)
Examples:
The farmer painted his barn red.
The crisp air made the children’s cheeks rosy.
5. Words which are usually adjectives may become nouns.
Examples:
PRACTICE:
Locate the adjectives in the following passages. In the first blank write the adjective, and in the second blank write the noun or pronoun it modifies. Do not include the articles a, an, and the..
A possessive is not an adjective. The numbers tell you how many adjectives there are. Try to keep them in the proper order.
The first three passages are from The Elephant Remembers by Edison Marshall.
1. He loved the rains that flashed through the jungles, the swift-climbing dawns in the east, the strange, tense, breathless nights. And at midnight he loved to trumpet to the herd on some far-away hill, and hear, fainter than the death-cry of a beetle, its answer come back to him.
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2. They looked him over from tail to trunk. They marked the symmetrical form, the legs like mighty pillars, the sloping back, the wide-apart intelligent eyes. His shoulders were an expression of latent might—power to break a tree-trunk at its base; by the conformity of his muscles he was agile and quick as a tiger.
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3. He was a huge creature—wrinkled and yellow-tusked and scarred from the wounds of a thousand fights. His little red eyes looked out malignantly. He confidently expected that Muztagh would yield at once, because as a rule young twenty-five-year-olds do not care to mix in battle with the scarred and crafty veterans of sixty years. But he did not know Muztagh.
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3. 9
4. 10.
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The following passage is from Shadows on The Rock by Willa Cather:?
4. From his first meeting with him, Auclair had loved this restless boy (he was a boy then) who shot up and down the swift rivers of Canada in his canoe. Though the figure was still boyish, his face was full of experience and sagacity; a fine bold nose, a restless, rather mischievous mouth, white teeth, very strong and even, sparkling hazel eyes with a kind of living flash in them, like the sunbeams on the bright rapids upon which he was so skillful.
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1From The Elephant Remembers by Edison Marshall. Used by permission of Little, Brown and Company, holders of the copyright.
?From Shadows On The Rock by Willa Cather. Used by permission of Little, Brown and Company, holders of the copyright.
20
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143 18.
CORRECT USAGE 4.
Here are more pronouns that may catch you napping.
We boys went fishing not “Us boys went—”
We pupils elected our officers, not “Us pupils elected—”
They gave us boys some tickets, not ‘“‘They gave we boys—”’
They sent the tickets to us boys, not “They sent the ticket to we boys”
Fill the blanks correctly.
1 (We, Us) girls are planning a picnic.
2. Jane gave a party for____(we, us) girls who were visiting her.
3. The project seemed worthy of support, and (we, us) teachers were glad to cooperate.
4. Itwascold and rainy, but_______ (we, us) boys decided to start our camping trip in spite of the weather
5. The speaker told____—(we, us) students some of his interesting experiences in far coun- tries.
6. Uncle George sent some stamps to_________(we, us) boys for our collection that we are just starting.
WORD STUDY 4.
Master the spelling and the pronunciation:
(Part of speech and definition)
benefit competent
costume
custom (to) facilitate
gymnasium a ee a ee cc Ay ee SWE SS
sophomore opportune
For further progress:
enervating
Examples: _
Martha has proved to be a very competent officer, and the club has had one of its most suc:
cessful years.
*
The new machinery in the factory did much to facilitate production.
It was an opportune time to broach the subject, as Father was feeling particularly _ -_
humored and pleased with the world. &
The climate on the tropical island was so enervating that the few white settlers soon lost their energy and settled into the slow pace of the natives.
He had become so deeply involved in the affair that he could not extricate himself with hotio® ;
re Fl
Write original sentences here:
SECTION 8