Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.
Before getting into
other usage considerations, one general note about the use — or over-use — of
adjectives: Adjectives are
frail; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your broad-shouldered verbs and
nouns do the hard work of description. Be particularly cautious in your use of
adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place: interesting, beautiful, lovely,
exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and
interest, and when you simply insist on its presence without showing it to your reader — well, you're
convincing no one.
Position of Adjectives
:
- Adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category
- And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive" (coming after the thing they modify)
Positive
|
Comparative
|
Superlative
|
rich
|
richer
|
richest
|
lovely
|
lovelier
|
loveliest
|
beautiful
|
more beautiful
|
most beautiful
|
- Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:
Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms
|
||
good
|
better
|
best
|
bad
|
worse
|
worst
|
little
|
less
|
least
|
much
many some |
more
|
most
|
far
|
further
|
furthest
|
p/s
: Be careful, also, not to use more along with a comparative adjective
formed with -er nor to use most along with a superlative adjective
formed with -est (e.g., do not write that something is more heavier or most heaviest.
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