Using Adjectives TOEFL

Adjectives Definition Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.

Adjectives Adjective clauses: If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adjective, it is called an adjective clause. My sister, who is much older than I am, is an engineer.

Adjectives Adjective phrase: If an adjective clause is stripped of its subject and verb, the resulting modifier becomes an adjective phrase. He is the man who is keeping my family in the poorhouse. (clause) He is the man keeping my family in the poorhouse. (phrase)

Kinds of adjectives Opinion Size Age Shape Color Origin Material Purpose

Kinds of adjectives Opinion: an adjective that explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you). Silly Beautiful Horrible Difficult

Kinds of adjectives Size: A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. Large Tiny Enormous Little

Kinds of adjectives Age: An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. Ancient New Young Old Recent

Kinds of adjectives Shape: A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Square Spherical Oblong Flat Rectangular

Kinds of adjectives Color: A color adjective, of course, describes the color of something. Scarlet Lime Reddish Gray Chartreuse

Kinds of adjectives Origin: An origin adjective describes where something comes from. French Lunar Eastern Handmade/homemade Manufactured

Kinds of adjectives Material: A material adjective describes what something is made from. Wooden Cotton Paper Metal Ceramic

Kinds of adjectives Purpose: A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with "-ing". Sleeping (bag) Roasting (pan) Dusting (cloth) Laundry (soap )

That is the end of this presentation Adjectives for TOEFL

Adjective order Sometimes adjectives appear in a string, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category. Opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose Please throw out that silly, old brown, ceramic, baking dish. I love those tiny, ancient, French, ceramic, tea cups.

Degrees of adjectives Adjectives can express degrees of modification: Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie's the richest woman in town. The degrees of comparison are known as the comparative, and the superlative.

Degrees of adjectives We use the comparative for comparing two things. Beau is smarter than Eric. We use the superlative for comparing three or more things. But, Jane is the smartest in the class.

Degrees of adjectives Notice that the word than frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. Rhonda is prettier than Alice. Sandra is the prettiest.

Degrees of adjectives The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ier and -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in y (happier and happiest) Otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has more than one syllable.

Degrees of adjectives When making a comparison between quantities we often have to make a choice between the words fewer and less.

Degrees of adjectives Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we use the word fewer; Jack has fewer apples than Arnie. When we're talking about measurable quantities that we cannot count, we use the word less. I would like less sugar in my tea next time.

Degrees of adjectives We do, however, use less when referring to statistical or numerical expressions: It's less than twenty miles to Dallas. He's less than six feet tall. Your essay should be a thousand words or less. In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.

Degrees of adjectives When making a comparison with "than" do we end with a subject form or object form, "taller than I/she" or "taller than me/her." The correct response is "taller than I/she." We are looking for the subject form: "He is taller than I am/she is tall." We leave out the verb in the second clause

Proper adjectives When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Christian music French fries The English Parliament

Proper adjectives Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: The Nixon era A Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet Spring fashions

Collective adjectives When the definite article, the, is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of people, the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the rich the oppressed the homeless the lonely

Collective adjectives The difference between a collective noun, which is usually regarded as singular and a collective adjective is that the adjective is always plural and requires a plural verb: The rural poor have been ignored by the media. The elderly are beginning to demand their rights.