In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving

more information about the object signified. Adjectives are one of the traditional eight English parts of
speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that were formerly
considered to be adjectives. In this paragraph, "main", "more", and "traditional" are adjectives.

Most but not all languages have adjectives. Those that do not typically use words of another part of
speech, often verbs, to serve the same semantic function; for example, such a language might have a verb
that means "to be big", and would use a construction analogous to "big-being house" to express what
English expresses as "big house". Even in languages that do have adjectives, one language's adjective
might not be another's; for example, while English uses "to be hungry" (hungry being an adjective),
French and Spanish use "avoir faim" and "tener hambre" respectively (literally "to have hunger", hunger
being a noun), and where Hebrew uses the adjective "‫( "זקוק‬zaqūq, roughly "in need of"), English uses the
verb "to need".

Adjectives form an open class of words in most languages that have them; that is, it is relatively common
for new adjectives to be formed via such processes as derivation.

Contents

[hide]

 1 Adjectives and adverbs

 2 Determiners
 3 Form
 4 Adjectival phrases
 5 Other noun modifiers
 6 Adjective order
 7 Comparison of adjectives
 8 Restrictiveness
 9 Agreement
 10 See also
 11 Bibliography
 12 External links

[edit] Adjectives and adverbs

Many languages, including English, distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and pronouns,
and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Not all languages have exactly this
distinction, however, and many languages, including English, have words that can function as both. For
example, in English fast is an adjective in "a fast car" (where it qualifies the noun car), but an adverb in
"he drove fast" (where it modifies the verb drove).

[edit] Determiners

Main article: Determiner (linguistics)

Linguists today distinguish determiners from adjectives, considering them to be two separate parts of
speech (or lexical categories), but formerly determiners were considered to be adjectives in some of their
uses. In English dictionaries, which typically still do not treat determiners as their own part of speech,
determiners are often recognizable by being listed both as adjectives and as pronouns. Determiners are
words that are neither nouns nor pronouns, yet reference a thing already in context. Determiners generally
do this by indicating definiteness (as in a vs. the), quantity (as in one vs. some vs. many), or another such
property.

[edit] Form

A given occurrence of an adjective can generally be classified into one of four kinds of uses:

 Attributive adjectives are part of the noun phrase headed by the noun they modify; for example,
happy is an attributive adjective in "happy people". In some languages, attributive adjectives
precede their nouns; in others, they follow their nouns; and in yet others, it depends on the
adjective, or on the exact relationship of the adjective to the noun. In English, attributive
adjectives usually precede their nouns in simple phrases, but often follow their nouns when the
adjective is modified or qualified by a phrase acting as an adverb. For example: "I saw three
happy kids", and "I saw three kids happy enough to jump up and down with glee." See also Post-
positive adjective.
 Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or pronoun
they modify; for example, happy is a predicate adjective in "they are happy" and in "that made
me happy." (See also: Predicative (adjectival or nominal), Subject complement.)
 Absolute adjectives do not belong to a larger construction (aside from a larger adjective phrase),
and typically modify either the subject of a sentence or whatever noun or pronoun they are closest
to; for example, happy is an absolute adjective in "The boy, happy with his lollipop, did not look
where he was going."
 Nominal adjectives act almost as nouns. One way this can happen is if a noun is elided and an
attributive adjective is left behind. In the sentence, "I read two books to them; he preferred the sad
book, but she preferred the happy", happy is a nominal adjective, short for "happy one" or "happy
book". Another way this can happen is in phrases like "out with the old, in with the new", where
"the old" means, "that which is old" or "all that is old", and similarly with "the new". In such
cases, the adjective functions either as a mass noun (as in the preceding example) or as a plural
count noun, as in "The meek shall inherit the Earth", where "the meek" means "those who are
meek" or "all who are meek".

[edit] Adjectival phrases

Main article: Adjectival phrase

An adjective acts as the head of an adjectival phrase. In the simplest case, an adjectival phrase consists
solely of the adjective; more complex adjectival phrases may contain one or more adverbs modifying the
adjective ("very strong"), or one or more complements (such as "worth several dollars", "full of toys", or
"eager to please"). In English, attributive adjectival phrases that include complements typically follow
their subject ("an evildoer devoid of redeeming qualities").

[edit] Other noun modifiers

In many languages, including English, it is possible for nouns to modify other nouns. Unlike adjectives,
nouns acting as modifiers (called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts) are not predicative; a beautiful park
is beautiful, but a car park is not "car". In plain English, the modifier often indicates origin ("Virginia
reel"), purpose ("work clothes"), or semantic patient ("man eater"). However, it can generally indicate
almost any semantic relationship. It is also common for adjectives to be derived from nouns, as in English
boyish, birdlike, behavioral, famous, manly, angelic, and so on.

Many languages have special verbal forms called participles can act as noun modifiers. In some
languages, including English, there is a strong tendency for participles to evolve into adjectives. English
examples of this include relieved (the past participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in sentences
(such as "I am so relieved to see you"), spoken (as in "the spoken word"), and going (the present
participle of the verb go, used as an adjective in sentences such as "Ten dollars per hour is the going
rate").

Other constructs that often modify nouns include prepositional phrases (as in English "a rebel without a
cause"), relative clauses (as in English "the man who wasn't there"), other adjective clauses (as in English
"the bookstore where he worked"), and infinitive phrases (as in English "cake to die for").

In relation, many nouns take complements such as content clauses (as in English "the idea that I would do
that"); these are not commonly considered modifiers, however.

[edit] Adjective order

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the adjective order
in English is:

1. quantity or number
2. quality
3. size
4. age
5. shape
6. color
7. proper adjective (often nationality or other place of origin)
8. purpose or qualifier

So, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age ("little old", not "old
little"), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to color ("old white", not "white old"). So,
we would say "A nice (opinion) little (size) old (age) white (color) brick (material) house".

Due to borrowings from French, English has some adjectives which follow the noun as postmodifiers.
They may even change meaning depending on whether they precede or follow, as in proper: They live in
a proper town (a real town) vs. They live in the town proper (in the town itself).

This order may be more rigid in some languages than others; in some, like Spanish, it may only be a
default (unmarked) word order, with other orders being permissible.

[edit] Comparison of adjectives

Main articles: Comparison (grammar) and Comparative

In many languages, adjectives can be compared. In English, for example, we can say that a car is big, that
it is bigger than another is, or that it is the biggest car of all. Not all adjectives lend themselves to
comparison, however; for example, the English adjective extinct is not considered comparable, in that it
does not make sense to describe one species as "more extinct" than another. However, even most non-
comparable English adjectives are still sometimes compared; for example, one might say that a language
about which nothing is known is "more extinct" than a well-documented language with surviving
literature but no speakers. This is not a comparison of the degree of intensity of the adjective, but rather
the degree to which the object fits the adjective's definition.

Comparable adjectives are also known as "gradable" adjectives, because they tend to allow grading
adverbs such as very, rather, and so on.

Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared in this way, different approaches are used. Indeed,
even within English, two different approaches are used: the suffixes -er and -est, and the words more and
most. (In English, the general tendency is for shorter adjectives and adjectives from Anglo-Saxon to use
-er and -est, and for longer adjectives and adjectives from French, Latin, Greek, and other languages to
use more and most.) By either approach, English adjectives therefore have positive forms (big),
comparative forms (bigger), and superlative forms (biggest). However, many other languages do not
distinguish comparative from superlative forms.

[edit] Restrictiveness

Main article: Restrictiveness

Attributive adjectives, and other noun modifiers, may be used either restrictively (helping to identify the
noun's referent, hence "restricting" its reference), or non-restrictively (helping to describe an already-
identified noun). In some languages, such as Spanish, restrictiveness is consistently marked; for example,
in Spanish la tarea difícil means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task that is difficult" (restrictive),
while la difícil tarea means "the difficult task" in the sense of "the task, which is difficult" (non-
restrictive). In English, restrictiveness is not marked on adjectives, but is marked on relative clauses (the
difference between "the man who recognized me was there" and "the man, who recognized me, was there"
being one of restrictiveness).

[edit] Agreement

In some languages adjectives alter their form to reflect the gender, case or number of the noun which they
describe. This is often called agreement. Usually it takes the form of inflections at the end of the word, as
in Latin: puella bona (good girl, feminine), puellam bonam (good girl, feminine accusative/object case),
puer bonus (good boy, masculine), pueri boni (good boys, masculine plural). In the Celtic languages,
however, initial consonant lenition marks the adjective with a feminine noun, as in Scottish Gaelic:
balach math (good boy, masculine), nighean mhath (good girl, feminine). Often a distinction is made
here between attributive and predicative usage. Where English is an example of a language where
adjectives never agree and French of a language where they always agree, in German they agree only
when used attributively, and in Hungarian only when used predicatively.

Adjectives
Definition

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a,
an, and the — are adjectives.

 the tall professor

 the lugubrious lieutenant
 a solid commitment
 a month's pay
 a six-year-old child
 the unhappiest, richest man

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. 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.

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.

Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward,
Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in this color; participles, verb forms
acting as adjectives, are highlighted in this blue. Some people would argue that words that are part of a
name — like "East India Tea House — are not really adjectival and that possessive nouns — father's,
farmer's — are not technically adjectives, but we've included them in our analysis of Wolfe's text.

He remembered yet the East India Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the robes, the
cool interior and the smell of India tea; and he had felt now the nostalgic thrill of dew-wet mornings in
Spring, the cherry scent, the cool clarion earth, the wet loaminess of the garden, the pungent breakfast
smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew the inchoate sharp excitement of hot dandelions in
young earth; in July, of watermelons bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe
and crated peaches; and the scent of orange rind, bitter-sweet, before a fire of coals. He knew the good
male smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smooth worn leather sofa, with the gaping horse-hair rent;
of the blistered varnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated calf-skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of
apple tobacco, stuck with a red flag; of wood-smoke and burnt leaves in October; of the brown tired
autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; of warm nasturtiums, of a clean ruddy farmer who comes weekly
with printed butter, eggs, and milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the
wind; of large deep-hued stringbeans smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room of
old pine boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long closed; of Concord grapes in their long
white baskets.

An abundance of adjectives like this would be uncommon in contemporary prose. Whether we have lost
something or not is left up to you.
Position of Adjectives

Unlike Adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a sentence, 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. (See
Below.) When indefinite pronouns — such as something, someone, anybody — are modified by an
adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:

Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.

Something wicked this way comes.

And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive"
(coming after the thing they modify):

The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper.

See, also, the note on a- adjectives, below, for the position of such words as "ablaze, aloof, aghast."

Degrees of Adjectives

Adjectives can express degrees of modification:

 Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richer than Gladys, and Sadie is the richest woman in town.

The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the

comparative, and the superlative. (Actually, only the
comparative and superlative show degrees.) We use the
comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for
comparing three or more things. Notice that the word than
frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes
the superlative. 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 Click on the "scary bear" to
happiest); otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has read and hear George Newall's
more than one syllable. "Unpack Your Adjectives"
(from Scholastic Rock, 1975).
Schoolhouse Rock® and its
characters and other
elements are trademarks
and service marks of
American Broadcasting
Companies, Inc. Used with
permission.

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 more most
some

far further furthest

Be careful not to form comparatives or superlatives of adjectives which already express an extreme of
comparison — unique, for instance — although it probably is possible to form comparative forms of most
adjectives: something can be more perfect, and someone can have a fuller figure. People who argue that
one woman cannot be more pregnant than another have never been nine-months pregnant with twins.

Grammar's Response

According to Bryan Garner, "complete" is one of those adjectives that does not admit of comparative
degrees. We could say, however, "more nearly complete." I am sure that I have not been consistent in my
application of this principle in the Guide (I can hear myself, now, saying something like "less adequate"
or "more preferable" or "less fatal"). Other adjectives that Garner would include in this list are as follows:

         absolute          impossible          principal

         adequate          inevitable          stationary

         chief          irrevocable          sufficient

         complete          main          unanimous

         devoid          manifest          unavoidable

         entire          minor          unbroken

         fatal          paramount          unique

         final          perpetual          universal

         ideal          preferable          whole

From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright 1995 by Bryan A.
Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and used with the gracious
consent of Oxford University Press.

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).

The as — as construction is used to create a comparison expressing equality:

 He is as foolish as he is large.
 She is as bright as her mother.

Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives

Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied by
premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.

 We were a lot more careful this time.

 He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town.
 We like his work so much better.
 You'll get your watch back all the faster.

The same process can be used to downplay the degree:

 The weather this week has been somewhat better.

 He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously than his brother does.

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose:

 He arrived a whole lot sooner than we expected.

 That's a heck of a lot better.
If the intensifier very accompanies the superlative, a determiner is also required:

 She is wearing her very finest outfit for the interview.

 They're doing the very best they can.

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing being modified
is understood:

 Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most.
 The quicker you finish this project, the better.
 Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster.

Authority for this section: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum.
Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.

Less versus Fewer

When making a comparison between quantities we often have to make a choice between the
words fewer and less. Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we use the word
fewer; when we're talking about measurable quantities that we cannot count, we use the word
less. "She had fewer chores, but she also had less energy." The managers at our local Stop &
Shop seem to have mastered this: they've changed the signs at the so-called express lanes
from "Twelve Items or Less" to "Twelve Items or Fewer." Whether that's an actual
improvement, we'll leave up to you.

We do, however, definitely 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.
 We spent less than forty dollars on our trip.
 The town spent less than four percent of its budget on snow removal.

In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.

Taller than I / me ??

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." (Except we leave out the verb in the
second clause, "am" or "is.") Some good writers, however, will argue that the word "than"
should be allowed to function as a preposition. If we can say "He is tall like me/her," then (if
"than" could be prepositional like like) we should be able to say, "He is taller than me/her."
It's an interesting argument, but — for now, anyway — in formal, academic prose, use the
subject form in such comparisons.
 We also want to be careful in a sentence such as "I like him better than she/her." The "she"
would mean that you like this person better than she likes him; the "her" would mean that you
like this male person better than you like that female person. (To avoid ambiguity and the
slippery use of than, we could write "I like him better than she does" or "I like him better
than I like her.")

More than / over ??

In the United States, we usually use "more than" in countable numerical expressions meaning
"in excess of" or "over." In England, there is no such distinction. For instance, in the U.S.,
some editors would insist on "more than 40,000 traffic deaths in one year," whereas in the
UK, "over 40,000 traffic deaths" would be acceptable. Even in the U.S., however, you will
commonly hear "over" in numerical expressions of age, time, or height: "His sister is over
forty; she's over six feet tall. We've been waiting well over two hours for her."

The Order of Adjectives in a Series

It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "little brown house" and not "brown little
house" or why we say "red Italian sports car" and not "Italian red sports car." The order in which
adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English as a second language.
Most other languages dictate a similar order, but not necessarily the same order. It takes a lot of practice
with a language before this order becomes instinctive, because the order often seems quite arbitrary (if not
downright capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find many exceptions to the pattern in the
table below, but it is definitely important to learn the pattern of adjective order if it is not part of what you
naturally bring to the language.

The categories in the following table can be described as follows:

I. Determiners — articles and other limiters. See Determiners

II. Observation — postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a perfect idiot) and
adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting)
III. Size and Shape — adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round)
IV. Age — adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)
V. Color — adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale)
VI. Origin — denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American, Canadian)
VII. Material — denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woolen, metallic,
wooden)
VIII. Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin,
passenger car, book cover)

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner Observatio Physical Description Origin Materia Qualifier Noun

 n l

  Size Shape Age Color  

a beautiful     old   Italian   touring car

an expensive     antique     silver   mirror

long-
four gorgeous     red   silk   roses
stemmed

her     short   black       hair

our   big   old   English     sheepdog

those     square       wooden hat boxes

that dilapidated little           hunting cabin

several   enormous   young   American   basketball players

some delicious         Thai     food

This chart is probably too wide to print on a standard piece of paper. If you click HERE, you
will get a one-page duplicate of this chart, which you can print out on a regular piece of paper.

It would be folly, of course, to run more than two or three (at the most) adjectives together. Furthermore,
when adjectives belong to the same class, they become what we call coordinated adjectives, and you will
want to put a comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes. The rule for inserting the comma
works this way: if you could have inserted a conjunction — and or but — between the two adjectives, use
a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive but comfortable shoes," so we would use a comma
between them (when the "but" isn't there). When you have three coordinated adjectives, separate them all
with commas, but don't insert a comma between the last adjective and the noun (in spite of the temptation
to do so because you often pause there):

a popular, respected, and good looking student

See the section on Commas for additional help in punctuating coordinated adjectives.

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives

When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Thus we write
about Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian style,
Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives: the Nixon
era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval writer).
Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're part of a title:
We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed there until the town's annual Fall Festival
of Small Appliances.

See the section on Capitalization for further help on this matter.

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 poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the lonely, the
unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dear departed. The difference between a Collective Noun
(which is usually regarded as singular but which can be plural in certain contexts) and a collective
adjective is that the latter is always plural and requires a plural verb:

 The rural poor have been ignored by the media.

 The rich of Connecticut are responsible.
 The elderly are beginning to demand their rights.
 The young at heart are always a joy to be around.

Adjectival Opposites

The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of ways. One way, of
course, is to find an adjective to mean the opposite — an antonym. The opposite of beautiful is ugly, the
opposite of tall is short. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate opposite. Another way to form the
opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The opposite of fortunate is unfortunate, the
opposite of prudent is imprudent, the opposite of considerate is inconsiderate, the opposite of honorable
is dishonorable, the opposite of alcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of being properly filed is misfiled.
If you are not sure of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way by prefixes (or which is the
appropriate prefix), you will have to consult a dictionary, as the rules for the selection of a prefix are
complex and too shifty to be trusted. The meaning itself can be tricky; for instance, flammable and
inflammable mean the same thing.

A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less or least to create a
comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and tone become
available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the least beautiful city in the state." than it is to
say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly different meaning.) A candidate for a
job can still be worthy and yet be "less worthy of consideration" than another candidate. It's probably not
a good idea to use this construction with an adjective that is already a negative: "He is less unlucky than
his brother," although that is not the same thing as saying he is luckier than his brother. Use the
comparative less when the comparison is between two things or people; use the superlative least when the
comparison is among many things or people.

 My mother is less patient than my father.

 Of all the new sitcoms, this is my least favorite show.

Some Adjectival Problem Children

 Good versus Well

In both casual speech and formal writing, we frequently have to choose between the adjective
good and the adverb well. With most verbs, there is no contest: when modifying a verb, use
the adverb.

He swims well.

He knows only too well who the murderer is.

However, when using a linking verb or a verb that has to do with the five human senses, you
want to use the adjective instead.

How are you? I'm feeling good, thank you.

After a bath, the baby smells so good.

Even after my careful paint job, this room doesn't look good.

Many careful writers, however, will use well after linking verbs relating to health, and this is
perfectly all right. In fact, to say that you are good or that you feel good usually implies not
only that you're OK physically but also that your spirits are high.

"How are you?"

"I am well, thank you."

Bad versus Badly

When your cat died (assuming you loved your cat), did you feel bad or badly? Applying the
same rule that applies to good versus well, use the adjective form after verbs that have to do
with human feelings. You felt bad. If you said you felt badly, it would mean that something
was wrong with your faculties for feeling.

Other Adjectival Considerations

Review the section on Compound Nouns and Modifiers for the formation of modifiers created when
words are connected: a four-year-old child, a nineteenth-century novel, an empty-headed fool.

Review the section on Possessives for a distinction between possessive forms and "adjectival labels." (Do
you belong to a Writers Club or a Writers' Club?)

Adjectives that are really Participles, verb forms with -ing and -ed endings, can be troublesome for some
students. It is one thing to be a frightened child; it is an altogether different matter to be a frightening
child. Do you want to go up to your professor after class and say that you are confused or that you are
confusing? Generally, the -ed ending means that the noun so described ("you") has a passive relationship
with something — something (the subject matter, the presentation) has bewildered you and you are
confused. The -ing ending means that the noun described has a more active role — you are not making
any sense so you are confusing (to others, including your professor).

The -ed ending modifiers are often accompanied by prepositions (these are not the only choices):

 We were amazed at all the circus animals.

 We were amused by the clowns.
 We were annoyed by the elephants.
 We were bored by the ringmaster.
 We were confused by the noise.
 We were disappointed by the motorcycle daredevils.
 We were disappointed in their performance.
 We were embarrassed by my brother.
 We were exhausted from all the excitement.
 We were excited by the lion-tamer.
 We were excited about the high-wire act, too.
 We were frightened by the lions.
 We were introduced to the ringmaster.
 We were interested in the tent.
 We were irritated by the heat.
 We were opposed to leaving early.
 We were satisfied with the circus.
 We were shocked at the level of noise under the big tent.
 We were surprised by the fans' response.
 We were surprised at their indifference.
 We were tired of all the lights after a while.
 We were worried about the traffic leaving the parking lot.

A- Adjectives

The most common of the so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, alive, alone,
aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily show up as predicate
adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking verb).

 The children were ashamed.

 The professor remained aloof.
 The trees were ablaze.

Occasionally, however, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the alert patient, the
aloof physician. Most of them, when found before the word they modify, are themselves modified: the
nearly awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And a- adjectives are sometimes modified by "very
much": very much afraid, very much alone, very much ashamed, etc.