Adjectives can be identified using a number of formal criteria. However, we may begin by saying that they typically describe an attribute of a noun:
- cold weather
large windows
violent storms
Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjective endings include:
| -able/-ible | achievable, capable, illegible, remarkable |
| -al | biographical, functional, internal, logical |
| -ful | beautiful, careful, grateful, harmful |
| -ic | cubic, manic, rustic, terrific |
| -ive | attractive, dismissive, inventive, persuasive |
| -less | breathless, careless, groundless, restless |
| -ous | courageous, dangerous, disastrous, fabulous |
However, a large number of very common adjectives cannot be identified in this way. They do not have typical adjectival form:
| bad bright clever cold common complete dark deep difficult | distant elementary good great honest hot main morose old | quiet real red silent simple strange wicked wide young |
As this list shows, adjectives are formally very diverse. However, they have a number of characteristics which we can use to identify them.
fonte: Adjectives
Nouns
What are Nouns?
The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:
- person: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
- place: home, office, town, countryside, America
- thing: table, car, banana, money, music, love, dog, monkey
The problem with this definition is that it does not explain why "love" is a noun but can also be a verb.
Another (more complicated) way of recognizing a noun is by its:
- Ending
- Position
- Function
1. Noun Ending
There are certain word endings that show that a word is a noun, for example:
- -ity > nationality
- -ment > appointment
- -ness > happiness
- -ation > relation
- -hood > childhood
But this is not true for the word endings of all nouns. For example, the noun "spoonful" ends in -ful, but the adjective "careful" also ends in -ful.
2. Position in Sentence
We can often recognise a noun by its position in the sentence.
Nouns often come after a determiner (a determiner is a word like a, an, the, this, my, such):
- a relief
- an afternoon
- the doctor
- this word
- my house
- such stupidity
Nouns often come after one or more adjectives:
- a great relief
- a peaceful afternoon
- the tall, Indian doctor
- this difficult word
- my brown and white house
- such crass stupidity
3. Function in a Sentence
Nouns have certain functions (jobs) in a sentence, for example:
- subject of verb: Doctors work hard.
- object of verb: He likes coffee.
- subject and object of verb: Teachers teach students.
But the subject or object of a sentence is not always a noun. It could be a pronoun or a phrase. In the sentence "My doctor works hard", the noun is "doctor" but the subject is "My doctor".
fonte: What are nouns?
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