Lesson II: Adjectives, Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs.

The words stated in the sentence above in this post form few of the basic concepts in all languages, including English. We'll go through them all quickly in brief starting alphabetically with Adjectives.

An adjective is a describing word, the main role of which in a sentence is to signify a noun, noun phrase or pronoun, giving more information about the word than the bare word would have. Four types of examples can be stated to explain adjectives better.

• A) Attributive Adjectives: These adjectives impart special traits to the noun that they precede. For example: "A beautiful girl attracts eyes from different people."
• B) Predicative Adjectives: These are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or pronoun they modify. For example: happy is a predicate adjective in "My parents are happy" and in "that made me happy." A copula is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.
• C) Absolute Adjectives: These 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."
• D) Nominal Adjectives: These are so called because they act like a noun. They are better explained in the example that follows; "We went to a music shop where I listened to some harsh rock and she preferred some light music."

Moving on to adverbs and getting familiar with their usage, their main role in a sentence is to signify a verb, adjective, another adverb, phrase, sentence or clause except that it does not directly modify nouns or pronouns. An example of each kind is given below to help understand adverbs better.

• Verb adverb: He drives (verb) fast (adverb).
• Adjective adverb: She is a very (adverb) beautiful (adjective) girl.
• Adverb adverb: I walked (verb) really (adverb) slowly (adverb) after meeting her.
• Phrase adverb: He is slowly (adverb) drowning inside his own sorrows (phrase).
• Sentence adverb: Quickly (adverb) she pounced upon me like a tigress (sentence).
• Clause adverb (also Adverb clause): Although (adverb) he suffered losses, still he donated (clause).

These were only two of the nine foundation stones of the English language. The others are Conjuction, Determinant, Hyperbole, Noun, Pronoun, Simile & Verb. Together all of these make up the very basics of the English language. Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs have been discussed in sufficient detail till now.