attributive adjectives predictive adjectives the big house → The house is big.
a popular singer → The singer is popular.
Some words can only be used as predictive adjectives. They have no degree of comparison and cannot be modified by degree adverbs such as too, very, much, almost, nearly, enough, hardly and so on.
Most adjectives with initial letter a- are predictive
adjectives, such as afraid，alike，alive，alone， asleep，awake, ahead, ashamed etc.
And some others are ill, well, faint, glad, pleased, sorry, sure, certain, unable, ready, fond and so on.
• The positive degree, the adjective in its most basic form, indicates no increase or diminution of the original quality.
We are lucky. I have something im story is interested. • My story is very interested. • Your story is not so interested as mine.
When we make a comparison of quantity, we use the structure “as + much/many n. + as” or “as + few/little n. + as”
Adjectives
• An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun by limiting its meaning. It tells a characteristic or quality of a noun or pronoun. Adjectives tell such things as which one? what kind? whose? how many/much?
The girl married.
•
The girl was poor.
•
She married immediately.
•
She married after graduation.
Now, you may combine all these details into one sentence.
• The poor girl married immediately after graduation.
Modifiers
A modifier is any word that acts to describe or qualify another word in such a way that it enriches the other words meaning. It usually may be an adjective, an adverb or a prepositional phrase. Adding modifiers can make sentences more explicit, more interesting and more powerful. Let’s look at an example.
College English Grammar:
Grammar and Writing
By Zhu Xiangjun
Unit 3
Modifiers: adjectives
• Grammar: Adjectives • Writing:
Correcting: Comparison Problems Rewriting: How to rewrite sentences
• The dog is asleep. → an asleep dog • The boy was ill. → an ill boy
1 Degrees of comparison
• Many adjectives have different forms to indicate their degree of comparison. There are three levels of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative.
To compare people, places, events or things, when they are equal, we use as + adj. + as; when they are unequal, we use not so/as+ adj. + as.
• Summer in England is lovely. • Spring in China is lovely. • Summer in England is as lovely as spring in China.
• Generally, adjectives may be classified into two: one is attributive adjectives which are placed before nouns and the other is predictive adjectives which are placed after link verbs.