Adjectives

An adjective modifies a noun; that is, it provides more detail about a noun. This can be anything from color to size to temperature to personality. Adjectives usually occur just before the nouns they modify, but they can also follow a linking verb (in these instances, adjectives can modify pronouns as well):

• The generator is used to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy.
• The kids’ schoolhouse was red.

Numbers can also be adjectives in some cases. When you say “Seven is my lucky number,” seven is a noun, but when you say “There are seven cats in this painting,” seven is an adjective because it is modifying the noun cats.

Comparable Adjectives

Some adjectives are comparable: they exist on a scale. For example, a person may be polite, but another person may be more polite, and a third person may be the most polite of the three. The word more here modifies the adjective polite to indicate a comparison is being made (a comparative), and most modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative).

There is another way to compare adjectives in English. Many adjectives can take the suffixes –er and –est to indicate the comparative and superlative forms, respectively (e.g., great, greater, greatest). Some adjectives are irregular in this sense (good, better, best; bad, worse, worst).

There is no simple rule to decide which means is correct for any given adjective; however, the general tendency is for shorter adjectives to take the suffixes, while longer adjectives do not.

• hotter (not more hot)
• more beautiful (not beautifuller)
• more pretentious (not pretentiouser)

When you use comparative adjectives, the adjective is often accompanied by the word than (e.g., “He is taller than me”). When using than, there are two things you should keep in mind:

1. You should use than, not the word then. Then indicates time, rather than comparison.
2. When you’re trying to emphasize just how “adjective” a thing is, you shouldn’t follow than with a second instance of the comparative. “She is shorter than shorter,” is incorrect. The emphatic phrase “She is shorter than short,” would be correct.

Non-Comparable Adjectives

Non-comparable adjectives, on the other hand, are not measured on a scale, but are binary. Either something is “adjective,” or it is not. For example, some English speakers would argue that it does not make sense to say that one thing is “more ultimate” than another, or that something is “most ultimate,” since the word ultimate is already an absolute. Other examples include dead, true, and unique.

Native speakers will frequently play with non-comparable adjectives. Although pregnant is logically non-comparable (someone is pregnant or she is not), you may hear a sentence like “She looks more and more pregnant each day.” Likewise extinct and equal appear to be non-comparable, but 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, and George Orwell once wrote “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

Adverbs

Adverbs can perform a wide range of functions: they can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They can come either before or after the word they modify. An adverb may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity indicated by the verb:

• Suzanne sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
• We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
• I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
• You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
• He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)

They can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples. Once again the adverbs are in bold, while the words they modify are in italics.

• I bought only the fruit (only modifies the noun phrase the fruit)
• Roberto drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
• Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Here are a few examples:

• You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right)
• Milagros is exceptionally pretty (the adverb exceptionally modifies the adjective pretty)
• She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb—loudly)
• Wow! You ran really quickly! (the adverb really modifies another adverb—quickly)

Adverbs may also undergo comparison, taking comparative and superlative forms. This is usually done by adding more and most before the adverb (more slowly, most slowly). However, there are a few adverbs that take non-standard forms, such as well, for which better and best are used (i.e., “He did well, she did better, and I did best“).

Relative Adverbs

Relative adverbs are a subclass of adverbs that deal with space, time, and reason. In this video, David gives a quick intro to the three most common relative adverbs: when, where, and why.

As we just learned, we can use these adverbs to connect ideas about where, when, and why things happen.

Common Mistakes

Only

Have you ever noticed the effect the word only can have on a sentence, especially depending on where it’s placed? Let’s look at a simple sentence:

• She loves horses.

Let’s see how only can influence the meaning of this sentence:

• Only she loves horses.
  • No one loves horses but her.
• She only loves horses.
  • The one thing she does is love horses.
• She loves only horses.
  • She loves horses and nothing else.

Only modifies the word that directly follows it. Whenever you use the word only make sure you’ve placed it correctly in your sentence.

Literally

A linguistic phenomenon is sweeping the nation: people are using literally as an intensifier. How many times have you heard things like “It was literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me,” or “His head literally exploded when I told him I was going to be late again”?

So what’s the problem with this? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, the actual definition of literal is as follows:

• involving the ordinary or usual meaning of a word
• giving the meaning of each individual word
• completely true and accurate : not exaggerated^[1]

According to this definition, literally should be used only when something actually happened. Our cultural usage may be slowly shifting to allow literally as an intensifier, but it’s best to avoid using literally in any way other than its dictionary definition, especially in formal writing.