Adjectives: Participles and Nominal Adjectives

Participles

What are Participles?

Let us read the following sentences.

1. The revellers were feasting on the food.

2. Feasting on the food, the revellers sang songs.

In the above sentences, the word feasting is used in two different ways.

• In sentence 1, the word feasting is used as a verb; its subject is the word revellers.
• In sentence 2, the word feasting qualifies the noun revellers. It is formed from the verb feast. It also has an object food. Therefore, it has the properties of a verb and an adjective.
• The phrase Feasting on the food is a participial phrase.

Let us look at more examples.

1. Fatima is singing to her baby.

2. The singing bird perched itself on a branch.

In the above sentences, the word singing is used in two different ways.

• In sentence 1, the word singing is used as a verb; its subject being Fatima.
• In sentence 2, the word singing qualifies the noun bird.
• It is formed out of the verb sing.
• The word not only expresses the action of the noun but also acts as an adjective.
• The word singing in sentence 2 is therefore a participle because it looks like a verb but acts like an adjective.

Participles are grouped into two categories according to their tenses—past participle and present participle.

Examples of Past and Present Participles

Verb

Past Participle

Present Participle

Fry

The fried eggs

A frying pan

Boil

Boiled vegetables

The boiling point

Interest

Interested buyers

An interesting fact

Embarrass

The embarrassed teenager

An embarrassing situation

Write

The written note

The writing pad

Confuse

The confused pedestrian

The confusing sum

Amuse

Amused onlookers

An amusing anecdote

Bore

Bored students

Boring lesson

Hang

The hanged criminal

The hanging clothes

Overwhelm

Overwhelmed lady

The overwhelming evidence

Shave

His shaven head

The shaving machine

Bend

The bent rod

The bending branch

Nominal Adjectives

Read the following sentences.

• In sentence 1, the words rich and poor function as adjectives.
• However, the same words when used in sentence 2 function as nouns.
• They are preceded by the definite article.
• The phrases the rich and the poor used in sentence 2 are known as nominal adjectives.
• Nominal adjectives look like adjectives but operate like nouns.

What do nominal adjectives represent?

∙Comparative and superlative adjectives function like nominal adjectives.

Adjectives: Royal Order of Adjectives

Royal Order of Adjectives

Read these sentences.

Which sentence seems grammatically correct to you? How are the two sentences different from each other? The order of the adjectives in both the sentences is different.

• In sentence 1, red big and green small are the sequences.
• In sentence 2, big red and small green are the sequences.

Obviously, sentence 2 sounds right to you. But how did you arrive at that answer?

Knowing how to arrange the adjectives is intuitive.

Speakers of English instinctively know that

big red bug is correct and red big bug is incorrect.

There is an order which governs the placement of adjectives in a phrase. In English grammar, we call it the Royal Order of Adjectives.

Royal Order of Adjectives

If there is more than one adjective qualifying a noun, then they all have to be arranged in a particular order. This order is predetermined and comes naturally to habitual users of English. Let us learn more!

The expected adjective order is

The Royal Order

Physical qualities

			3Opinion	4Size	5Age	6Shape	7Colour	8Origin	9Material	10Participl-e
1Determin- ers	2Numeral-s

1. Determiners: Determiners are words like articles and demonstrative adjectives that precede nouns.
   • The, a, an, that, these

2. Numerals: Adjectives of number which show the numerical value of nouns come next.
   • One, three, many, some

3. Opinion: Adjectives which are based on opinions. They can differ from person to person. Something that is beautiful or interesting to one person may not hold the same meaning for somebody else.
   • Pretty, good, nice, evil, rotten

4. Size: Adjectives which express the size of the nouns
   • Gigantic, huge, minuscule, small

5. Age: Adjectives which express the age of the noun
   • Old, new, prehistoric

6. Shape: Adjectives which express the shape of the noun
   • Triangular, round, prismatic, oblong

7. Colour: Adjectives which express the colour of the noun
   • Red, blue, yellow, green, maroon, golden

Note

Gold is material. Golden is colour.

Metal is material. Metallic is colour.

Silver is material. Silvery is colour.

8. Origin: Adjectives which express the nationality or the place of origin of the noun
   • Hungarian, Indian, American, Polish, Gujarati

9. Material: Adjectives which tell us about the materials which make up the noun
   • Glass, silk, wooden, brick, paper

10. Participle: Adjectives which give the purpose for using certain nouns or its qualities.
    • Sewing, frying, sleeping, beloved, frozen

Let us look at a few examples.

Adjectives: Types of Adjectives

Types of Adjectives

What are Adjectives?

Adjectives are words that tell us more about nouns. They tell us about

• Quality
  • Beautiful, sly, slithery, cold, evil, busy
• Quantity
  • Some, more, much, 5 kg, 13
• Colour
  • Green, silvery, bluish, metallic, red
• Origin
  • Mongolian, Arabic, Maharashtrian, Subterranean
• Shape
  • Rectangular, triangular, round
• Size
  • Big, small, tall, stout, thin
• Age
  • Old, new, prehistoric

I’m not fat!

Slithery? Who?

Me?

I am the tallest here!

Placement of Adjectives

There are two ways in which we can use adjectives in English.

• Before the nouns they qualify
  • Three sticks, a queer sight, some gentlemen

Note:

Articles ‘A’, ‘An’ and ‘The’ are also adjectives since they precede nouns and qualify them.

• After forms of the verb ‘to be’ and with others such as ‘looks’, ‘seems’, ‘sounds’, ‘feels’, ‘smells’ etc.
  • The house looks magnificent.
  • The boy seems nervous.
  • I am busy.
  • The camper was asleep in his tent.
  • They were victorious in their efforts.

Adjective of Quality

An adjective of quality is a word which indicates the quality or the attribute of a noun.

• To understand the nature of the noun, we ask the question ‘What kind of?’ to the noun. The answer which we get is the adjective of quality.

Let us look at a few examples.

Adjective of Quantity

An adjective of quantity tells us about the quantity of a noun.

• Some, many, few, little, less, much, more, enough, sufficient are some examples.

• It describes the number of countable nouns.
  • The three musketeers, many black birds, a few enemies

• It describes the volume, amount or quantity of uncountable nouns.
  • Some milk, three kilo rice, much water

• To understand the quantity of the noun or pronoun, we ask the question ‘How much/many?’ The answer we get is the adjective of quantity.

• It can express an indefinite amount or quantity.

much water, less time, some people

• It can also express a definite number.
  • five people, three little pigs, 5 kilo rice

• Adjectives like much, little and less are used with uncountable nouns.
  • much time, a little water

• Adjectives like many and few are used with countable nouns.
  • many bottles, few children

Let us look at a few examples.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Previously, we learnt about demonstrative pronouns which point towards their antecedents. In this chapter, we learn about demonstrative adjectives.

• Adjectives like this, that, these and those are demonstrative adjectives.

• They help the reader or listener understand what or who exactly is being addressed.

• ‘This’ and ‘that’ are used for singular nouns.
  • This cat, that house, this river, that woman

• ‘These’ and ‘those’ are used for plural nouns.
  • These days, those gentlemen, these toys, those moments

Let us look at a few examples.

Interrogative Adjectives

Interrogative adjectives are those which help in framing questions by appearing before the noun that they qualify.

• What, which, whose are the three interrogative adjectives used in English.

• Unlike interrogative pronouns, these adjectives cannot stand on their own and they always appear before a noun.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives, like possessive pronouns, show ownership or possession of nouns to pronouns.

• My, your, his, her, our, its, their are possessive adjectives.
• They appear before the noun they qualify.