Adjectives usually denotes its function as a modifier of noun. By placing an adjective before a noun, adjective will give more information about what the noun is. In other words, adjective gives a description about the details of noun.
For examples:
She bought a thick book.
/thick/ is an adjective which modifies the noun /book/ inside a complement. When there is no adjective /thick/, the book will be questioned and no information will be known from the book.
She bought a book. (?)
When we hear the statement above. At least, One question will come out of our mind and perhaps we will produce a question, like; "What book did she buy?". However, an adjective can stand alone without a noun inside a complement.
For example:
The book is thick. (Here, the adjective /thick/ modifies the subject /the book/, and it is a noun!)
We also can say : That is a thick book.
There are two functions of an adjectives, they are:
1.To modify a noun,
e.g. a beautiful girl (/beautiful/ which is placed before a noun /girl/ modifies a noun /girl/)
2.To modify a pronoun
e.g. she is a beautiful (/beautiful/, here, modifies the pronoun /she/.)
FORM OF ADJECTIVES
On previous page, we have already discussed about adjectives. We know that there are two kinds of adjective in English.
1)Pure adjective
2)Derivational adjectives
Pure adjectives is some adjectives which can be found in your dictionary as one word which has a certain meaning. Derivational or derived ajectives is some adjectives which are derived from other words or built by others, e.g. /prestige/ is a noun. When we place suffix /-ous/ ---> /prestigious/, it becomes an adjective.
In other words, the change is because of the suffix. This characteristic is called "derivational adjective".
There are many kinds of suffixes which contributes to form another to be an adjective, they are;
/-ous/, e.g. dangerous, derived from the noun /danger/ + /-ous/
/-ic(al)/, e.g. dramatical, derived from the noun /drama/ + /-ical/
/-al/, e.g. educational, derived from the noun /education/ + /-al/
/-ible/, e.g.visible, derived from the noun /vision/ + /-ible/
/-able/, e.g. reasonable, derived from the noun /reason/ + /-able/
/-ful/, e.g. careful, derived from the verb /care/ + /-ful/
/-less/, e.g. useless, derived from the verb /use/ + /-less/
/-y/, e.g. sleepy, derived from the verb /sleep/ + /-y/
/-ish/, e.g. boyish, derived from the noun /boy/ + /-ish/
/-some/, e.g. boresome, derived from the verb /bore/ + /-some/ (not /bore/ as the past form verb of /bear/)
Adjectives is also used in degrees of comparison, like /more/ or /most/.
For examples:
She is more beautiful than Linda.
The policeman is the most deligent in this city.
Adjective determiner:
When we read a sentence or a passage, sometimes we don't know what kinds of word is that? adjective?, noun? or What?. Then we need a determiner as an indicator whether the word is adjective or not. Here, the Adjectives is between the determiner and the noun.
The determiners are;
Article:
e.g. The old man is my uncle. /old/
Demonstratives pronoun:
e.g. This new book is stolen. /new/
Possessive Pronouns:
e.g. My best teacher is Mr.Joe /best/
Adverb of quantity or adjectives of indefinite quantity:
e.g. some hot water was poured inside the bottle. /hot/
We also can see adjectives after a verb.
For examples:
After A linking verb:
e.g. The flowers looks beautiful.
In Objective complement:
e.g.Her smile makes me crazy.
Numerals as an indicators:
e.g. second seven, the last one.
Noun Adjuncts:
When a noun is placed before other noun, this is called noun adjunct.
e.g. English letter.
The word /English/ is a noun and /letter/ is too. Here, the word /English/ modifies the noun /letter/. In other words, the noun /English/ has a function as an adjective, i.e. modifier of a noun.