Download Adjective and Adverb Study Guide

ADJECTIVE (AND ADVERB)
STUDY GUIDE
- Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns.
• Modify means to describe.
- Be able to locate adjectives in a sentence.
• I won a million dollars this year in the Georgia lottery. (THERE ARE 5)
• My favorite food is Chinese. (THERE ARE 3)
• Because he loves many sports, he went to the store and bought Nike running
shoes. (THERE ARE 4)
- Demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, those
• Example: This book is used in math class. (This modifies book)
• This and that refer to something that is singular. These and those refer to
something that is plural.
• This and these refer to something that is close to you. That and those refer to
something that is farther away from you.
• When writing a sentence, the adjective must modify a noun.
• This is the best book ever. (This is a demonstrative pronoun, not adjective,
because there is no noun to modify after the word “this.”)
- Article adjectives: the, an, a
• “The” is definite.
o Please give me the book. (“The” indicates that it is a specific book.)
• “A” and “an” are indefinite.
o Please give me a book. (“A” indicates that it could be any book.)
• Know when to use “a” versus “an.” You use “a” with consonant sounds and
“an” with vowel sounds.
o Be careful though! Just because a word starts with a vowel does NOT
mean you will use “an” if it has a consonant sound.
o For instance, you would say “an apple,” but you would not say “an
unicycle” because of the strong “you” sound.
- Proper adjectives: American, Chinese, Congressional, Jewish, Italian, etc.
• These words can also be proper nouns. If used in a sentence as an adjective, they
must modify a noun.
• The proper adjective is always capitalized.
• I am proud to be an American (noun). American does not modify anything.
• We bought an American flag to display on the 4th of July. (Adjective)
- Possessive adjectives: my, her, his, our, their, your, its
• Show possession or ownership – that is how they describe a noun.
• Be able to fill in the blank with the correct possessive adjective:
o Taylor likes to walk _______ dog every day around the neighborhood.
o You seem to have problems using ________ computer.
- Adjective suffixes: -ous, -ful, -ible, -able, -ing, -y, -ive
• “ing” words can be tricky!!!
o Noun: Swimming is my favorite hobby.
o Adjective: We built a new swimming pool last summer.
o Verb: We have been swimming in my pool all afternoon.
- Adjectives answer the following questions:
• How many? How much?: numbers (one, two, three…), each, several, less, little,
any, no, some, some, many, much, etc.
• What kind? Which one?
- Forms of adjectives
Comparative: comparing two nouns
• Words are usually formed by adding the suffix “er” or the word “more”
• I am taller than my sister. (Taller is an adjective modifying “I”)
Superlative: comparing more than two nouns
• Words are usually formed by adding the suffix “est” or the word “most”
• I am the tallest girl in my class. (Tallest is an adjective modifying “I”)
Irregular forms: Exceptions to the rules listed above
• Good, better, best
• Bad, worse, worst
• Much, more, most
- Adverbs modify verbs, adjective, and other adverbs (never nouns!!!)
• I ran quickly. QUICKLY modifies ran (a verb).
• I am very hungry. VERY modifies hungry (an adjective).
• I ran very quickly. VERY modifies quickly (an adverb).
- Adverbs answer the following questions:
• How or in what way? To what degree or extent? Where? When?
- Be able to tell the difference between an adjective and an adverb.
• The boy carefully set the model ship on its stand. CAREFULLY is an adverb
because it describes HOW the boy set the ship on its stand.
• All of you are very capable students. CAPABLE is an adjective because it
describes students, which is a noun.
- Some adjectives may also be used as adverbs:
• I studied for the hard test. (HARD is an adjective modifying test, which is a
noun.)
• I studied hard for the test. (HARD is an adverb modifying studied, which is a
verb.)