Download The Predicate Adjective Identifying Predicate Adjectives

Grammar
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The Predicate Adjective
The Predicate Adjective: A Definition
The last of the four complements is called the predicate adjective. Like the predicate
nominative, the predicate adjective is a subject complement because it refers back to the subject of
the sentence, or helps describe it better. Also like its cousin, the predicate nominative, the
predicate adjective can only come after a linking verb. And as you may have already guessed,
instead of being a noun or pronoun like the predicate nominative, the predicate adjective is – oh
my - an adjective! An adjective, if you recall, is a word that helps describe a noun or pronoun.
An adjective answers questions such as “What kind?” “Which one?” “Whose?” “How many?”
and “How much?”
The predicate adjective is an adjective that refers back to or explains the subject of a
sentence. It always follows a linking verb.
Finding the Predicate Adjective
As with the predicate nominative, put the subject and verb together and ask yourself,
“Subject Verb What?” Then check to see that the adjective refers back to, or helps further
describe, the subject of the sentence. This adjective will be “alone,” so to speak. In other words,
it won’t be preceding some other noun or pronoun, as adjectives usually do.
NOTE: All “nutshell” comments on the predicate nominative apply to the predicate
adjective. A predicate adjective can be compound; in other words there can be more than one of
these subject complements following a linking verb. Example: The giraffe was tall and mean. In
this sentence, tall and mean are both predicate adjectives because they follow a linking verb and
help describe the subject.
Identifying Predicate Adjectives
Directions: Read each sentence, then write the predicate adjective(s) in the blank to the right. If
there is no predicate adjective in the sentence, write “None.”
1. Something smells unusual
2. My cousins were being silly.
3. The coyote was extremely hungry.
4. Jimbo is a tall man.
5. The students appeared tired and listless.
6. The impatient woman grew angrier.
7. The pirates found the buried treasure.
8. I am not happy with the results.
9. The witness’s story sounded suspicious.
10. Five a.m. is too early to wake up.