Questions tagged [adjectives]
Adjectives are just one of several different types of noun modifiers, typically used to premodify or describe a noun. Do not confuse adjectives with nouns used attributively to modify other nouns. Adjectives have comparative and superlative degrees, can be used as predicate adjectives in copulae, and can themselves be modified by intensifiers and adverbs but not by other adjectives. Nouns in attribution fail all those tests.
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Looking for a translation for the German "hellhörig"/"ringhörig"
The German adjective "hellhörig" (sometimes also "ringhörig") describes a badly or insufficiently soundproofed building or room; i.e. being able to hear your neighbors through the ...
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How to use hyphen to form new adjectives?
Writing a chemistry paper I need to form an adjective for the following concept: TiO2 rich in oxygen vacancies.
Is this the proper formation for an adjective intended to mean that?:
Oxygen-vacancy-...
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Should I capitalize 'western' when it anticipates 'culture'?
The following sentences are from the transcription of a BBC podcast>
In the Western culture, we have got a bit of an uphill – I would say - struggle because pre-conceptions around eating insects ...
user442526
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Capitalise or not foreign demonyms when original language uses lower case and English has no equivalent?
In English we capitalise demonyms. Someone from Paris is a Parisian. When we insert words from other languages we indicate the non-English nature of the word with quotation marks or italics. "He ...
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When do you use hyphens with compound adjectives?
I understand there are numerous questions related to this question but nothing truly clarifies my problem.
I have been trying to understand when I should use hyphens in compound adjectives and I seem ...
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What are some pro-adjectives?
What are some pro-adjectives? That is, a pro-form that can substitute (satisfy the substitution test with) an adjectival phrase? A Google search brought up "such", but was otherwise ...
user473438
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Word or idiom for 'over-powered for the given collection of parts'
The specific passage I am writing is for people who propose to use a $2000 camera as a webcam. Unless their audio, lighting, and set are equal in quality to that camera, there is no reason spend that $...
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"Such" as a part of speech, and similar words
The word "such" seems to fit under a few different categories. It could be arguably classified as:
A noun - "The movie would only be of interest to such as enjoy mindless explosions ...
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What part of speech is 'enough' in '[Subject] is enough.'?
All the dictionaries I know of classify 'enough' in 'Something is enough.' as a pronoun, not an adjective.
Dictionaries such as LEXICO, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries and Collins classify it as a ...
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"worth" with possessive(s) in coordinated nominals
According to Garner Modern English Grammar
The idiomatic possessive should be used with periods of time and
statements of worth — 30 days’ notice (i.e., notice of 30 days), three
days’ time, ...
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Never pre-positive adjectives and intransitive prepositions
The accepted response to an earlier question concerning words like alone, asleep and alive places such words in the category of adjectives that simply don't occur in front of the nouns or noun phrases ...
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Why is "shut" an adjective in "locked shut"?
Definition of 'shut' in Collins English Dictionary.
Shut is also an adjective, with example sentence "The exit doors were locked shut."
I wonder why 'shut' in this sentence is an ADJECTIVE not an ...
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What are the grammatical rules for phrases like "Rome Victorious"?
Some people seem to use this phrase. The adjective 'Victorious' seems that it is being used as if it is part of the noun.
Would this work in other cases? e.g. "Rome Sacrosanct".
Is it technically ...
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Rules on noun+noun structures
Although there are plenty of grammar topics that I occasionally struggle with, there is one that causes the most trouble.
Lately, I have been writing a lot of technical instructions and manuals, in ...
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Can we use the superlative form adjective and another adjective at the same time?
I would like to ask about the usage of adjective.
Simply, is it OK to put another adjective with noun which has already had the superlative formed adjective.
For example, to make "the most beautiful ...
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Resolution for the double "the" problem
Consider the following sentence:
With the Nike shirt, your workout will be complete.
How will I say the same thing about a shirt of the brand 'The North Face'?
The least awkward option will ...
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Using parentheses with possessive pronoun
The following statements makes sense
It is impossible to doubt that you exist.
It is impossible to doubt that your mind exists.
However, if I were to add parentheses to the first statement ...
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What type of adjective is "aesthetic"?
(This is coming from a discussion over at ELL, but the specific nuance below fits here I think).
Consider two statements about a dog:
The dog has brown fur
The dog has aesthetic appeal
and two ...
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"Oxford" comma with adjectives
Suppose you have some coordinate adjectives modifying a noun. E.g.
"the cold, tired, hungry dog."
You could rewrite this as
"the cold and tired and hungry dog"
but would these
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'Oil produced' vs 'produced oil', take 2
Recently a question was asked here on EL&U:
This is the sentence I’m confused about:
After eight years, the amount of oil produced rose significantly.
Why is it oil produced and not produced oil?
...
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Most concise way to describe people of multiple nationalities, not family origins
A problem I'm having is finding a concise way to differentiate between when people are a citizen of one country but have family origins in another, and dual citizens. For example, is there an easy way ...
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Looking for a negatively connoted word meaning "female" for a translation
I am translating a volume of poems from German into English and am having trouble translating the German word "dämlich" - which means stupid but comes from "Dame" meaning woman or dame.
I need a ...
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"...the pleasure enjoyed" – placement of adjective?
A person should not think that happiness is the total pleasure enjoyed.
In this sentence, "enjoyed" comes after the subject it describes, even though it is not a phrase or clause. I thought only the ...
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Is the Canadian in 'That's the Canadian in you' an adjective or a noun?
That's the Canadian in you.
Is this Canadian a noun or an adjective? To clarify the fog, I asked 92 to 96 native speakers residing in the U.S. for the acceptability of the following three sentences. ...
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How to say that something is "current" but at another point in time
Imagine I want to say
Each shipment will be automatically created 2 weeks before the day of collection, and priced according to the rates at that moment.
and I want to express "rates at that ...
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Is the phrase: "...obtained bipartisan political support for the project" redundant?
It appears that bipartisan does not solely refer to political parties, rather just support by two parties. However, would adding political after the phrase be redundant in nature, or more descriptive?
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Every cubic inch of air seems 'accounted' for: verb or adjective?
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Page 1440) has this subsection
Adjectival passives with the negative prefix un
We have noted that such examples as the following are unambiguously ...
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"one/two/three-car households" vs "single/dual/triple-car households" (attributive forms)
Which way is more natural when it comes to numbers of things that people have or own? For example, the numbers of cars owned by households:
The rate of single/dual/triple-car households is increasing....
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Which one is correct : "The movie is well received." or "The movie is well-received."?
Can we hyphenate predicative adjective?
I learnt that usually we don't hyphenate predicate adjective.
For example, He is well known.
However, for the word "well-received" , which is listed ...
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What could possibly cause the stress shift in adverbs ending in -arily compared to adjectives ending in -ary?
While adjectives ending in -ary (British English /əri/, American English /eri/) never have stress on the second last syllable (the /e/ in AmE, and obviously the /ə/ in BrE), their derivative adverbs ...
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What one-syllable adjectives can take "more" as comparative?
I teach ESL. My job is to stop people saying "more big" instead of "bigger". "Fun", as noted on this site, is an exception, I think because the noun, meaning "...
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A word to describe an industry where personal growth depends on insider knowledge
I am trying to come up with a word that describes an industry where your growth as a professional depends on learning from others, not from books or research.
Example: It's difficult for young people ...
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"Taiwan" as an adjective versus "Taiwanese"
I hope this question is not too simplistic for the "linguists ..." forum, but I couldn’t seem to find an answer elsewhere.
I am helping a non-native speaker proofread his Ph.D. dissertation ...
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much/very respected
Fowler's Concise Dictionary of Modern English Usage, page 621 reads
If we say a much respected politician we stress the process, whereas
a very respected politician assesses the effect.
What ...
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Do you think 'alone' can be used as an attribute adjective, ie. before a noun
OED concludes it to be "rare" now.
I'm wondering if native English speakers find these quotes too dated and unacceptable for today's English.
1668 Howe - Had this been the alone folly.
1873 ...
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Informal use of adjective as adverb
Is there a specific grammatical term for the substitution, in non-formal contexts, of an adjective where strictly speaking, an adverb is required?
For example:
That would sure be a fun trip to go on!
...
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What is the adjective for a marriage with multiple children?
I want to get across the meaning of a marriage that has produced multiple children with an adjective. Would I say a multi-child marriage, a multi-children marriage, or something else? I'm not quite ...
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what is the meaning of 'to wear one's breeches out' and 'rat-gutted'?
I am quoting from the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Gloria Scott by Arthur Conan Doyle:
Now, you don't think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in ...
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Possessive determiner followed by a stand-alone adjective?
My grammar lecturer told us that "I thought her selfish." is correct and it is used like the sentence "I thought she was selfish." He said native English speakers use this ...
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"Theoretical reasons" vs "theory reasons" for describing reasons which come from the theory of something
Imagine you are studying music. The theory of music tells you that note 1 sounds good next to note 2. You want to reference this in something you are writing. As I see it, there are two ways. The ...
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Dropping a noun and keeping the adjective in a contrast sentence
This sentence is parallel and correct: "Eyes with an average rating of >= 4.0 were included in the attractive cohort, while eyes with an average rating of <= 2.0 were included in the ...
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A word for someone who wrongly belittles others for using a larger vocabulary?
EDIT:
Some people can wrongly accuse others of being pretentious, verbose, or wordy JUST for having larger vocabularies (even slightly).
Is there a definition for people like this?
Thanks kindly for ...
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Adjective rank for price/cost of product or purchase
I've found numerous pages listing the correct order of adjectives. While some disagree on the number of ranks, all have the ranks they do list are in this order:
Determiner/quantity
Observation or ...
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Can an adjective be separated from its noun by a comma?
That would of course be denied by ministers, adamant the legislation is necessary.
Laura Kuenssberg - BBC News - 15/09/20
In this sentence, I am not quite sure what 'adamant' is doing. I very much ...
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Is there any difference in meaning/usage/etc between the words 'explorative' and 'exploratory'?
The question:
I am curious about the relation between the words 'explorative' and 'exploratory'. Are those exact synonyms, or is there a difference in their meaning, their usage, their geographic ...
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"Good going" or "well going"?
The colloquialism "good going!", said as a praise, uses the adjective "good" in reference to the verb "going". Shouldn't the adverb "well" be used instead? Why ...
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Ambiguity in "translated" as an adjective?
Suppose I have a German document that has been translated to produce an English document.
It seems that there are two sensible ways to interpret the following request:
"Give me the translated ...
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The number of (the) unemployed/super-rich/poor/dead/infected
'The + adjective' usually means 'adjective + people'. For example, the unemployed means 'unemployed people'. In this type of construction, you cannot remove the.
But when the construction is ...
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Is there a list of narrow-use adjectives (which can only be used with certain nouns)?
e.g. I have never heard 'inclement' being used to refer to anything other than 'inclement weather'. Is there a list somewhere of these types of narrow-use adjectives?
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“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”
Think of Star Trek's quote:
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” (or “the one”)
In the context of Star Trek, does the many/few refer to a specific group of many/few beings or many/...
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