IX. ADJECTIVES
24. From the sentence, “The road led us to a gate, and that to a dooryard and a house,” we get a picture, but it is neither definite nor attractive. Contrast it with the picture that we get from this sentence, “The pleasant, elm-shaded road led us to a rustic gate, and that to a green dooryard, and a long, low, brown house.” The difference is caused by the descriptive words in the second sentence. Which words describe the road? the gate? the dooryard? the house?
These descriptive words go with nouns, and describe the object named by the noun. We call them adjectives. An adjective is a part of speech.
Adjectives are said to modify the nouns they go with, and are called modifiers.
25. Most adjectives describe objects by telling size, shape, color, texture, or other qualities. A few adjectives tell number or amount; as, five minutes, much patience. A few merely point out; as, this meadow, next Christmas. The words a, an, and the are adjectives.
26. When several adjectives modify the same noun, they form a series, and are usually separated from each other by commas; as, “A hollow, booming, ominous cry rang out suddenly, and startled the dark edges of the forest.” In such a sentence as this, “Four little old French ladies rose to dance the minuet,” no commas should be used, because the adjectives modify more than the noun ladies. Four modifies little old French ladies; little modifies old French ladies; old modifies French ladies; and French modifies ladies.
27. Sometimes adjectives modify a pronoun instead of a noun, as in the sentence, “Tom missed the word, and I, happy and triumphant, took his place at the head.” How do we know that the adjectives happy and triumphant modify the pronoun I?
Summary.—An adjective is a word used to point out or describe an object and modify a noun or a pronoun.
Adjectives usually precede the nouns they modify but follow the pronouns.
When several adjectives modify a single noun, they are separated by commas.
A modifier is a word or a group of words that goes with another word to affect its meaning.
Exercise 1.—Select all the adjectives in the following sentences, and tell what they modify. Account for the punctuation.
1. On another side stood an old piano, a tinkling, rattling, merrymaking old piano, played by a young lady with a melancholy smile.
2. In the dark valley that ran down to a little river, Father Wolf heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger.
3. A small girl, with twinkling eyes and a merry face, got up and made her way to the front.
4. Only loving fingers could have taken those tiny, even stitches.
5. Charles carried water for the circus men, while I, scornful and lazy but envious, sat on the fence and watched him.
6. Mammy Tittleback is a splendid, great tortoise-shell cat.
7. I found myself sinking into some horrible, soft, slimy, sticky substance.
8. Few ships come to Rivermouth now.
9. Cæsar has one of the finest, deepest-toned voices I ever heard.
10. You can speak and smile cheerfully while you are enjoying every comfort of a snug, warm fireside, but you should not expect us, hungry, wet, and cold, to be in the same cheerful mood.
11. Suddenly the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy “one.”
12. The next best thing to cold potato and cream is cold roast chicken, and occasionally I found a good fat drumstick or a curling neck from whose corrugated bones I nibbled savory morsels.
Exercise 2.—Write sentences using the following words as adjectives. Make your sentences such that they reveal the meaning of the adjectives.
- awkward
- brilliant
- clammy
- false
- glassy
- graceful
- greedy
- huge
- mild
- moist
- pathetic
- shaggy
- slight
- sly
- soggy
Exercise 3.—Write sentences containing the following nouns, each modified by two or more adjectives:—
- cabbage
- carpet
- cloud
- deed
- garden
- grapes
- hand
- hat
- machine
- mill
- pupil
- room
- ship
- story
- teacher
28. In the following sentences, what word describes the statue? the bureau? the lamp? the rings?
A bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin stood in Lafayette Park.
The mahogany bureau contained a desk with many drawers and pigeon holes.
We grew tired of the gorgeousness of our parlor lamp.
Indians of both sexes are fond of bracelets, necklaces, and finger rings.
These four descriptive words are name words, hence by nature they are nouns; but in these sentences they are used as adjectives, and should therefore be called adjectives.
Exercise 4.—Write sentences in which the following nouns are used as adjectives:—
silver, copper, tin, iron, steel.
maple, oak, pine, hickory, cedar.
kitchen, hall, cellar, roof, library.
hand, head, foot, cheek, neck.
Think of ten other nouns that may be used as adjectives.