English grammar

159. We learned in Lesson IX that adjectives are used (1) to describe objects, (2) to point them out. Adjectives are therefore divided into two classes,—(1) descriptive adjectives, and (2) limiting adjectives.

160. Descriptive adjectives tell the qualities of objects. They are very useful words, for they enable us to see things with the imagination. In the following sentence the well-chosen adjectives make us feel that we are looking into the very eyes of the eagle,—“His eyes, clear, direct, unacquainted with fear, had a certain hardness in their vitreous brilliancy, perhaps by reason of the sharp contrast between the bright gold iris and the unfathomable pupil.”

It is also through descriptive adjectives that we are able to identify things when we do see them. After reading this sentence we could pick out a moose calf from a score of other animals,—“The moose calf is uncouth, to be sure, with his high, humped fore shoulders, his long, lugubrious, overhanging snout, his big ears set low on his big head, his little eyes crowded back toward his ears, his long, big-knuckled legs, and the spindling lank diminutiveness of his hind quarters.”

161. One variety of descriptive adjective is the adjective derived from a proper noun; as, Scotch from Scotland, French from France, and Greek from Greece. These are called proper adjectives.

Proper adjectives include within themselves many other adjectives. If we speak of a Scotch collie, a French costume, or a Grecian nose, the listener gets the same picture that he would get if we used a long series of other adjectives.

162. Many proper adjectives may be used as proper nouns, naming a class of people, as when we speak of the Scotch, the French, the Russians, the Americans.

What proper noun have we to name the inhabitants of Spain? of Turkey? of Denmark? of Sweden?

What proper noun have we to designate one man who is a native of England? of Scotland? of France? of China? Italy? Germany? What is the plural of each of these nouns?

Exercise.—Supply the correct word in each of the following sentences:—

1. Three (French or Frenchmen) spent the evening at the house.

2. The (French or Frenchmen) are said to be very polite.

3. Why are so many (Scotch or Scotchmen) captains of steamships?

4. Are the (Irish or Irishmen) as thrifty as the Germans?

5. Are there many (Welsh or Welshmen) in this locality?

Summary.—Descriptive adjectives are those which tell the qualities of objects.

Proper adjectives are those derived from proper nouns. They always begin with a capital letter.

Exercise 1.—Write a list of the proper adjectives derived from the following proper nouns. Use them in sentences to modify appropriate nouns.

• Africa
• Alaska
• Asia
• China
• Christ
• Denmark
• England
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Jew
• Malta
• Norway
• Paris
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• Turkey

Exercise 2.—In the following sentences select all the descriptive adjectives and tell what objects they describe. In so far as you can, tell what qualities the adjectives denote, as color, size, form, texture, surface, material, nature, etc. Account for the punctuation and capitalization.

1. All the time the crocodile’s little eyes burned like coals under the heavy, horny eyelids on the top of his triangular head, as he shoved his bloated barrel body along between his crutched legs.

2. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists in the early times of the province.

3. The dog and his master hunted together, fur-wrapped boy and savage, long-haired, narrow-eyed, white-fanged, yellow brute.

4. We always smiled to hear the judge’s wife talk about her Turkish carpets, her little Chippendale chairs, her Wedgwood china, and her Persian shawls.

5. This crowded, lively, and interesting thoroughfare is over two miles long.

6. In queer little châlets, or Swiss huts, live the people who attend to the cattle, and make butter and cheese.

7. The split and weatherworn rocks of the gorge had been used since the beginning of the Jungle by the Little People of the Rocks,—the busy, furious, black, wild bees of India.

8. At every stride the loose-hung, wide-cleft, spreading hoofs of the moose came sharply together with a flat, clacking noise.

9. Out comes the negro pilot, and scrambles up on deck.

10. Yonder lies a Norwegian ship, with her sailors climbing the shrouds like so many monkeys.

11. Mowgli’s voice could be heard in all sorts of wet, starlighted, blossoming places, helping the big frogs through their choruses, or mocking the upside-down owls that hoot through the white nights.