The New Student's Reference Work/Adjective

Ad′jective (Latin ad+jacere to add to; to throw out), is a word used in grammar to describe, qualify or limit the meaning of a noun or a pronoun; as a wise man, a good book, a lovely flower, a true story, a happy child, a weariful day. These are called descriptive adjectives, since they express some property or quality possessed by the noun. There are also limiting adjectives used to express number or quality, such as the indefinite article a or an, and the definite article the, this, one, first, some, much, etc. Not a few of these are used like pronouns, and are termed adjective pronouns; some of these are: all, any, each, few, many, such, several, etc. Descriptive adjectives are sometimes, by ellipsis, used as nouns; so used, the adjective when it denotes persons is taken in the plural sense, and is usually preceded by the, as “The poor deserve sympathy.” Adjectives are used comparatively, when we desire to indicate that one thing possesses a given quality in a higher degree than another. There are three degrees of comparison—the positive, the comparative and the superlative, as exemplified thus; sweet (positive), sweeter (comparative), and sweetest (superlative). Other examples are, tall, short, warm, cold, great, small, rare, fine, etc.—the comparative being expressed by adding er and the superlative by adding est to the positive. Degrees of quality are also expressed by prefixing to the positive the adverbs more and most, less and least—as cheerful, more cheerful, most cheerful; amiable, less amiable, least amiable. When two qualities in the same person or thing are compared, or when the adjective we want to use follows its noun, the following is the mode of usage: He is more wise than honest. In the English and German languages the usual place of the adjective when it is not in the predicate is before the noun. For examples of phrase-adjectives and other uses of the adjective see any good textbook on grammar.