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Main Verbs - Four Kinds

We can first divide all main verbs into two broad categories: action verbs and no-action verbs. Thousands reside in the action-verb group, only a handful in the no-action group. Each of these groups further subdivides into two additional groups:Actio...

Adjectives - Definition, Overview, and Lists of Examples

WelcomeBelow you’ll find links to our discussion on adjectives. We recommend that you start with the first topic,Adjectives - Words That Describe. At the bottom of each topic, you’ll find links to “Next” and to “Previous.” So start with t...

Adjectives - Words That Describe

We’ve learned about nouns. Now we’ll look at words that describe or modify nouns. We call these words or groups of words adjectives. In this section, we’ll also learn about articles—a, an, and the.Adjectives describe or modify nouns or pronou...

Positive, Comparative, Superlative

Postive, Comparative, Superlative - Good, Better, BestRecall how we defined nouns as words capable of having plurals and possessive endings. Adjectives (and their first cousin, the adverb) also have a feature that distinguishes them. They come in thr...

States of Adjective: -er or more, -est or most

How to Form the States of AdjectivesYou ask, therefore, how to tell when to use the ‑er and ‑est endings and when to use the helping words more and most? There’s no hard and fast rule, but some rules of thumb will help:Syllable Rule for States ...

Only One State, e.g., Unique

Please notice that some adjectives have only one state, the positive state. Put another way, some adjectives cannot display the degrees shown by the comparative and the superlative states or through further modification by adverbs like very, largely,...

"A," "An," "The" - The Articles

At this point in our study of the eight parts of speech, it’s a good idea to discuss three little words we have a hard time classifying in the English language—the articles, a, an, and the.They don’t constitute a separate part of speech. But be...

"A" vs. "An" - When to Use

A Historic Topic - A vs. AnWriters sometimes confuse the use of the articles a and an. We were all taught that a precedes a word starting with a consonant and that an precedes a word starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y).Here’s the...

Other One-Word Adjectives

Adjectives became a recognized part of speech in the 1700s. They belong to a larger category, which grammarians sometimes use to describe words and groups of words: Adjectives (and adverbs) are called modifiers. Above we saw those little words, the a...

Noun Modifiers

Noun Acting as an AdjectiveIronically, another word often acts as a modifier of nouns. The noun itself often modifies another noun.Our language overflows with noun modifiers: football game hotdog bun chair legs Indeed, the list seems endless. These...

“Fewer” vs. “Less”

Nine Items or FewerA couple of adjectives cause many writers a lot of trouble: less vs. fewer. Let’s straighten out the problems. Write with fewer lesses. Many writers confuse fewer and less, usually using less when they mean fewer. Let’s review ...

"Different from" vs. "Different than"

Watch OutThe word than typically follows a comparative adjective, such as closer or more bizarre. You would thus say: K  Street is closer than M Street. Or you would say: This movie was more bizarre than any movie she had ever seen. The word than s...

Compound Adjectives

Hyphens in Compound AdjectivesThe English language is remarkably versatile, for it allows us to make up words and expressions that don’t otherwise appear in the dictionary. One type of expression we frequently invent is the compound adjective (also...

Adjectival Phrases

Funny word, the adjective. When it appears as just one word, it must usually come before the word it modifies. Thus, we can write about the essential factor, and we must position essential before factor. But if we add some words to essential—typica...

Adjectives - Phrases and Clauses

It’s SHOUTING time again. Wake up. This stuff is important.There are two main types of word chunks, clauses and phrases. A clause is a bunch of words with a conjugated verb in it. A phrase is a bunch of words without a conjugated verb in it.In the ...

A Summary of Adjectives

In this section, we introduced ourselves to the adjective, which comes in a one-word form that either precedes or follows the noun it modifies.When the adjective precedes the noun, it’s in the attributive position.When it follows the noun, it’s i...

Adverbs - Definition, Overview, and Lists of Examples

WelcomeBelow you’ll find links to our discussion on adverbs. We recommend that you start with the first topic,Adverbs - More Words That Describe. At the bottom of each topic, you’ll find links to “Next” and to “Previous.” So start with th...

Adverbs - More Words That Describe

We’ve learned about verbs. Now let’s study those words or groups of words that describe or modify verbs. We call them adverbs. Sometimes they end in ‑ly, and sometimes they don’t.Just as adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs. But they...

Modifying Adjectives and Adverbs

Amber and Miss Hamrick also wanted to further describe the adjectives they used to modify nouns. Not content with saying The sunset is beautiful, they became grandiose and said The sunset is unbelievably beautiful. Thus, they developed the rule that ...

Modifying an Entire Sentence or Clause

Use of Hopefully to Start a SentenceThis discussion will undoubtedly get some readers’ noses out of joint, because it points out that starting a sentence with the word hopefully is acceptable under modern theories of style. But watch out, many read...

Adverbs - Four Questions

Four questions typically arise about the correct use of adverbs:1. Do all adverbs end in -ly? 2. Where do we put adverbs in the sentence? 3. Where does the word only go in a sentence? 4. How do we form the comparative and superlative forms of adverbs...

1. Do All Adverbs End in -ly?

What happened to the -ly ending?We use the ‑ly ending to add to adjectives to convert them to adverbs. Thus, the adjective easy becomes the adverb easily, the adjective rapid becomes the adverb rapidly, and the adjective careful becomes the adverb ...

2. Where Do Adverbs Go?

Many writers make a mistake.As we learned in the section on verbs, every one-word verb has a one-word present tense and a one-word past tense. Thus: I write and I wrote. These one-word verbs are called simple verbs.Recall that all other tenses requir...

3. Placing the Word “Only”

According to Garner Oxford, the word only is “the most frequently misplaced of all English words.” Garner Oxford, p. 239. You should put only immediately before the word you intend to limit. The greater the distance between only and the word it ...

4. What Are the Comparative and Superlative Forms?

Recall in the section on adjectives that we can show various degrees of the descriptive qualities of adjectives: hot plate (positive) hotter plate (comparative) hottest plate (superlative)difficult task (positive) more difficult task (comparativ...