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Topic: Adjective

An adjective is a word which can go before a noun and modify its meaning (the ancient tower) or go after a linking verb like be (The tower is ancient).

Adjectives

A very simple definition of adjectives that has sometimes been used is that they are ‘descriptive’ words. But this isn’t really very helpful. Lots of word classes can be ‘descriptive’: a noun like funeral is fairly descriptive, as is the verb leap. We might also say that the adverb quickly describes the verb ran in a sentence like He quickly ran.

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Adjectives: Avoiding adjective overuse

Many writers of fiction use adjectives as a quick way of telling us what a character is like: how they appear, how they feel, how we should view them. Look at the following examples of how adjectives are used to provide a basic description:

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Nouns, adjectives and determiners

This short film introduces some basic ideas of grammar that everyone should know.

In this film Professor Bas Aarts introduces three basic categories: nouns, adjectives and determiners.

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