What makes a person’s speech (even written, even oral) the most understandable? Why would she be poor and inexpressive? Of course, without adjectives. For example, if you read the word “forest” in the text without definitions, you will never understand what is meant. After all, it can be coniferous, deciduous or mixed, winter, spring, summer or autumn. Great Russian language. A high-quality adjective is a direct confirmation of this. In order to vividly and accurately represent any picture, we need this wonderful part of speech.
Significance and main features
An adjective is a name that indicates the attribute of an object, that is, its properties, which contain a characteristic of quality, quantity, belonging. For example, they give a definition of color, taste, smell; denote the assessment of the phenomenon, its nature, etc. Usually people ask questions to it: which (th, th)? what is it? whose (s)? This is a significant (independent) part of speech.
The grammatical features of the adjective include:
- variability by birth (for example, red - masculine, yellow - feminine, green - medium);
- declension in cases (check: nominative - sandy, genitive - iron, dative - to the morning; instrumental - to the evening; prepositional - about the night);
- the possibility of a short form and degree of comparison (high-quality adjectives);
- variability by numbers (for example, blue is the only one, blue is the plural).
Syntactic role
- The most common adjective clause in a sentence is a definition. It most often depends on the noun and is fully consistent with it. Consider the proposal: Deep traces were visible in the snow. Traces (what?) Are deep. The adjective is a definition depending on the subject expressed by the noun. Graphically indicated by a wavy line.
- The ability to move from one part of speech to another allows the adjective to be the main member of the sentence - subject. ( For example : A patient is admitted to a hospital in serious condition.)
- Quite often in the predicate in the form of a nominal part are there any adjectives? Quality in short form. ( Compare : He was weak from illness. - The boy was weak. In the first case, the main member is a verb, in the second - an adjective in a compound nominal predicate.)
Adjectives: qualitative, relative, possessive
This part of speech has three categories, differing both in form and in meaning. Consider all their signs for comparison in the table.
| Quality | Relative | Possessive |
This feature of the subject has a different degree of manifestation in it. One may be redder or whiter, and the other smaller or larger. Only they can make phrases with such adverbs as "not enough" and "extremely", "very" and "unusual", "too". Able to have a short form: strong, invincible, glorious. Only high-quality adjectives can form degrees of comparison. Examples: sweeter, kindest, highest. Complex words can be obtained from them by repeating: darling, darling, blue-blue. | The sign designated by them does not contain a greater or lesser degree, like qualitative adjectives. Examples: one nail cannot be more iron than another, and the clay pot itself in the world does not exist. They indicate the material from which the item is made or consists of: wooden floor, sandy shore, gold jewelry. They show the location or proximity to something: the local area, the maritime region. Testify of time: February snowstorms, evening promenade, the year before last. Determine the amount: three-year-old child, one and a half meter pointer. The purpose of the item is disclosed: sewing machine, regular bus, cargo platform. They do not have a short form and degree of comparison. | They indicate that this item belongs to someone or something. If the fox has a tail, then it is fox, the hat can be grandmother or dad. The main distinguishing feature is the question of "whose"? |
The quality is different
It is worthwhile to dwell in more detail on the most flexible definitions in use and word formation, which are known as high-quality adjectives. Examples of their meanings are unusually diverse. They may indicate:
- on the shape of the subject: multifaceted, round, angular;
- its size: tall, wide, huge;
- color: orange, dark green, purple;
- smell: stinking, fragrant, odorous;
- temperature: cold, warm, hot;
- sound level and characteristic: quiet, loud, rolling;
- general assessment: necessary, useful, unimportant.
Extra exclusivity
There are also distinctive features that you need to know in order not to confuse qualitative, relative, and possessive adjectives. So, the first of them have features:
- the formation of new words with the prefix "not": a sad person, an expensive commodity; or diminutive suffixes: gray - gray - grayish;
- the possibility of selecting synonyms: cheerful - joyful; bright - brilliant; antonyms: cold - hot, evil - kind;
- adjectives from -o, -e lead from high-quality adjectives: white - white, gentle - gently.
More on degrees of comparison
They also have only high-quality adjectives. Examples of education of a simple comparative degree: more visible, darker, longer. A composite comparative degree is a phrase: add “less” or “more” to the adjective: less hard, softer.
The superlative degree is therefore called so, which indicates the predominance of the trait in one object over other similar ones. It may be simple: it is education using the suffixes -eysh-, -eysh-. For example: the surest, the lowest. And compound: the adjective is used in combination with the word “most”: the most wonderful, the deepest.
Can adjectives change their rank?
And again, it is worth recalling the broad abilities of the Russian language. Everything is possible in it. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives in a certain context change their meaning according to rank.
For example, in the phrase "glass beads" everyone understands that we are talking about beads made of glass. But the "glass arguments" - this is a metaphor, it is very fragile, fragile arguments. It can be concluded: the relative adjective (first example) has turned into a qualitative adjective (second).
If you compare the expression "fox hole" and "fox character", you can see how the belonging of animal housing passes into the quality of human nature, which means the possessive adjective has become high-quality.
Let’s take for example two more phrases: “rabbit footprint” and “rabbit hat”. The prints of the little animal are not at all what the headdress of it is. As you can see, the possessive adjective can go into the relative.