Adjectives, adverbs and preposotions
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Transcript of Adjectives, adverbs and preposotions
ADJECTIVES,ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS
Medical Technology CareerEnglish II
By: Blanche NúñezOctober 8th 2012
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.
The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.
For example: the tall professor the lugubrious lieutenant a month's pay
Position of Adjectives
Adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify.
Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category. For example: the tall professor
Degrees of Adjectives Adjectives can express degrees of
modification. The degrees are known as the positive,
the comparative, and the superlative. We use the comparative for comparing
two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things.
COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE
Rules
COMPARATIVE Use THAN Suffix – er If the adjective of
two or more syllables ends in «y», add –ier .
Use MORE when an adjective has more than one syllable.
SUPERLATIVE Use THE Suffix –est If the adjective of
two or more syllables ends in «y», add –iest.
Use MOST when an adjective has more than one syllable.
Examples
Tom is old. He is 70. But Paul is 83. He is older than Tom.
…Joe is 120. He is the oldest.
A pocket camera is expensive... A reflex camera is more expensive than a pocket camera.
...But a digital camera is the most expensive of the three
Examples Positive Comparative Superlative
rich richer richestlovely lovelier loveliestbeautiful more beautiful most beautiful
Irregular Comparative and Superlative Formsgood better bestbad worse worstlittle less leastMuch,many, some
more most
far further furthest
Be Careful
Do not use more along with a comparative adjective formed with –er.
Do not use most along with a superlative adjective formed with -est something is more heavier or most heaviest).
The as — as construction is used to create a comparison expressing equality: She is as bright as her mother.
The Order if Adjectives in a Series
The order in which adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English as a second language.
It takes a lot of practice with a language before this order becomes instinctive, because the order often seems quite arbitrary.
The categories in the following table can be described as follows:
THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
Determiner
Observation
Physical Description Origin Material Qualifier Noun
Size Shape Age Color
a beautiful old Italian touring car
an expensive antique silver mirror
four gorgeouslong-
stemmed
red silk roses
her short black hair
our big old English Sheep dog
those square wooden hat boxes
that dilapidated little hunting cabin
several enormous young America
nbasketba
llplayer
s
some delicious Thai food
School is boring, but homework is_________________ than school.
more boring
Sourcehttp://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm
ADVERBS
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify a verb (He drove slowly. — How did he drive?) an adjective (He drove a very fast car. — How
fast was his car?) another adverb (She moved quite slowly down
the aisle. — How slowly did she move?)
Adverbs Adverbs often tell when, where, why, or under
what conditions something happens or happened.
Adverbs frequently end in -ly; however, many words and phrases not ending in -ly serve an adverbial function and an -ly ending is not a guarantee that a word is an adverb.
The words lovely, lonely, motherly, friendly, neighborly, for instance, are adjectives:
That lovely woman lives in a friendly neighborhood.
Rules Often these adverbs are formed by
adding -ly to the end of an adjective. Adjectives ending -l add -ly ; careful-
carefully. Adjectives ending -y change to -ily ;
lucky-luckily Adjectives ending -ble change to -bly ;
responsible-responsibly. Adjectives ending – ic change to –ally;
fantastic - fantastically
Kind of Adverbs Adverbs of Manner (How something happens)
She moved slowly and spoke quietly. Carefully, correctly,eagerly,easily,fast, loudly, patiently,quickly
Adverbs of Place (Where something happens)She has lived on the island all her life. Abroad,anywhere,downstairs,here,in,nowhere,out,outside,there
Adverbs of Frequency (How often something happens)She takes the boat to the mainland every day. Always, sometimes, usually, seldom,rarely, never
Adverbs of Time (When something happens)She tries to get back before dark. After, later, just, now recently, tomorrow, yesterday, soon
Adverbs of Purpose (Why something happens)She drives her boat slowly to avoid hitting the rocks. To, in order to, accidentally, intentionally, because, since, so that
Positions of Adverbs One of the hallmarks of adverbs is their
ability to move around in a sentence. Adverbs of manner are particularly flexible in this regard. Solemnly the minister addressed her
congregation. The minister solemnly addressed her
congregation. The minister addressed her congregation
solemnly.
Positions of Adverbs
The following adverbs of frequency appear in various points in these sentences: Before the main verb:
I never get up before nine o'clock. Between the auxiliary verb and the main verb:
I have rarely written to my brother without a good reason.
Before the verb used to: I always used to see him at his summer home.
Positions of Adverbs Indefinite adverbs of time can appear
either before the verb or between the auxiliary and the main verb: He finally showed up for batting practice. She has recently retired.
THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADVERBS
Verb Manner Place Frequency Time Purpos
e
Beth swims
enthusiastically in the pool every
morning before dawn to keep in shape.
Dad walks impatiently into town every
afternoonbefore supper
to get a newspaper.
Tashonda naps in her room every
morning before lunch.
In actual practice, of course, it would be highly unusual to have a string of adverbial modifiers beyond two or three (at the most). Because the placement of adverbs is so flexible, one or two of the modifiers would probably move to the beginning of the sentence: "Every afternoon before supper, Dad impatiently walks into town to get a newspaper." When that happens, the introductory adverbial modifiers are usually set off with a comma.
Sue is a (careful)___________ girl. She takes her medicines _______________.
careful
carefully
«Prepositions» Locators in
Time and Place
Prepositions A preposition describes a relationship
between other words in a sentence. Prepositions are nearly always combined
with other words in structures called prepositional phrases.
Example: You can sit before the desk (or in front of
the desk).
Prepositions of Time: at, on, in
We use at to designate specific times. The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
We use on to designate days and dates. My brother is coming on Monday. We're having a party on the Fourth of July.
We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a season, or a year. She likes to jog in the morning. It's too cold in winter to run outside.
We use at for specific addresses. Grammar English lives at 55 Boretz Road in Durham.
We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc. Her house is on Boretz Road.
And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties, states, countries, and continents). She lives in Durham. Durham is in Windham County.
Prepositions of Place: at, on, in
Prepositions of movement:To and No preposition
We use to in order to express movement toward a place. They were driving to work together.
Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to express movement. These are simply variant spellings of the same word; use whichever sounds better to you. We're moving toward the light.
With the words home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside, downstairs, upstairs, we use no preposition. Grandma went upstairs
Prepositions of time: for and since
We use for when we measure time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years). She held his breath for seven minutes.
We use since with a specific date or time. He's worked here since 1970.
See the chart for others prepositions and their usage.
How to learn it?
There are hardly any rules as to when to use which preposition. The only way to learn prepositions is looking them up in a dictionary, reading a lot in English (literature) and learning useful phrases off by heart (study tips).