ADJECTIVES - MATERIAL for SMK SP

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By "noun" we include pronouns and noun phrases.)

An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun (a big dog).

Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinese food) or after certain verbs (It is hard).

We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady).

It is sometimes said that the adjective is the enemy of the noun. This is because, very often, if we use the precise noun we don't need an adjective. For example, instead of saying "a large, impressive house" (2 adjectives + 1 noun) we could simply say "a mansion" (1 noun).

Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

1. before the noun
2. after certain verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell, taste)

		adj.	noun	verb	adj.
1	I like	big	cars.
2			My car	is	big.

In this lesson we look at the position of adjectives in a sentence, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

• Adjective before noun
• Adjective after certain verbs
• Adjective order quiz

Adjective Before Noun

We sometimes use more than one adjective before the noun:

• I like big black dogs.
• She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. The general order is: opinion, fact:

• a nice French car (not a French nice car)

("Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true about something.)

2. The normal order for fact adjectives is size, age, shape, colour, material, origin:

• a big, old, square, black, wooden Chinese table

3. Determiners usually come first, even though they are fact adjectives:

• articles (a, the)
• possessives (my, your...)
• demonstratives (this, that...)
• quantifiers (some, any, few, many...)
• numbers (one, two, three)

Here is an example with opinion and fact adjectives:

adjectives					noun
deter- miner	opinion	fact
		age	shape	colour
two	nice	old	round	red	candles

When we want to use two colour adjectives, we join them with "and":

• Many newspapers are black and white.
• She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. But these rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following conversations:

Conversation 1
A "I want to buy a round table."
B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?"

Conversation 2
A "I want to buy an old table".
B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"

Adjective After Certain Verbs

An adjective can come after some verbs, such as: be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, sound

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always refers to and qualifies the subject of the sentence, not the verb.

Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective

• Ram is English.
• Because she had to wait, she became impatient.
• Is it getting dark?
• The examination did not seem difficult.
• Your friend looks nice.
• This towel feels damp.
• That new film doesn't sound very interesting.
• Dinner smells good tonight.
• This milk tastes sour.
• It smells bad.

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not include all stative verbs.

Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective), the adjective can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.

For my students in SMK Sumpah Pemuda do not forget to check this material, and learn this. May this will be useful for you all.

Source : English Club, By Abdul Hair, S.Pd.

DETERMINERS - MATERIAL FOR SMK SP

DETERMINERS

Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically similar. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.

Articles:

• a, an, the

Possessive Adjectives:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Other determiners:

• each, every
• either, neither
• some, any, no
• much, many; more, most
• little, less, least
• few, fewer, fewest
• what, whatever; which, whichever
• both, half, all
• several
• enough

A, An or The?

When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about singular, countable nouns.)

The and a/an are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this:

Articles
Definite	Indefinite
the	a, an

We use "definite" to mean sure, certain. "Definite" is particular.

We use "indefinite" to mean not sure, not certain. "Indefinite" is general.

When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. When we are talking about one thing in general, we use a or an.

Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see 1 moon and millions of stars. So normally we would say:

• I saw the moon last night.
• I saw a star last night.

Look at these examples:

the	a, an
The capital of France is Paris. I have found the book that I lost. Have you cleaned the car? There are six eggs in the fridge. Please switch off the TV when you finish.	I was born in a town. John had an omelette for lunch. James Bond ordered a drink. We want to buy an umbrella. Have you got a pen?

Of course, often we can use the or a/an for the same word. It depends on the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

• We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.)
• Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

Possessive Adjectives

We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive adjectives are:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• whose (interrogative)

number	person	gender	possessive adjective	example sentence
singular	1st	male/female	my	This is my book.
	2nd	male/female	your	I like your hair.
	3rd	male	his	His name is "John".
		female	her	Her name is "Mary".
		neuter	its	The dog is licking its paw.
plural	1st	male/female	our	We have sold our house.
	2nd	male/female	your	Your children are lovely.
	3rd	male/female/neuter	their	The students thanked their teacher.
singular/plural	1st/2nd/3rd	male/female (not neuter)	whose	Whose phone did you use?

Compare:

your = possessive adjective
you're = you are

its = possessive adjective
it's = it is OR it has

their = possessive adjective
they're = they are
there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside)

whose = possessive adjective
who's = who is OR who has 

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective "its". We use an apostrophe to write the short form of "it is" or "it has". For example:
it's raining = it is raining
it's finished = it has finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.

Each, Every

Each and every have similar but not always identical meanings.

Each = every one separately
Every = each, all

Sometimes, each and every have the same meaning:

• Prices go up each year.
• Prices go up every year.

But often they are not exactly the same.

Each expresses the idea of 'one by one'. It emphasizes individuality.

Every is half-way between each and all. It sees things or people as singular, but in a group or in general.

Consider the following:

• Every artist is sensitive.
• Each artist sees things differently.
• Every soldier saluted as the President arrived.
• The President gave each soldier a medal.

Each can be used in front of the verb:

• The soldiers each received a medal.

Each can be followed by 'of':

• The President spoke to each of the soldiers.
• He gave a medal to each of them.

Every cannot be used for 2 things. For 2 things, each can be used:

• He was carrying a suitcase in each hand.

Every is used to say how often something happens:

• There is a plane to Bangkok every day.
• The bus leaves every hour.

Verbs with each and every are always conjugated in the singular.

Some, Any

Some = a little, a few or a small number or amount

Any = one, some or all

Usually, we use some in positive (+) sentences and any in negative (-) and question (?) sentences.

	some	any	example situation
+	I have some money.		I have $10.
-		I don't have any money.	I don't have $1 and I don't have $10 and I don't have $1,000,000. I have $0.
?		Do you have any money?	Do you have $1 or $10 or $1,000,000?

 

In general, we use something/anything and somebody/anybody in the same way as some/any.

Look at these examples:

• He needs some stamps.
• I must go. I have some homework to do.
• I'm thirsty. I want something to drink.
• I can see somebody coming.

• He doesn't need any stamps.
• I can stay. I don't have any homework to do.
• I'm not thirsty. I don't want anything to drink.
• I can't see anybody coming.

• Does he need any stamps?
• Do you have any homework to do?
• Do you want anything to drink?
• Can you see anybody coming?

We use any in a positive sentence when the real sense is negative.

• I refused to give them any money. (I did not give them any money)
• She finished the test without any difficulty. (she did not have any difficulty)

Sometimes we use some in a question, when we expect a positive YES answer. (We could say that it is not a real question, because we think we know the answer already.)

• Would you like some more tea?
• Could I have some sugar, please?

Task

Determiners

Click  and choose the best answer !

1	Lisa saw a an the shooting star yesterday.	Click for answer a
2	Don't look directly at a an the sun.	Click for answer the
3	Is there any milk left in a an the fridge?	Click for answer the
4	I need to pack a an the apple for my lunch.	Click for answer an
5	The dogs were each any every given a bone.	Click for answer each
6	The police spoke separately to every each some suspect.	Click for answer each
7	She was wearing a bracelet on each any every wrist.	Click for answer each
8	She got her license without some any every problem.	Click for answer any
9	I don't think everybody any anybody is coming to the party, except Judy and Stan.	Click for answer anybody
10	I always keep any every some money in my wallet for emergencies.	Click for answer some

May this lesson will be useful for my students…in Sumpah Pemuda Vocational School, Jakarta.

Source from : English Club, by Abdul Hair, S.Pd.