Adjectives

Remember, we use colors to show different parts of speech: Nouns/Pronouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections
Were looking at ADJECTIVES, but dont forget the other parts of speech weve already learned!

What do you already know about adjectives? Lets get a good definition of adjective: An adjective describes a noun or pronoun in 3 possible ways. Lets use pencil to practice: 1. What kind? The blue pencil. 2. Which one? That pencil. 3. How many? Five pencils.

Based on the definition of adjectives, why do you think they are important to use in our writing?
Lets see how this works:

The family sat down to dinner. The family sat down [to dinner.]
Do you think this is a good sentence? Why or why not?

If its not that great, what could we add to make it better? Try it! The family sat down to dinner.
Heres Ms. Conways examples: The Hawaiian family sat down to dinner. The family sat down to a delicious dinner.

What do you notice about where adjectives go in the sentence? The Hawaiian family sat down to dinner.
The family sat down to a delicious dinner.

Right! Usually, adjectives come BEFORE the noun or pronoun that they describe.

But adjectives can also be in other places too.

Take this sentence for example: The mangy, filthy, stray mutt approached me. This sentence has all its adjectives in a row. Do they have to be this way? What if I gave you some commas and the word and? The stray mutt, mangy and filthy, approached me.

When we use adjectives, they spice up our writing to make it more interesting, especially when we use awesome adjectives!
But sometimes, we use too many adjectives-this is not a good thing .

See?

My moms new, large, blue Ford Expedition rides high above the other miniature, small, compact cars around us on the crowded, busy highway. -- Annie, student
What do you notice?

So adjectives are good to use because they give us specific information.

But we need to choose our adjectives carefully, and only use them when we really need them. HW: 1. Find 3 sentences with adjectives. 2. Color the adjectives blue. 3. Color the noun/pronoun the adjective describes yellow.

Share your HW!

What are the 3 ways that adjectives describe nouns/pronouns in a sentence?

1. What kind? 2. Which one? 3. How many? What kind and How many are pretty easy to understand. Which one uses some special adjectives called articles and demonstratives.

Articles and demonstratives are adjectives that answer which one by pointing out specific nouns/pronouns. Articles A a ball An an octagon The the girl
Demonstratives This/That These/those

Why would I pair these words together?

Demonstratives are used for singular nouns/pronouns, or plural nouns/pronouns:

This book. This books. No These books. That car. That cars. No Those cars.

Demonstratives also show location. This and These close by That and Those further away

HW: 1. Complete the FRONT side of the adjectives practice page. 2. We will do the back tomorrow

Lets check our HW practice page.

When we learned about figurative and descriptive language, we talked about awesome adjectives

What are those again? Awesome adjectives are adjectives that are more descriptive, that are just right for the sentence.

In your table groups, youll have an adjective that has recently died.
You group will write an obituary by brainstorming all possible substitutions for that adjective.

Beautiful
Gorgeous, stunning, glamorous, etc. Illustrate/write your new words creatively on your groups poster paper.

Okay, lets review List all the things you know about adjectives now: 1. Describe nouns/pronouns 2. Tell what kind 3. Tell which one 4. Tell how many 5. Color-coded blue 6. Come in different places in sentences 7. Demonstratives and articles are special kinds of adjectives 8. Proper adjectives

Proper adjectives come from a proper noun. Remember those? These are nouns that name a specific person, place, thing, or idea.
Proper adjectives then work in a similar way. They tell a specific kind of noun/pronoun.

Like this: Here is a Mexican silver bracelet. The adjective Mexican comes from the proper noun Mexico.
Many times, when we make a proper noun into a proper adjective, the ending will change. Lets see some common endings

Common Proper Adjective Endings

Proper Noun Ireland Britain Italy Brazil Proper Adjective Irish seacoast British tea Italian painting Brazilian actor Ending -ish -ish -an -an

Japan China

Japanese food Chinese market

-ese -ese

As usual with grammar though, there are always exceptions to the rule or pattern French cooking is popular in countries other than France. Norwegian sweaters are famous outside of Norway. Spanish bullfighters come from all over Spain to train and compete.

Although countries are the easiest proper adjectives to think of, there are many more!
See? Ms. Conway does not like Levis jeans. Many students wear Toms shoes at school.

HW: 1. Find (or write) 3 sentences using proper adjectives. 2. Only 1 sentence may contain a proper adjective from your notes. 3. Your other 2 sentences must use new proper adjectives. (There are plenty!)

Share your HW!

Sometimes in our writing, we need to compare nouns or pronouns using adjectives.

Leslie is younger than Andrew. June is the youngest person in class. What are the words in these two sentences that are comparing? Leslie is younger than Andrew. June is the youngest person in class.

Younger is the comparative form of young. er was added to change the adjective.
Youngest is the superlative form. est was added this time. Why do we have to have two different versions of young if they can both compare? Comparative adjectives compare TWO nouns/pronouns. Superlative adjectives compare MORE than two nouns/pronouns.

Heres another way to think about it:

Comparative Superlative Compares 2 Compares more than 2 Add -er Add -est

Lets practice:
Adjective Large Flat Pretty Comparative Larger Flatter Prettier Superlative Largest Flattest Prettiest

What did you notice about the spelling? Right, sometimes the spelling changes

When Ms. Conway thinks about comparative and superlative adjectives, she thinks about paint samples

 Adjectives with e no double ees Ex: large larger largest

Adjectives with single consonant double the consonant Ex: flat flatter flattest Adjectives with y change to ier or iest Ex: pretty prettier prettiest HW: Complete the practice page

Comparing with adjectives is great, but er and est truly only work for adjectives that are one syllable.
What about all those other awesome adjectives that are more than one syllable? Like, awesome? Could we say awesomer? Could we say awesomest?

For most multi-syllable adjectives, we have to use: the word more instead of er, and the word most instead of est
Adjective Honest Dangerous Glamorous Comparative More honest More dangerous More glamorous Superlative Most honest More dangerous Most glamorous

Be careful not to use both more and er Ex: Peaches are more fuzzier than apples. Be careful not to use both most and est Ex: This peach is the most ripest.

Like always, there are exceptions even to more and most There are some adjectives that are irregular, meaning they dont use er/est or more/most
Much Little Bad Good
Much More Most

Little
Bad Good

Less
Worse Better

Least
Worst Best

HW: Paint Sample Cards! 1. Choose an adjective to illustrate. Try to use an adjective that is unique, that no one else will have. 2. Fold your paper into thirds (burrito-style) 3. Top= adjective and illustration 4. Middle= comparative form and illustration 5. Bottom= superlative form & illustration 6. Illustrations should show how the adjectives meaning changes in its different forms 7. Good quality, effort, and coloring please!