Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A silly twit
A big, bloody mess (both big and bloody modify mess) She is creative (creative is a subject complement that follows the linking verb is) A boring course (present participle used as an adjective
Adjective
Happy kids
Smooth rock Good night Efficient workers Casual dress
Adverb
Playing happily
Running smoothly Eating Well Working efficiently Dressing casually
Quick meeting
hopeful children Real butter
Talking quickly
Waiting hopefully Really hot
Simple
Hot Good Exciting Careful
Comparative
Hotter Better More exciting Less careful
Superlative
Hottest Best Most exciting Least careful
Double Comparatives
Dont use more or most with er or est
X Yesterday was more hotter than today X That was the most dirtiest story I ever heard X You are the bestest teacher
Absolute Concepts
Dont use comparatives or superlatives with absolute concepts Absolutes have only two possibilities, on or off, yes or no, with nothing in between
X The most perfect student in the class X A very unique idea (say very unusual instead)
Very unanimous
Quite unique
Extremely perfect
Completely anonymous
X He did good He did well or He did a good job X Fuel injection helps the car run efficient Fuel injection helps the car run efficiently X Come quick! Come quickly! X Hopefully, it wont rain
(an adverb explains how something will happen
Context will help you decide whether to retain the underlined words Keep them only if they add to the meaning
Note: the terms good success and real good success have been reserved for sports broadcasters; do not use them
X Bill Gates is very rich. I hope he gives me some money. Most college instructors are poor; their students are very poor.
Compound Adjectives
Two or more adjectives often appear together separated with commas
Brads tiny, tight swimsuit showed off his hairy belly
The words tiny and tight each work separately to modify swimsuit
Connect the words with a hyphen when they function together before a noun
Brads gold-plated piercings stood out against his
bright-red sunburn
Gold-plated and bright-red are compound adjectives
Compound Adjectives
Do not hyphenate the words when they come after the noun they modify Notice the difference in these examples
Brad was well known along the boardwalk (no hyphen) His SUV was fully equipped Brad worked full time on his tan Brad was a well-known jerk (hyphenated) He drove a fully-equipped SUV Brad was a full-time chick magnet
Misplaced Modifiers
Put adjectives and adverbs close to the words they modify Notice how the meaning is affected by the improper placement
X An old pile of clothes is on the floor A pile of old clothes is on the floor X I almost believe you are finished I believe you are almost finished X The winners will only be contacted Only the winners will be contacted X I cant quite do this as well as Fred I cant do this quite as well as Fred