What makes a person's speech (whether written or spoken) the most understandable? Without what would she be poor and inexpressive? Of course, no adjectives. For example, if you read the word "forest" in the text without definitions, you will never understand which one is meant. After all, it can be coniferous, deciduous or mixed, winter, spring, summer or autumn. The Russian language is great. A qualitative adjective is a direct confirmation of this. In order to vividly and accurately represent any picture, we need this wonderful part of speech.
Meaning 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 by color, taste, smell; denote an assessment of the phenomenon, its nature, etc. Usually, questions are asked to it: what (th, -th)?what is (-a, -o)? whose (-s, -e)? This is a significant (independent) part of speech.
The grammatical features of an adjective include:
- variability by gender (for example, red is masculine, yellow is feminine, green is neuter);
- declension by cases (check: nominative - sandy, genitive - iron, dative - morning; instrumental - evening; prepositional - about night);
- possibility of short form and degree of comparison (qualitative adjectives);
- variability by numbers (for example, blue - singular, blue - plural).
Syntactic role
- The most common adjectival position in a sentence is a definition. It most often depends on the noun and is fully consistent with it. Consider the sentence: There were deep footprints in the snow. Traces (what?) are deep. An adjective is a definition that depends 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 - the subject. (For example: The patient was admitted to the hospital in a serious condition.)
- Quite often what adjectives are found in the composition of the predicate in the form of a nominal part? Quality in a nutshell. (Compare: He became weak from illness. - The boy was weak. In the first case, the main member is the verb, in the second - the adjective in the compound nominalpredicate.)
Adjectives: qualitative, relative, possessive
This part of speech has three categories, differing both in form and meaning. Consider all their features for comparison in the table.
| Quality | Relative |
Possessive |
|
This feature of the subject has a different degree of manifestation in it. One can be redder or whiter and the other smaller or larger. Only they can form phrases with such adverbs as "not enough" and "extremely", "very" and "extraordinary", "too". Able to have a short form: strong, invincible, glorious. Only qualitative adjectives can form degrees of comparison. Examples: cutest, kindest, tallest. They can make complex words by repeating: cute-cute, blue-blue. |
The sign they designate does not contain a greater or lesser degree, like qualitative adjectives. Examples: one nail cannot be ironer than another, and there is no world's most earthenware pot. They indicate the material of which the object is made or consists: wooden floor, sandy beach, gold jewelry. Show location or proximity to something: local area, seaside. Evidence of time: February blizzards, evening promenade, the year before. Determine the quantity: three-year-old child, one and a half meterspointer. Reveal the purpose of the item: sewing machine, regular bus, loading platform. Do not have a short form and degrees of comparison. |
Denote that someone or something owns this item. If a fox has a tail, then it is a fox, the hat can be grandmother's or father's. The main distinguishing feature is the question "whose"? |
Quality varies
It is worth dwelling in more detail on the most flexible definitions in use and word formation, which are known as quality adjectives. The examples of their meanings are extraordinarily varied. They may indicate:
- on the shape of the object: multifaceted, round, angular;
- his size: tall, wide, huge;
- color: orange, dark green, purple;
- smell: stinking, fragrant, odorous;
- temperature: cold, warm, hot;
- level and sound characteristics: quiet, loud, rolling;
- general rating: necessary, useful, unimportant.
Additional exclusivity
There are other distinguishing features that you need to know in order not to confuse qualitative, relative and possessive adjectives. So, the first of them have features:
- formation of new words with the prefix "not": sad person, expensive product; or diminutive suffixes: gray - gray - grayish;
- opportunityselection of synonyms: cheerful - joyful; bright - brilliant; antonyms: cold - hot, evil - kind;
- adverbs in -o, -e originate from quality adjectives: white - white, tender - gently.
More about degrees of comparison
They also have only quality adjectives. Examples of the formation of a simple comparative degree: more visible, darker, longer. A compound comparative degree is a phrase: “less” or “more” is added to the adjective: less hard, softer.
The superlative degree is called that because it indicates the predominance of a feature in one object over other similar ones. It can be simple: it is a formation with the help of suffixes -eysh-, -aysh-. For example: the most faithful, the lowest. And compound: the adjective is used in combination with the word "most": the most wonderful, the deepest.
Can adjectives change their place?
And again, it is worth remembering the wide 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 by category.
For example, in the phrase "glass beads" everyone understands that we are talking about beads made of glass. But the “glass arguments” are already a metaphor, these are completely fragile, fragile arguments. It can be concluded that relativeadjective (first example) changed to qualitative (second).
If we compare the expressions "fox hole" and "fox character", then you can see how the belonging of animal habitation turns into the quality of human nature, which means that the possessive adjective has become qualitative.
Let's take two more phrases as an example: “hare footprint” and “hare hat”. The prints of the little animal are not at all like the headdress made from it. As you can see, a possessive adjective can turn into a relative one.
