Korean Job Discussion Forums

poet13 · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:39 pm Post subject: question about adjectives...

Hello all.
This may seem like a very silly question, but I became confused yesterday reagarding the placement of adjectives. I have an old grammar book that says that with very few exceptions, adjectives are placed before the noun. The few exceptions included 'aplenty' and 'galore'.
However, my english class textbook has an entire section that deals with the placement of adjectives. example... "The book is red."
still an adjective?
I dont profess to be a grammar master, but the contradiction between the old grammar book and the class material has me confused....
as always, opinions, links, and flames welcome.

tomato · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 3:57 pm Post subject:

Poet 13, your old grammar book forgot about predicate adjectives.

Back to adjectives immediately following nouns:

An adjective phrase could follow a noun:

"a girl as nice as her"

"a teacher as mean as he is"

An adjective could follow a noun in poetry: "a face so fair."

If you can find an elegant enough adjective which is a Greek or Latin derivative, you can use that adjective to follow the word "matters":

matters pedagogical = matters having to do with teaching
matters membranophonic = matters having to do with playing the drum

Come to think of it, the word "dear" often follows a noun.
Do you know this song? It's in English, but it seems to be a Korean song:

poet13 · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject:

move aside Spiderman; Tomato, 'yer my new hero.

thank you

kathycanuck · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Location: Namyangju

There are also the adjectives which follow the verb "to be". Examples :She is beautiful. They are rich. Cheetahs are fast.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Did you notice the verb between the noun and the adjective? Your answer lies there...

Glad-4-Vlad · Joined: 05 Jun 2004

poet13 · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 3:54 pm Post subject:

hello gentlepeople.
thank you for the responses. I am expecting to be righteously flamed at any time now.....

How about....."She is a Canadian teacher." In my muddled thinking since yesterday, I have convinced myself at various times that Canadian is an adjective, teacher is an adjective, that both are adjectives to describe "she", yet both are nouns also.... Canadian as a proper noun, teacher, one who teaches.

If i had hair to spare, I think I'd pull some out.....

And yes, for those of you who may be wondering if I was educated in an English speaking country, whether I really have a four-year degree, and if English is my native language, I can say yes, yes, and no.

tomato · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:33 pm Post subject:

Nationalities can be either adjectives or nouns.
If you say "She is a Canadian teacher," "Canadian" is an adjective.
If you say "She is a Canadian," "Canadian" is a noun.

Same way with languages.
If you say "Here is a Korean textbook," "Korean" is an adjective.
If you say "I study Korean," "Korean" is a noun.

"Home" is another word which confuses a lot of people.
If you say "This is my home," "home" is a noun.
If you say "I'll be home for Christmas," "home" is an adjective.
If you say "I am going home," "home" is an adverb.

You're not the first one to have this problem.
My fifth grade English teacher didn't understand all this.

poet13 · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:

thank you tomato. Its times like these when I seriously wonder if I am qualified to teach english. Speaking and writing well (I have been published here and there) do not a teacher make!

Universalis · Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Location: Seoul

A better way to look at it might be to consider the verb 'to be.' It pairs a subject with what's called a subject complement - something adding more information about the subject. A subject complement can be one of three things:

* A noun (He is a doctor)
* A prepositional phrase (He is in the garden)
*Or, as you ask about, an adjective (He is fat)

In this case, as Tomato pointed out, it's called a predicative adjective.

Hope this helps...

Brian

tomato · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:35 pm Post subject:

Here's something else which might be confusing you:

If you say "She is Canadian," "Canadian" is an adjective.
If you say "She is a Canadian," "Canadian" is a noun.

A simple test would be to substitute a word which you know to be a particular part of speech.
Since "book" is a noun, and since "This is my book" sounds right,
"home" must be a noun in "This is my home."
Since "happy" is an adjective, and since "I am happy" sounds right,
"home" must must be an adjective in "I am home."
Since "swiftly" is an adverb, and since "I am going swiftly" sounds right,
"home" must be an adverb in "I am going home."

My father was an English professor, so this sort of thing comes easy for me.
I had to learn music the hard way.

Hanson · Joined: 20 Oct 2004

out of context · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Location: Daejeon

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

Universalis · Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Location: Seoul