English language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Adjectives ==== {{Main|English adjectives}} English adjectives are words such as ''good'', ''big'', ''interesting,'' and ''Canadian'' that most typically modify nouns, [[denotation|denoting]] characteristics of their [[referent]]s (e.g., ''a <u>red</u> car''). As modifiers, they come before the nouns they modify and after determiners.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|page=57}} English adjectives also function as predicative complements (e.g., ''the child is <u>happy</u>''). In Modern English, adjectives are not inflected so as to [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] in form with the noun they modify, as adjectives in most other Indo-European languages do. For example, in the phrases ''the slender boy'', and ''many slender girls'', the adjective ''slender'' does not change form to agree with either the number or gender of the noun. Some adjectives are inflected for [[comparison (grammar)|degree of comparison]], with the positive degree unmarked, the suffix ''-er'' marking the comparative, and ''-est'' marking the superlative: ''a small boy'', ''the boy is smaller than the girl'', ''that boy is the smallest''. Some adjectives have irregular [[suppletion|suppletive]] comparative and superlative forms, such as ''good'', ''better'', and ''best''. Other adjectives have comparatives formed by [[periphrasis|periphrastic constructions]], with the adverb ''more'' marking the comparative, and ''most'' marking the superlative: ''happier'' or ''more happy'', ''the happiest'' or ''most happy''.{{sfn|Kรถnig|1994|page=540}} There is some variation among speakers regarding which adjectives use inflected or periphrastic comparison, and some studies have shown a tendency for the periphrastic forms to become more common at the expense of the inflected form.{{sfn|Mair|2006|pages=148โ49}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page