Adjective phrase
Hello!
my graceful readers welcome to the lesson ‘adjective phrase’.
After completing this lesson you will be able to
Define
adjective phrase
Examples of adjective phrase
Trick to identify adjective phrase
Why should we learn
Adjective Phrase?
What is an adjective Phrase?
An adjective phrase is a phrase the
head of which is an adjective, almost any grammar or any syntax textbook or
dictionary of linguistic terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar
way.
An adjective phrase is a group of
word that includes an adjective which modifies a noun or pronoun in a sentence.
Adjective phrases are one of the
many kinds of phrases you use in your speech and writing every day. With
adjectives, you describe nouns. With adjective phrases, you describe
adjectives. Ultimately, adjective phrases provide more vivid descriptions for
nouns and create richer sentences.
To really understand what an
adjective phrase is, let’s see below.
A phrase is a group of words that’s
not quite a sentence but expresses a rational idea. They fit into sentence to
provide context and clarity. Here are few Adjective Phrase Examples:
1. smarter than me
2. Extremely happy😃
3. Way too high
4. without any topping
You all know that an adjective means
a word that describes a noun. In the above examples adjectives like smarter,
extremely, high and without any is part of the phrases.
An adjective phrase is a phrase that
contains an adjective. But there is more to it than that. Eventually we can say
---- an adjective phrase is a phrase that acts as an adjective by describing a
noun.
Now take a look on the
following sentences, the bolded phrase is an adjective phrase.
You may like to read
Adverb Phrase
1. The apple pie is very
delicious and extremely expensive.
2. It was a cold, bleak, biting
weather.
3. The movie was not too boring.
4. She was taller than her
classmates.
As you see in these examples, an
adjective phrase can go before or after the noun it’s ultimately describing.
An adjective phrase includes at
least an adjective along with at least one other word. All of the words that
are modifies or complements to the adjective are part of the overall adjective
phrase.
Trick to identify an Adjective Phrase
The trick
to identify an adjective phrase is to identify the group of words within a
sentence that is working together to describe a noun or a pronoun.
For identifying the adjective it is necessary to identify
the noun first. Identify who or what the sentence is about.
Let us see the example,
My
grandmother cooks delicious, yummy cakes.
Just
like, In the above sentence there are two nouns. one is grandmother and another
is cake. Now next tip is to identify adjectives- the words that modifies,
describes the noun. In the above sentence first noun grandmother is not
described. And noun cake is described as – delicious, yummy cake.
Yet, The phrase ‘delicious, yummy
cake is an adjective phrase because it provides descriptive details about the
noun ’’cake’’
However, another thing is we could
delete this adjective phrase and the sentence’s meaning would stay the same;
My grandmother cooks cake.
But instead we include the full
phrase we are more deeply describing the exact kind of cake the speaker wanted.
Look for the phrases that could be
cut from their sentences without changing their meaning, but remain because
they provide valuable context.
Following are a few more sentences with adjective phrases.
The italic underlined words are adjective phrases.
1. The tiger’s huge,
threatening eyes said a fight was imminent.
2. A man in great difficulties
came to me for help.
3. He wore a turban made of
silk.
4. We experienced the decade’s
most destructive storm.
5. The Rajput leader was a soldier full
of hope and free from fear.
Despite, Adjective phrases can be
formed by adjectives by adding some words to adjective which modifies noun o
pronoun.
We have two types of adjective phrases
1. Prepositional phrase
2. Participle phrases
Basically adjective phrase is formed
by adjectives but here we are talking about the phrases that don’t have any
base of adjective.
1. Prepositional phrases
The phrase that starts with
preposition is called as prepositional phrase.
Let’s check the following sentences;
1. They are writing a book about
his life.
In the above sentences ‘book’ is a
noun and is described as about his life. This phrase is consists of preposition
‘about’ and describe the noun –‘book’. So it is a adjective phrase working as
an adjective phrase
2. The ending of the movie
was impressive.
In the above sentence also
underlined phrase is a prepositional phrase working as an adjective phrase
modifying the noun ‘ending’.
2. Participle phrase
However, A participle is a group of
words that consist of a present participle, an ‘ing’ form of a verb or a past
participle, the third form of a verb. It is an adjective phrase headed by a
participle. A participle looks like a verb but functions as an adjective.
We have two types of participle
phrases:
i) Present Participle
ii) Past Participle
Following sentences - Adjective
phrase examples using present participles
i) The guy hiding behind the door
is from a neighboring village.
{hiding behind the door is
the adjective phrase, starting with the present participle hiding and
modifying the noun guy, telling us which guy the speaker is
referring to. The entire phrase is working as an adjective.}
2. The girl dancing in the rain is
one I have a crush on.
{Dancing in the rain is the
adjective phrase, modifying the noun girl and telling us which girl the
speaker is referring to.}
Our next part is - Adjective phrase
examples using past participle
Past participle phrases are
adjective phrases that start with a past participle (v3) and modify a noun or a
pronoun. As well as they can come at the beginning, in the middle, or at the
end of a sentence.
1. Played more than a million times
on YouTube, my latest speech doing amazing. is
(Played more than a million times on
YouTube is the adjective phrase, starting with the past participle played and
describing the noun my latest speech)
2. The little girl diagnosed with
cancer has written a book about her experience.
(The
adjective phrase is modifying the noun girl the speaker is talking about.)
Predicative
and attributive adjective phrase
An adjective phrase, like an
adjective, can be used attributively and predicatively. An attributive
adjective comes right before the noun/pronoun it modifies, and a predicative
adjective comes right after a linking verb or the noun it modifies.
Attributive adjective phrases
1. You are quite intelligent
person.
2. The extremely thin paper
was mine
The nouns in these adjective
phrases are modifying are coming before them.
Predicative
adjective phrase
1. Your friends are really
clever.
2. This college looks
extremely big.
Why should we learn
Adjective phrases?
To illustrate this I would like to
say, a word isn’t sufficient to describe a noun or pronoun. Indeed, we need a
couple of words to express our message. simultaneously, adjective phrases
help us to- make sentence with a lot of description to strengthen the meaning
of a sentence instead it makes more colorful and clearer for readers. And certainly I hope all my readers have gotten clear idea
about Adjective Phrase. Whereas, there is no doubt this information has boosted
your knowledge. but keep on reading to enlighten your path of education.