Back to: ENGLISH LANGUAGE SS2
Welcome to class!
In today’s class, we will be talking about word modifiers. Enjoy the class!
Word Modifiers
We use word modifiers to give more information about words (noun, verb, etc.) in English. In this class, we will be looking into adjectives and adverbs as word modifiers.
You know what adjectives and adverbs do in sentences. Adjectives tell us more information about nouns while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or adverbs. First, let’s focus on adjectives as word modifiers.
Adjectives
Whenever an adjective is used attributively in a sentence, it functions as word modifier to that noun. Examples:
- A beautiful garden
- A brilliant girl
- My purple dress
- The angry madman
- A horrible experience
You could also have two or more adjectives modifying a word at the same time. See the following:
- A dirty old man
- A dirty poor old man
- A disgusting pink plastic ornament
- An expensive brand new black Toyota
- A beautiful big old green antique car
Notice that whenever you have adjectives as much as the above used together in a sentence, you can follow a proper arrangement as follows to avoid getting it mixed up:
- Quantity or number
- Quality or opinion
- Size
- Age
- Shape
- Colour
- Proper adjective (often nationality, other places of origin, or material)
Note: Adjectives are also known as epithets in figurative usage.
Adverbs
In the definition above, we said that adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or adverbs in sentences. Let’s see some examples of sentences where adverbs are used to modify these elements:
Adverbs – Verbs
- The police slapped the thief repeatedly.
- She folded the clothes clumsily.
- The young woman smiled warmly.
- We walked through the bush fearfully.
- They sat there quietly.
Here, the adverb modifiers are emboldened and underlined while the verbs being modified are only embolden
Adverbs – Adjectives
- I was absolutely
- Her argument was totally irrelevant.
- It is rather too
- His parents were deeply
- The weather is very
Here, the adverb modifiers are emboldened and underlined while the adjectives being modified are only embolden
Adverbs – Adverbs
- Korede finished his test somewhat hastily.
- The restaurant is almost fully
- Basit jogs quite
- Chidiebere is often sharply
- Kamsi plays football very
Here, the adverb modifiers are emboldened and underlined while the adverbs being modified are only emboldened.
In our next class, we will be talking about Nasal Consonants and Adjectival Clauses. We hope you enjoyed the class.
Should you have any further question, feel free to ask in the comment section below and trust us to respond as soon as possible.
For more class notes, homework help, exam practice, download our App HEREJoin ClassNotes.ng Telegram Community for exclusive content and support HERE