Obs.: In English a word which is normally a noun can be used as an adjective if placed before another noun: “She is a school administrator.”

Participle

A participle is an adjective derived from a verb. See participle under verbs.

Modification

Modification refers to the process by which a word, phrase, or clause renders another entity more specific. Adjectives, adverbs, and subordinate clauses all modify other entities.

• “the tall man” (adjective modifying “man”)
• “they gobbled greedily” (adverb modifying “gobbled”)
• “people who don’t admire her” (subordinate clause modifying “people”)

Comparison

Comparison is the quality of an adverb or adjective of being comparative or superlative.

Comparative. The comparative is a distinctive form used in an adjective to show its relative intensity across two or more applications. In English comparative forms typically involve the adverb “more” or the suffix -ER:

• “My sister is both more intelligent and taller than I am.”

Superlative The superlative is a distinctive form used in an adjective to show its relative intensity above two or more applications. In English superlative forms typically involve the adverb “most” or the suffix -EST:

• “He was the biggest kid in the gang and the most obnoxious one.”

Adverb

An adverb is an invariant word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, or occasionally a whole sentence. (It does not modify nouns. That is the job of adjectives.)

Some words are only adverbs (such as “very,” “only,” and “soon”). Others are derived from adjectives (such as “coldly,” “importantly,” and “stupidly”). Some words are used both as adjectives and adverbs (“fast”). In colloquial speech adjectives are often pressed into service as adverbs.

• “The dog sniffed intensely.”
• “The machine banged continuously.”
• “It rained hard (adverb). It was hard (adjective) to stay dry.”
• “We drove into the ditch but fortunately didn’t roll down the hill.”
• “He is very (adverb) fat (adjective) and moves extremely (adverb) slowly (adverb).”
• “Fast (adjective) cars don’t always travel fast (adverb).”

• “The cat was under the couch.” (prepositional phase.)
• “The cat was underneath.” (adverb)
• “I’ve never been to her house.” (prepositional phrase)
• “I’ve never been invited there.” (adverb)

Some words, usually relating to time, work both as adverbs and as nouns. For example: “I’ll see you tomorrow (adverb). Tomorrow (noun) is another day.”

(Footnote for Students of Esperanto)

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