ADJECTIVAL SEQUENCING, PUNCTUATION, AND DETERMINERS

ADJECTIVAL SEQUENCE

• Sometimes, you may want to use several adjectives in a sequence. • Multiple adjectives in a sequence conform to a specific order. • Some grammarians call this ‘The Royal Order of Adjectives’. THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

1. Observation (opinion) Lovely, boring, stimulating 2. Size Tiny, small, huge 3. Shape Round, square, rectangular 4. Age Young, new, ancient 5. Colour Purple, blue, green 6. Origin Japanese, Mexican, Antipodean 7. Material Oak, copper, silk 8. Qualifier Unlikely, improbable

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner Observation Size Shape Age Colour Origin Material Qualifier Noun An expensive old umbrella stand Her long black silk gown Our unexpected doubtful result Twelve round green apples Those cute little porcelain teacups That new Italian vase ADJECTIVAL SEQUENCE

• The sequencing of adjectives can vary for emphasis.

I want the silver antique tea pot, not the antique pewter one.

PUNCTUATION • Use commas between coordinating (same category) adjectives. • Do not use commas between cumulative (different category) adjectives. • Do not put a comma after a determiner. • Do not put a comma before the final adjective and the noun. PUNCTUATION

Six small apples

The great white whale

The long, rectangular wooden box

PUNCTUATION

• Use a comma if you could place ‘and’ between the words. AND • If the words could be reversed and still retain your intended meaning. PUNCTUATION

Some sneaky and hungry goblins stole my food.

Some sneaky, hungry goblins stole my food.

Some hungry, sneaky goblins stole my food.

PHRASAL ADJECTIVE

• Known as a compound adjective • A phrase that modifies a noun • Usually takes a hyphen before a noun and loses the hyphen when coming after the noun • Not hyphenated in proper nouns. PHRASAL

ADJECTIVE

The wine-dark sea The sea is wine dark.

A 30-cent cone The cone is 30 cents.

The Monty Python comedy school

HANGING HYPHENS

• When two phrasal adjectives have similar endings, remove the first phrase’s ending but leave the hyphen.

The eight- or nine-year old boy ADJECTIVAL MORPHING

• Some adjectives can morph into nouns: Collectible objects Collectibles A post-mortem examination A post-mortem

ADJECTIVAL MORPHING

• Some adjectives can morph into verbs:

The Fonz is a pretty cool guy.

Be sure to cool the drinks before the Fonz gets here. DETERMINERS

• Precede and specify nouns and noun phrases. • Provide information about possession, specificity, definiteness, and quantity. • Function like adjectives, but aren’t classified as adjectives.

DETERMINERS

• Articles • Possessive nouns • Demonstrative pronouns • Possessive pronouns • Indefinite pronouns • Quantifiers • Cardinal numbers • Ordinal numbers DETERMINERS

A large dog walked by. That dragon is scary. Our time has come. Kate’s car has broken down. We ate several turkeys. Half of us left early. There is only one turkey left. Alice came second last. The one ingredient I need is cream.

DETERMINER/PRON OUN ‘How many chocolates did you eat?’

‘We ate several chocolates.’ Several is a determiner.

‘We ate several.’ Several is a pronoun.