ADJECTIVES

Read the sentences in the pictures below. Guess what are they?

    

John is angry because somebody   spilled the ink on his new novel.

A tall man is looking at the short boy.

The words bolded are round, tall, short and angry.

 

These words are Adjectives that is, words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.

Types	Meanings	Examples
Descriptive Adjective	Including description on size, shape, colour and conditions of nouns	I bought a new black bicycle yesterday.
Possessive Adjectives	Are used with nouns to show possession.	I am lending my book to Ji Hyo
Adjectives of Quantity	Describe more on the amount or the number of things; answering the questions How much? How many?	There are two apples on the table.
Distributive Adjectives	Also use to show amount	Every woman is given a rose.
Demonstrative Adjectives	Used to point out the nouns that are being referred to	That man gave me a lift home.
Interrogative Adjectives	Used before nouns to begin questions.	Whose umbrella is it outside?

Sometimes, we could also combine numbers of adjectives to describe a noun like the sentence below:
         * She bought a captivating new Morocco dining table 
            last month.

The sequences of the categories of the adjectives can be referred to the table:

Let’s try some exercises!                                                    

Fill in the blanks with a suitable adjective.

1. She baked a ……. cake for the party.

2. The …..cat walked silently towards the unwary bird.

3. I cannot lift the …… box by myself.

4. Who is …. man standing near our gate?

5. The …. child fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

6. The …. driver knocked his car against the lamp-post.

7. Her husband gave her an …… diamond earrings during their 

     anniversary.

8. We need a ….. rope to haul that crate up.

9. At the party there were …. people whom I had not met before.

10.The old shed was …. and had cobwebs in every corner.

Click here to find the answers!

THE COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Look at the pictures below. Read the underlined words in the pictures. What are they?

Jong Woon gives me a bouquet of roses.

A choir of singers is singing merrily.

They are bouquet and choir. They refer to names of special group of people, animals and things grouped together and spoken as one whole.

Such words are called as Collective Nouns.

Lists of collective nouns can be studied as below:

 

People
A party of friends A field of athletes A body of men A troupe of dancers A bevy of ladies A horde of savages A class of pupils	A company of actors A panel of judges A board of directors A team of player A relay of runners A party of politicians A tribe of natives

 

Animals
An army of ants A pack of hounds A swarm of bees A gaggle of geese A herd of elephants A litter of puppies A haul of fish	A pride of lions A nest of mice A team of oxen A flock of sheep A flight of swallows A troop of monkeys A team of oxen

 

Things
A flight of aeroplanes A quiver of arrows A tuft of grass A groups of islands A fleet of ships A string of beads A bale of cotton	A bundle of rags A collection of pictures A stack of cards A galaxy of stars A clump of trees A batch of breeds A row of houses

  

Want to know more? Click on this link

Let’s us practice some exercises!

Insert the correct Collective Nouns in the spaces below.

1. a ………………. of chickens              

2. a …………….. of bushes

3. a ………………. of policemen            

4. a …………….. of corn

5. a ………………. of ships                     

6. a …………….. of furniture

7. a ………………. of grass                    

8. a …………….. of pilgrims

9. a ………………. of players                  

10.a …………… of bells    

                      

Check the answers!

1.       brood                                                 6. hedge

2.       posse                                                 7. sheaf

3.       fleet                                                   8. suite

4.       tuft                                                     9. band

5.       team                                                  10. peal

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Look at the pictures below. What are  
                 they? What are the differences?

Yes. A is the picture of cakes and B is the picture of flour. How many flour can be seen in the picture?

Can you count how many cakes in the picture?

Nouns that can be counted are known as Countable Nouns.

                    * table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

                    * My dog is playing.

                    * My dogs are hungry.

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

                    * I like oranges.

                    * Bottles can break.

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. For examples:

                   *rice, sugar, butter, water

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb.

                   * This news is very important.

                   * Your luggage looks heavy.

The Countable and Uncountable Nouns can be expressed as below.

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
a                 any      an              a few     many        some         several    a lot of  plenty of                               a large number of	a little        some                         much           any     a great deal of                         a lot of                                        plenty of   a large amount of

Let’s try some exercises!                                                    

Pick out the correct answer.

1. There is (some, a lot of) sand on the beach.

2. She gave the children (a few, a little) sweets each.

3. (Several, A large number of) his cattle were lost last night.

4. He went into the forest to chop (some, a large amount of)   

     wood.

5. Mr Chin bought (many, a large amount of) toys for his son 

     yesterday.

6. (Some, A lot of) snow falls in Greenland.

7. Please add (a few, a little) oil into the frying-pan.

8. He planted (a great deal of, a lot of) fruit trees in his garden.

9. He gave me (some, a large amount of) time to think over the 

     matter.

10.Put (some, a great deal of) ice into the glass.

Let’s now check the answers:

1. fo tol a                 2. wef a               3. fo rebmun egral a                     

4. emos                    5. ynam               6.   fo tol a   

7. elttil a                  8. fo tol a            9. emos               10. emos