Writer's Choice Grade 8

Unit 12: Adjectives and Adverbs

Overview

Imagine a blank canvas. Now imagine a pencil drawing of a house on that same canvas. A painter uses different colors or textures to bring the pencil drawing to life. Consider the following sentence: Here is a house. Like the painter uses colors or textures to flesh out her drawing of a house, the writer or speaker uses adjectives and adverbs to produce far more compelling and concrete images to which his or her audience can respond. For example, The Riveras' old farm house leans slightly to the left.

Adjectives provide details by modifying (describing) a noun or a pronoun (a person, place, or thing). When an adjective follows a linking verb and modifies the subject of a sentence, it is called a predicate adjective. For example, The painter is talented. Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns, or specific names of people, places, or things, as in French painters or Victorian homes. Like proper nouns, they are capitalized.

Articles are a special group of adjectives. The is a definite article that points to a specific item or items. A and an are called indefinite articles because they refer to any one item of a general group. Note the articles in the following sentence: The Riveras' house sits in a valley below an evergreen forest. Demonstrative adjectives point out something. This, that, these, and those are demonstrative adjectives. That house shakes during storms.

Adjectives can be used to compare two or more places, people, things, or ideas. What if there were two old farm houses sitting in a valley below an evergreen forest? How could you tell them apart? You would compare the two houses. The Riveras' house is the larger of the two. The comparative form compares two nouns or pronouns. The Riveras' house is larger than the Roses'. The superlative form compares more than two. The Lombardis' house is the largest in the valley.

Consider the following sentence: Simone carefully applies orange paint to the sky. Can you find the adverb? An adverb is a word that modifies, or describes, a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. When describing a verb, an adverb may tell when, where, or how an action was done. In this example, the adverb carefully modifies the verb applies. When describing an adjective or another adverb, an adverb emphasizes or intensifies. Words like almost, extremely, and somewhat are adverbs called intensifiers.

Like adjectives, adverbs can also be used to compare. The comparative form compares two things, and the superlative form compares more than two. Be certain not to use double comparisons like this one: Sofia's paintings were the least smallest in her class. Also avoid double negatives, or two negative words used together in the same sentence, such as: She does not see no difference between the books.

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