Substitutes

Okay so remember the last post about adjectives? So, what are adjectives? Quickly scroll down now and find out before I scold you! :D

Now that we've learnt that adjectives describe nouns and pronouns, do you know what pronouns are? I'll give you a clue. They have something to do with nouns. So...?



You're right! Pronouns are substitutes for nouns!

Great. Now we've gotten that out of the way, can you name the types of pronouns there are?

1. Personal Pronouns
2. Reflexive Pronouns
3. Possessive Pronouns
4. Demonstrative Pronouns
5. Indefinite Pronouns
6. Interrogative Pronouns
7. Relative Pronouns

So, do you know any of these?

It's okay. We'll take it on one by one, okay? Now, that's the spirit!

1. Personal Pronouns
- divided into subject and object pronouns
- subject pronouns = I, you, he, she, it, we, they
- object pronouns = me, you, him, her, it, us, them
- e.g.: You like me, but I love him.

2. Reflexive Pronouns
- refers back to the subject of the verb
- myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves, yourselves
- e.g.: All of you better prepare yourselves for activities that I myself had prepared.

3. Possessive Pronouns
- shows ownership
- mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
- e.g.: This pencil is not yours, hers nor his. It is mine.

4. Demonstrative Pronouns
- refers to something that the reader/ audience is already familiar with
- this, that, these those
- e.g: This is her hat, that is mine, and those are theirs.

5. Indefinite Pronouns
- used when not referring to any particular person or thing
- someone, somebody, everyone, everybody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, something, everything, anything, nothing
- e.g.: Someone told me that everyone was going to the party but when I got there I found out no one had come.

6. Interrogative Pronouns
- ask questions
- what, which, whose, who, whom
-e.g.: Which is your umbrella? Whose is this?

7. Relative Pronouns
- introduce an extra piece
- who, whom, whose, which
- e.g.: To whom did you address it?

Do you understand all of this? Oh please do remember that pronouns can stand alone, as opposed to determiners*. What are determiners*, you might wonder? Well, that's a different blog post all together. ;)

Here's a video from Grammar Rock on pronouns :)

Reference(s):
Focus on Grammar - Anne Seaton

Describing Nouns

Mariam. She's a handsome girl. Dark hair, oval face, large brown eyes - she had all that. Everyone envies her beauty and charm. However, if only she was nice, she would be much more attractive.

Okay, so can you guess the topic that I'm going to present? You've got it: ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives are words that describe nouns* and pronouns*. There are a few types of adjectives, adjectives of size, colour, shape, and many more.

So, can you find all the adjectives in the paragraph above?
(try first, and don't cheat :P )













Mariam. She's a handsome girl. Dark hair, oval face, large brown eyes - she had all that. Everyone envies her beauty and charm. However, if only she was nice, she would be much more attractive.

*adjectives are in bold and dark red


As you can see, most of the adjectives come before nouns and pronouns.


A few examples of different types of adjectives:
Size - large, miniscule, etc.
Colour - red, blue, green, etc.
Shape - triangle, round, etc.

Now that you know that, the table below shows you how to put the adjectives in the right order:

	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Origin	Material	Purpose
a	silly		young			English			man
a		huge		round			metal		bowl
a		small			red			sleeping	bag

adapted from: 410 Grammar

Got that? It's simple, really. Have you ever seen words like "youngest", "worse", and "more delicious" ? Those are adjectives which are of different degrees of comparison. Don't understand? Let's make it simpler.

There are three degrees of comparison for adjectives: positive, comparative, superlative.
For example:

Positive	nice	beautiful	good
Comparative	nicer	more beautiful	better
Superlative	nicest	most beautiful	best

See what I meant now? Well, these are called gradable adjectives. There are adjectives that cannot be graded by such comparisons. (i.e.: dead, cotton, impossible) An example of something you should never do is say; Harith's shirt is more cotton than mine. However, it is possible for you to change it with cottony. These are called non-gradable adjectives.

Note: For the use of comparative adjectives, there are two forms; _____er than and more _____ than. As for superlatives; ______est and most _______





References:
Guide to Grammar and Writing (Adjectives)
410 Grammar
Dictionary.com