{"id":2718,"date":"2016-10-04T13:42:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T20:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/?p=2718"},"modified":"2024-07-21T11:34:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T18:34:10","slug":"true-adjectives-determiners-participle-adjectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/true-adjectives-determiners-participle-adjectives\/","title":{"rendered":"True Adjectives vs. Determiners vs. Participle Adjectives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #1258cd;\"><strong>Can you identify all the adjectives in a randomly selected paragraph?<\/strong><\/span> How about all of the adjectives in the preceding sentence (in blue)? Give it a try! I\u2019ll even provide you with a definition to head you in the right direction: <em><strong>An adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or pronoun.<\/strong><\/em> That\u2019s simple enough!<\/p>\n<div class='et-learn-more clearfix'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='heading-more'>CHECK THE ANSWER<span class='et_learnmore_arrow'><span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='learn-more-content'><h4>The Adjectives in the First Sentence<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Can you identify <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\">all<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\">the<\/span><\/strong><\/span> adjectives in <span style=\"color: #1258b2; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">a<\/span><\/strong><\/span> randomly <span style=\"color: #1258b2; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">selected<\/span><\/strong><\/span> paragraph?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Explanation:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>all, the, a = determiners<\/li>\n<li>selected = participle adjective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> It\u2019s a little easier to analyze when we put the question in statement form.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can identify <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\">all<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\">the<\/span><\/strong><\/span> adjectives in <span style=\"color: #1258b2; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">a<\/span><\/strong><\/span> randomly <span style=\"color: #1258b2; font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">selected<\/span><\/strong><\/span> paragraph.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Alternative Answer:<\/h4>\n<p>The above answer is correct. However, if we wrote it as <span style=\"color: #1258cd;\"><em><strong>ALL <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">OF<\/span> THE ADJECTIVES<\/strong><\/em><\/span> (which is also correct), much would change.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>all <strong>+<\/strong> of the adjectives <strong>=<\/strong> pronoun (direct object) <strong>+<\/strong> adjectival prepositional phrase (modifies ALL)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A person could also argue that <strong><em>ALL THE ADJECTIVES<\/em><\/strong> <strong>=<\/strong> <strong><em>ALL OF THE ADJECTIVES<\/em><\/strong>, but with the <strong><em>OF<\/em><\/strong> omitted.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>For most students, that answer is more complicated than they expected. Strangely, that sentence does not have any True Adjectives; however, it has plenty of words that function as adjectives or that traditional grammar calls adjectives.<\/p>\n<p>In case you are confused, by the end of this page, you will understand all of that and more!<\/p>\n<h3>The Adjective Slot: Adjective Syntax<\/h3>\n<p>The most neglected concept in grammar is syntax. I suspect that many people grasp syntax for the first time when they learn in Spanish 101 that the adjectives in Spanish come after the noun (El Pollo <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258cd;\">Loco<\/span><\/strong>), not before the noun, as is usual in English (The <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258cd;\">Crazy<\/span><\/strong> Chicken). While we all use syntax all the time, we often don\u2019t think about it.<\/p>\n<p>Syntax is defined as the <em>rules<\/em> or <em>principles<\/em> that govern the order of words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. Regardless of how a word looks, if we place the word in a noun slot, it <em>FUNCTIONS AS<\/em> a noun\u2014and so on.<\/p>\n<p>Students often can\u2019t identify sentence parts or discuss sentence concepts because they don\u2019t know how to use syntax to help them. Understanding syntax, and in particular Syntactic Slots, helps students figure out what\u2019s going on in a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>We have two basic types of adjectives\u2014or adjective slots: 1) Attributive Adjectives, and 2) Predicate Adjectives. These two slots are located in three locations. In the following examples, <em><strong>RED = ADJECTIVE<\/strong> <\/em>and <em><strong>APPLES = THE MODIFIED NOUN<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1.\u00a0\u00a0 Attributive Adjective in the Subject:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #1258b2; text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Red<\/strong><\/span> <strong>apples<\/strong><\/span> taste sweet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2.\u00a0\u00a0 Attributive Adjective in the Predicate:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Karen likes <span style=\"color: #1258b2; text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>red<\/strong><\/span> <strong>apples<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3.\u00a0\u00a0 Predicate Adjective in the Predicate:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The <span style=\"color: #1258b2; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>apples<\/strong><\/span> are <span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>red<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Adjective Slots are a useful way to think about the syntax (the placement) of adjectives in relation to the noun that they modify. However, understanding and identifying adjectives and adjective slots requires that students can spot nouns and linking verbs. We use nouns and linking verbs to identify adjectives, and if we find an adjective, there <em>MUST BE<\/em> a noun or linking verb nearby.<\/p>\n<h3>The Adjective Slot: The Three One-Word Adjective Categories<\/h3>\n<p>Although we can place both adjective phrases and adjective clauses in an adjective slot, we will not discuss them on this page. Let\u2019s keep things simply by only discussing one-word adjectives.<\/p>\n<p>The following three categories of words all relate to nouns in the same or similar ways. Put simply, they all can fill an adjective slot, and therefore, they can all modify or in some way change the meaning of a noun. Having said that, these three categories are also different in many ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">True Adjectives \/ Descriptive Adjectives<\/span>:<\/strong> We can use four different tests to confirm that a word is, in fact, a true adjective. If it doesn\u2019t pass the tests (at least most of them), then it is not a true adjective.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">Determiners<\/span>:<\/strong> Traditional grammar has long classified many categories of determiners as adjectives, or <em>special adjectives<\/em>. Modern grammar has taken these traditional categories and added a few more groups of words to them to create the category of determiners. Although determiners do have much in common with true adjectives, they have <em>MUCH MORE<\/em> in common with each other.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">Participles \/ Participle Adjectives<\/span>:<\/strong> Participles are a verb form that <em>functions<\/em> as an adjective. They are one of the three types of verbals. When a participle functions as an adjective, it occupies the exact same slot as a true adjective. Students typically learn about participles when they learn about verbals, but they should also learn about them when they learn about adjectives. After all, they fill the same syntactic slot!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>FUNCTIONS AS:<\/strong><\/em><\/span> The term <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>functions as<\/strong><\/em><\/span> is an extremely important concept in grammar and language; however, it\u2019s a difficult concept for students to grasp, which is why <em>SLOTS<\/em> are so effective. <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>Functions as an adjective<\/strong><\/em><\/span> means that the word <em>FILLS<\/em> the adjective syntactic slot, which means the word will modify or affect a noun or pronoun.<\/p>\n<p>Most lists of adjectives created for students contain at least a few words from all three categories\u2014but they don\u2019t usually make a distinction between the different categories of adjectives. In the end, this oversimplification leads to confusion. Although all three categories of adjectives can fill the adjective slot, the categories are quite different in many ways.<\/p>\n<p>Should we teach students that determiner and participles are adjectives? We will take a closer look at that below. What\u2019s important to understand right now is that they do function as adjectives or similar to adjectives. They fill the adjective slot!<\/p>\n<a href='http:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com' class='big-button bigblue' target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Teach beginning writers or struggling writers? Be sure to check out <em>Pattern Based Writing: Quick &amp; Easy Essay<\/em> on the homepage!<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><h3><span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">A Note on Wolf Packs \u2122 : Multi-Word Phrases and Clause that Function as Adjectives<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>One reason students should master the parts of speech and understand syntactic slots is so that they can then understand and master phrases and clauses. Phrases and clauses function as a single unit just like a Wolf Pack \u2122 functions as a single unit. Put simply, in traditional grammar, all phrases and some clauses function as a single part of speech\u2014that is, they function as a single word.<\/p>\n<p>When students understand that single words represent a SLOT, they can also understand that a phrase or a clause (a Wolf Pack \u2122) also represents a SLOT.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason why SLOTS and SYNTAX are important to understand with adjectives is that the location of the syntactic slots for adjective phrases and adjectives clauses are different from those of single-word adjectives. Attributive single-word adjectives usually come before the noun they modify, and Adjective <em>Wolf Packs<\/em> \u2122 tend to come after the noun they modify.<\/p>\n<p>We won\u2019t cover these Adjective Wolf Packs \u2122 here, but I will list them. We have five types of phrases and clauses that function as adjectives:\u00a0 1) infinitives,\u00a0 2) infinitive phrases,\u00a0 3) participle phrases,\u00a0 4) adjectival prepositional phrases, and\u00a0 5) adjective clauses.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>The Three One-Word Adjective Categories: A Closer Look<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s worth teaching students from the beginning that these three categories are <em>SINGLE-WORD<\/em> adjectives. Why? Because students will soon hear that certain phrases and clauses <em>FUNCTION<\/em> as adjectives. Single-word or multi-word, they both do the same thing\u2014they modify a noun or pronoun. That\u2019s the important thing to understand\u2014if we really do want to understand!<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a quick look at these three categories.<\/p>\n<h3>1.\u00a0 True Adjectives \/ Descriptive Adjectives<\/h3>\n<p>Lexicographers use tests to determine how to classify words. True adjectives, often called descriptive adjectives, typically meet all or most of these four criteria:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1.\u00a0 They have a <span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>comparative<\/strong><\/span> (-er\/more) and <strong><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">superlativ<\/span><\/strong>e (-est\/most) form.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>They Are Gradable:<\/strong><\/span> They can have <em>very<\/em> etc. placed in front of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3.\u00a0 <strong><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">They Can Be Used Attributively:<\/span><\/strong> They can be placed right in front of a noun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">4.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>They Can Be Used as Predicate Adjectives or Object Complements:<\/strong><\/span> Predicate adjectives follow and complete the meaning of a linking verb, and in the process, they modify the noun found in the subject. (Please note that I mostly ignore the Object Complement aspect of this test. With young students, it\u2019s confusing and unnecessary.)<\/p>\n<p>These four criteria eliminate all determiners and most participles from being classified as true adjectives.<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-bio'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><h3><span style=\"color: #1258cd;\">The True-Adjective Test in Action<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at eight true adjectives by using two of our four tests: 1) Comparative and Superlative, and 2) Gradable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">red<\/span>\u00a0 (Comparative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">redder<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">extremely red<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">tall<\/span>\u00a0 (Superlative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">tallest<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">very tall<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">3.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">happy<\/span>\u00a0 (Comparative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">happier<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">intensely happy<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">4.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">strange<\/span>\u00a0 (Superlative:<span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\"> strangest<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">extraordinarily strange<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">5.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">horrid<\/span>\u00a0 (Superlative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">most horrid<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">somewhat horrid<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">6.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">angry<\/span>\u00a0 (Comparative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">angrier<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">very angry<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">7.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">serious<\/span>\u00a0 (Comparative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">more serious<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">really serious<\/span>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">8. <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">beautiful<\/span>\u00a0 (Superlative: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">most beautiful<\/span>, Gradable: <span style=\"font-family: 'arial black', impact, sans-serif; color: #ff0000;\">exceptionally beautiful<\/span>)<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<h3>2.\u00a0 Determiners<\/h3>\n<p>For hundreds of years, students have learned that some groups of determiners are adjectives. However, I vote for making determiners the official ninth part of speech. But let\u2019s keep them closely connected to adjectives and teach them at the same time as adjectives. On the other hand, I\u2019m comfortable calling all determiners adjectives, as long as students understand how they are different from true adjectives. Point being, we should standardize the category of determiners across all the grades.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, it\u2019s shocking that students still learn that certain categories of determiners are adjectives in the same way that true adjectives are adjectives. Determiners meet only ONE of the four True Adjective tests listed above\u2014determiners are attributive. This teaches grammar wrong right from the beginning. It\u2019s also shocking that articles are still taught as a <em>ninth part of speech<\/em> or as the only category of <em>special adjectives<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Modern grammar has fixed much that is wrong with traditional grammar. Isn\u2019t it time we let students know? But in defense of this snail-paced progress in school grammar, teaching determiners correctly also upends the categories of pronouns and possessives. However, when one looks at the <em><strong>SLOTS<\/strong><\/em> and sees how the words relate to the noun, the proper categories are very clear\u2014at least to me.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Bob\u2019s<\/span> boat is blue<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong><em>Bob\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> is not in a noun slot; it\u2019s in an adjective slot. Can you see that <strong><em>Bob\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> does not fill a noun slot?\u00a0 <em>Bo<\/em>b is not blue, and <em><strong>Bob\u2019<\/strong><\/em>s is not blue!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The<\/span> boat is blue<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Notice that \u201cthe\u201d fills the same slot as \u201cBob\u2019s\u201d in the preceding sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping things simple, we have nine categories of determiners:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1) articles, 2) possessive adjectives, 3) indefinite adjectives, 4) demonstrative adjectives, 5) interrogative adjectives, 6) cardinal numbers, 7) ordinal numbers, 8) nouns used as adjectives, 9) possessive nouns as adjectives.<\/p>\n<p>In the list below, I\u2019ve included these 55 determiners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">a, all, an, another, both, certain, each, eight, eighth, either, every, few, fewer, fifth, first, five, four, fourth, her, his, its, less, many, more, most, much, my, neither, nine, ninth, no, one, our, second, seven, seventh, several, six, sixth, some, such, ten, tenth, that, the, their, these, third, this, those, three, two, what, which, whose<\/p>\n<p>Every single one of these 55 determiners can be placed immediately before a noun. That\u2019s what makes them a determiner!<\/p>\n<h3>Determiners: Nouns Used as Adjectives<\/h3>\n<p>Here is a closer look at and a partial list of Determiner #8 (nouns used as adjectives) from above. Nouns are frequently used as adjectives. Are they true adjectives? No. They don\u2019t meet our four criteria for true adjectives; however, they do function as determiners, which function as adjectives. Here are 51 nouns (taken from my <a href=\"http:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/list-4800-adjectives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>list of 4,800 adjectives<\/strong><\/a>) that writers often use as adjectives:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">acid, airline, animal, baby, background, brick, bronze, budget, business, chance, chemical, chicken, computer, corner, day, designer, downtown, dress, economy, evening, future, glass, holiday, home, house, human, iron, kitchen, lead, leather, life, liquid, mission, mother, motor, mountain, parking, party, plastic, prize, rebel, salt, satin, sea, status, steel, street, time, trick, vegetable, wood, wool.<\/p>\n<p>Really, most nouns can be placed in front of another noun to modify it. Although this strategy is extremely common, the results often appear informal or colloquial\u2014at least, until the words catch on:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 The <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">taco<\/span> <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">chef<\/span><\/strong> is hard at work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0The <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">meal<\/span> <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">monitor<\/span><\/strong> checked every single meal.<\/p>\n<p>The ones that catch on eventually become compound nouns, or at least begin a debate on how they should be classified.<\/p>\n<h3>3.\u00a0 Participles \/ Participle Adjectives<\/h3>\n<p>When attempting to identify the verb in a sentence, many people incorrectly choose a participle adjective. Participle adjectives do not fill a <em>VERB SLOT<\/em>. Furthermore, they don\u2019t even fill a <em>VERBAL SLOT<\/em>, as there is no <em>VERBAL SLOT<\/em>. Participle adjectives fill an <em>ADJECTIVE SLOT<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Participles end in <em><strong>\u2013ed<\/strong> <\/em>(past participles) and <em><strong>\u2013ing<\/strong> <\/em>(present participles). While all present participles end in<em><strong> \u2013ing<\/strong><\/em>, a number of irregular verbs have irregular past participles. Students learn a confusing mix of information about participles at three different times: when learning about adjectives, verbals, and verbs.<\/p>\n<p>Most grammar instruction treats participles as true adjectives (usually by the omission of the full truth) when teaching adjectives. There is no mention that these <em><strong>\u2013ing<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>\u2013ed<\/strong><\/em> adjectives are really participle adjectives at this time. Students later learn about verbals, and they learn that participles are verb forms that function as adjectives. Well, this should have been pointed out back when they learned about adjectives. And what does <em>function<\/em> mean? Students are left wanting to know, \u201cAre participles an adjective, a verb, or a verbal?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later students learn that participles are verbs. Participles do function as verbs under this construction:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Helping Verb + Participle (Main Verb) = Verb Phrase<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s compare two sentences, and in particular, the word <em><strong>juggling<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. \u00a0Jim is juggling eggs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. \u00a0Jim is a juggling expert.<\/p>\n<p>Word by word, nearly everything about these two sentences is syntactically different. I wonder\u2026 what are we teaching students about grammar if they can\u2019t look at two extremely simple sentences and see how they are syntactically different? At what age should students know that these two sentences are very different?<\/p>\n<div class='et-learn-more clearfix'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='heading-more'>CHECK THE ANSWER<span class='et_learnmore_arrow'><span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='learn-more-content'><h4>Analysis of the Two Sentences<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>1. \u00a0Jim is juggling eggs. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"> juggling = Main Verb: Participle<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>2. \u00a0Jim is a juggling expert. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #1258b2;\">juggling = A Gerund that Functions as a Noun that Functions as a Determiner\/Adjective<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Word by Word Analysis (or <em>Parse<\/em>) of the Sentences:<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. noun (subject) + helping verb + main verb + noun (direct object)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. noun (subject) + linking verb + ADJ. (determiner) + ADJ. (gerund\/determiner\/adjective) + noun (predicate nominative)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Please Note:<\/strong><\/em> The parentheses mark a more advanced level of analysis: i.e., LEVEL 2. When students can correctly identify the LEVEL 1 components, teaching the LEVEL 2 components becomes much easier. And then we add on LEVEL 3.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h3>Participle Adjectives, Participle Verbs, and Other Lookalikes<\/h3>\n<p>When not functioning as a verb, participles function as adjectives. If it looks like a participle but is not functioning as a verb or adjective, then it\u2019s not a participle. It may be a gerund, or some kind of idiom, or just a word that ends in <em>\u2013ed<\/em> or <em>\u2013ing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>Some Participle Adjectives are True Adjectives<\/h3>\n<p>Some participles are true adjectives. In other words, some participles meet all four criteria for true adjectives. Let\u2019s look at a couple of examples, and <em>please note<\/em>, the word repetition is intentional.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong>TIRED<\/strong><\/span>: \u00a0The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>tired<\/strong><\/span> child is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>very<\/strong> <strong>tired<\/strong><\/span>. \u2013 This one example sentence shows that tired meets these three criteria: 1) attributive, 2) predicate adjective, and 3) gradable. Furthermore, it meets criteria #4 because it has comparative and superlative forms: <em><strong>more tired<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>most tired<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, this participle adjective is not a true adjective, as it meets only one criterion:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 \u00a0<span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><strong>SMILING<\/strong><\/span>: \u00a0The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/span> child is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/span>. \u2013 The first <em><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/em> functions as an adjective, but the second <em><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/em> functions as a verb. Furthermore, <em>smiling<\/em> is not gradable (<strong><em>very smiling<\/em><\/strong>), and does not have comparative and superlative forms, as <em><strong>more smiling<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>most smiling<\/strong><\/em> do not work. Therefore, <em>smiling<\/em> only meets one of our four criteria: 1) attributive.<\/p>\n<p>These two examples are clear-cut; other participles are less so.<\/p>\n<h3>Participle Adjectives vs. Verb Participles<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s looks at these two participles: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>laughing<\/strong><\/span> and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/span>. You will notice that each word functions as an adjective (ADJ) in one location and as a main verb (V) in the other location. This is how syntax works!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">1. \u00a0The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>laughing<\/strong><\/span> (ADJ) child is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/span> (V).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">2. \u00a0The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>smiling<\/strong><\/span> (ADJ) child is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>laughing<\/strong><\/span> (V).<\/p>\n<p>In these two examples, <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>IS<\/strong><\/em><\/span> is functioning as a helping verb, not a linking verb. If the word that followed <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>IS<\/strong><\/em><\/span> were a true adjective, then <span style=\"color: #1258b2;\"><em><strong>IS<\/strong><\/em><\/span> would be a linking verb:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2022 \u00a0e.g., The child is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #1258b2;\"><strong>tired<\/strong><\/span>. \u00a0 \u00a0 (is = linking verb; tired = predicate adjective)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you identify all the adjectives in a randomly selected paragraph? How about all of the adjectives in the preceding sentence (in blue)? Give it a try! I\u2019ll even provide you with a definition to head you in the right direction: An adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or pronoun. That\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[425,443,446,416,447,413,444,448,89],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar-spelling-ideas-tips","tag-adjectives","tag-attributive-adjectives","tag-determiners","tag-grammar","tag-participle-adjectives","tag-parts-of-speech","tag-predicate-adjectives","tag-syntactic-slots","tag-teaching-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5242,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions\/5242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}