adjective

The term adjective derives from a Latin word and is a type of word that qualifies or determines the noun. The adjectives express properties attributed to nouns, specifying or highlighting them. For example: "I can not find any adjective to describe how you have behaved", "The press did not spare adjectives to highlight the good performance of the Catalan team", "They have told me many adjectives, but never pretty".

The adjective can refer to a specific characteristic of the noun. The expression "The pants are blue" includes an adjective ("blue") that expresses a visible property (the Colour) of the noun ("trousers"). Instead, a phrase like "It's an easy game" presents an adjective ("easy") which is abstract, since the facility cannot be captured by the senses but is a subjective question that arises from a thought.

Classification of adjectives

According to traditional grammar we could establish three types: qualifying, demonstrative and other adjectives (In this last group, all those that are not found within the other two groups are broadly included); However, the most precise is the classification developed by the official grammar of the Spanish language, which has a fairly extended and detailed list of the different types of adjectives.

* Restrictive adjectives: Within this group are those qualities that accompany nouns and restrict their characteristics in an exact way. For example, if we speak of "the white car" we are leaving out all those vehicles that are not of that color.

* Non-restrictive adjectives: these adjectives serve to give more information about the noun but without limiting it; generally they are placed in front of it and modify it in a variable way. For example, if we say "he's an excellent friend," we use the adjective as a modifier without restricting the group of individuals who can enter that group.

* Gradual adjectives: it is a fairly wide group of which the adverbs of degree and other types of classifiers are part. For example, if we say "this magazine is uninteresting" we are assessing the degree of interest that this publication arouses in us.

* Adjectives not gradual: is also a large group formed mainly by comparative adjectives, such as: so, less or equal. The degree of quantification of the adjective is not determined but a comparison is established. For example, when we say "Peter is smarter than John" we are making use of comparison without explaining how smart each individual is.

* Adjectives of extreme degree: they have a similar function to gradual ones; that is, they express quantification, but they are absolute. In this group are those adjectives formed by the suffixes -errimo or -ísimo and by the prefixes re, super-, mega- or hyper-.

Intersective adjectives: those that can give rise to an expression in which two types of characteristics meet, hence its name. For example, if we say "dwarf teacher" we are expressing that a person is a teacher and, at the same time, that he measures little.

* Non-intersective adjectives: Contrary to the previous ones, these adjectives do not link two words but rather are independent characteristics. For example, if we say "He is an outstanding musician." We are not informing about the profession of the person but rather, we are talking about someone who stands out as a musician.

In any case, we must clarify that the most outstanding groups of adjectives are the qualifiers and the demonstrative ones.

* Adjectives: are those that indicate a quality from the noun: "The house is big", "This table is very old", "The paint in the room is orange", "She is beautiful", "The glass is fragile".

* Demonstrative adjectives: they accompany the noun and serve to express the proximity that exists between sender and receiver, depending on the noun being spoken: I'm looking at this ornament«,«What size is that dress?«