Unit 9 grammar notes

UNIT 9

GRAMMAR

NOTES

PAG

ES 1

37- 1

39

1.

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE(S)

Nouns can be modified both by adjectives and by other nouns.

Adjective and noun modifiers usually come before the noun they modify.

The noun that is modified is called the head noun.

Yao Ming is a famous Chinese basketball

player.

2 adj. modifier

s

noun modifie

r

head noun

2.

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE(S)

Noun modifiers usually come directly before the nouns they modify.

Milk chocolate is chocolate made with

milk.noun

modifier

head

nou

n

2.

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE(S)

Noun modifiers usually come directly before the nouns they modify.

Chocolate milk is milk with chocolate in it.noun

modifier

head

nou

n

2.

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE(S)

When there are both adjective and noun modifiers, the noun modifier comes closer to the head noun.

Pele is a famous soccer player.

adjectivemodifie

r

noun modifie

r

head noun

3.

Explanation Example(s)

Two common types of adjective modifiers are present and past participles (also called participial adjectives).

It was a boring movie.

The bored viewers left.

Remember that participial adjectives that end in –ing describe someone or something that causes a feeling.

The result of the game was shocking.

The news is exciting.

Participial adjectives that end in –ed describe someone who experiences a feeling.

We were shocked by the result.

Everyone is excited by the news.

3.

A Better Explanation:

All pairs of participial adjectives come from a transitive verb:

3.

Sentence with the

transitive verb

The present

participle adjective describes

the subject of the verb.

The past participle adjective describes the object

of the verb.

English grammar interests

me.

English grammar is interesting.

I am interested in

English grammar.

subject

object

3.

Sentence with the

transitive verb

The present

participle adjective describes

the subject of the verb.

The past participle adjective describes the object

of the verb.

The movie bored the viewers.

The movie was boring.

The bored viewers left.

subject

object

3.

Sentence with the

transitive verb

The present

participle adjective describes

the subject of the verb.

The past participle adjective describes the object

of the verb.

The news excited

everyone.

The news was exciting.

Everyone was excited by the news.

subject

object

3.

Sentence with the

transitive verb

The present

participle adjective describes

the subject of the verb.

The past participle adjective describes the object

of the verb.

The result shocked us.

The result was

shocking.

We were shocked by the result.

subject

object

4.

When there is more than one modifier of a noun, the modifiers generally occur in a fixed order.

The following chart shows the usual order of common adjectives and noun

modifiers.

4. Position

Category Examples

1 speaker’s opinions ugly, beautiful, dull, interesting

2 size big, tall, long, short

3 age or temperature old, young, hot, cold

4 shapes square, round, oval, diamond

5 colors red, blue, pink, purple

6 origins, nationalities, social classes

computer-generated, Brazilian, Chinese, middle-class

7 materials wood, cotton, denim, silk, glass

Note: avoid using more than three adjective modifiers before a noun.

5.

When a noun has two or more modifiers in the same category, separate the adjectives with a comma.

For example:

He is a serious, hardworking student.

5.

If the modifiers are in different categories, do not separate the adjectives with a comma:

For example:

I bought a beautiful denim shirt.

5.

The order of adjectives in the same category can vary, but the order of adjectives in different categories does not.

5.

For example, these two sentences are both OK:

• He is a serious, hardworking student.

• He is a hardworking, serious student.

BUT, these two sentences are not both OK:

• I bought a beautiful denim shirt.

**I bought a denim beautiful shirt.

6.

Compound modifiers are constructed from more than one word.

Here are four common kinds:

6. Kinds of Compound Modifiers

Examples

Number + noun I work in a 10-story building.

Noun + present participle It’s a prize-winning film.

Noun + past participle It’s a crime-related problem.

Adjective + past participle The actor plays a long-haired, one-armed pirate in the movie.

(Note that these compound modifiers are generally hyphenated.)

6.

Be careful! Plural nouns used as modifiers become singular when they are used before the noun!

• Her daughter is ten years old.• She has a ten-year-old daughter.

**She has a ten-years-old daughter.

7.

Be careful!

In written English, avoid having more than two noun modifiers together.

Using too many noun modifiers in sequence can be confusing.

7.

For example:• Jerry Gonzales won the student

portrait painter award.

(Is Jerry a student who won an award for painting portraits?

Is Jerry a painter who won an award for painting students?

Is the award given by the students?)

7.

To avoid confusing sentences like this, break up the string of noun modifiers with prepositional phrases or rearrange the modifiers in some other way.

7.

For example:Jerry Gonzales won the award for painting portraits of students.

ORStudent Jerry Gonzales won the award for painting portraits.