02.000 Chapter 2: Giving information about people and things

Chapter 2: Giving information about people and things

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Describing things: adjectives

2.19 Information focusing: adjective structures

2.24 Identifying qualities: qualitative adjectives

2.29 Identifying the class that something belongs to: classifying adjectives

2.34 Identifying colours: colour adjectives

2.40 Showing strong feelings: emphasizing adjectives

2.44 Making the reference more precise: postdeterminers

2.45 Special classes of adjectives

2.58 Position of adjectives in noun groups

2.67 Special forms: '-ing' adjectives

2.81 Special forms: '-ed' adjectives

2.98 Compound adjectives

2.108 Comparing things: comparatives

2.117 Comparing things: superlatives

2.128 Other ways of comparing things: saying that things are similar

2.145 Indicating different amounts of a quality: submodifiers

2.162 Indicating the degree of difference: submodifiers in comparison

2.174 Modifying using nouns: noun modifiers

2.180 Indicating possession or association: possessive structures

2.185 Indicating close connection: apostrophe s / 's

2.188 Other structures with apostrophe s / 's

2.193 Talking about quantities and amounts

2.194 Talking about amounts of things: quantifiers

2.211 Talking about amounts of things: other partitives

2.225 cardinal numbers

2.230 Referring to the number of things: cardinal numbers

2.249 Referring to things in a sequence: ordinal numbers

2.257 Referring to an exact part of something: fractions

2.267 Talking about measurements

2.275 Talking about age

2.281 Approximate amounts and measurements

2.289 Expanding the noun group: qualifiers

2.292 Nouns with prepositional phrases

2.308 Nouns with adjectives

2.310 Nouns with non-finite clauses

2.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter the use of nouns, pronouns, and the basic determiners to name and identify people and things was explained. This chapter explains ways of giving more information about the people and things that have already been named or identified.

One way of giving more information within a noun group about people or things is by the use of an adjective such as 'small', 'political', and 'blue'. Adjectives can be used as modifiers of a noun or as complements of a link verb. They are explained in paragraphs 2.2 to 2.173.

Sometimes nouns can also be used to modify the headword. This is explained in paragraphs 2.174 to 2.179.

Possessives such as 'grandmother's' are used to indicate the relationship between people and things and the headword. They can also be used to modify a noun or as complements of a link verb. They are explained in paragraphs 2.180 to 2.192.

There are other groups of words which are used before a noun group to give more information about people and things. They are linked to the noun group by 'of' in a partitive structure. These words include quantifiers, such as 'many of' and 'some of', and other partitivessuch as 'a piece of' and 'a bottle of'. Quantifiers are used to indicate the amount of people or things you are talking about. They are explained in paragraphs 2.193 to 2.210. Other partitives are used to indicate a particular amount of people or things. They are explained in paragraphs 2.211 to 2.224.

Numbers and fractions are also used to indicate the amount of people or things you are talking about. Numbers are explained in paragraphs 2.225 to 2.256 and fractions are explained in paragraphs 2.257 to 2.266.

The other way of giving more information within a noun group about people or things is by using a qualifier after headwords to expand their meaning. Qualifiers are explained in paragraphs 2.289 to 2.320.