Collins Cobuild English Grammar (34 page)

typical

understanding

useful

violent

warm

weak

wet

wide

wild

worried

young

Identifying type:
financial help
,
abdominal pains

2.26
    The other main type of adjective consists of adjectives that you use to identify the type or
class
that something belongs to. For example, if you say
financial help
, you are using the adjective
financial
to describe what type of help you are talking about (that is, to
classify
help). Adjectives that are used in this way are called
classifying adjectives
.

…
financial
help.
…
abdominal
pains.
…a
medieval
manuscript.
…my
daily
shower.
…an
equal
partnership.
…a
sufficient
amount of milk.

Note that
noun modifiers
(see paragraphs
2.169
to
2.174
) are used in a similar way to classifying adjectives. For example,
financial matters
and
money matters
are similar in both structure and meaning.

Here is a list of classifying adjectives:

absolute

active

actual

agricultural

alternative

annual

apparent

available

basic

central

chemical

civil

commercial

communist

conservative

cultural

daily

democratic

direct

domestic

double

due

east

eastern

economic

educational

electric

empty

external

female

financial

foreign

free

full

general

golden

historical

human

ideal

independent

industrial

inevitable

intellectual

internal

international

legal

local

magic

male

medical

mental

military

modern

moral

national

natural

negative

north

northern

nuclear

official

open

original

personal

physical

political

positive

possible

potential

private

professional

proper

psychological

public

raw

ready

real

religious

revolutionary

right

royal

rural

scientific

separate

sexual

single

social

solid

south

southern

standard

straight

sufficient

theoretical

traditional

urban

west

western

wooden

wrong

2.27
    Adjectives such as
British
,
American
, and
Australian
, that indicate nationality or origin, are also classifying adjectives. They start with a capital letter because they are related to names of countries.

…
American
citizens.

Some classifying adjectives are formed from people’s names, for example
Victorian
and
Shakespearean
. They also start with a capital letter.

…
Victorian
houses.

2.28
    Because they put something in a class, classifying adjectives are not
gradable
in the way that qualitative adjectives are. For example, if you do not have to pay for something, you cannot say that it is
very free
, or
rather free
. Things are either in a particular class or not in it. Therefore, classifying adjectives do not have comparatives and superlatives and are not normally used with adverbs like
very
and
rather
.

However, when you want to show that you feel strongly about what you are saying, you can use an
intensifying
adverb such as
absolutely
with a classifying adjective. This is explained in paragraphs
2.147
to
2.148
.

adjectives that are of both types

2.29
    Some adjectives can be either
qualitative
or
classifying
depending on the meaning. For example, in
an emotional person
,
emotional
is a qualitative adjective meaning
feeling or expressing strong emotions
; it has a comparative and superlative and it can be used with words like
very
and
rather
. Thus, a person can be
very emotional
,
rather emotional
, or
more emotional
than someone else. However, in
the emotional needs of children
,
emotional
is a classifying adjective meaning
relating to a person’s emotions
, and so it cannot be used with words like
very
or
rather
, and it does not have a comparative and superlative.

Here is a list of adjectives that are often used both as qualitative adjectives and as classifying adjectives:

academic

conscious

dry

educational

effective

emotional

extreme

late

modern

moral

objective

ordinary

regular

religious

revolutionary

rural

scientific

secret

similar

social

Identifying colours: colour adjectives

2.30
    When you want to say what colour something is, you use a
colour adjective
.

…her
blue
eyes.
…a
red
ribbon.

Here is a list of the main colour adjectives:

black

blue

brown

cream

green

grey

orange

pink

purple

red

scarlet

violet

white

yellow

adding extra information to colour adjectives

2.31
    If you want to specify a colour more precisely, you use a word such as
light
,
pale
,
dark
,
deep
, or
bright
, in front of a colour adjective.

…
light brown
hair.
…a
pale green
suit.
…a
dark blue
dress.
…
deep red
dye.
…her
bright blue
eyes.

These combinations sometimes have hyphens.

…a
light-blue
suit.
…the plant’s tiny
pale-pink
flowers.