Types of qualifying adjectives

Image: Examples

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines adjectives as "classes of words whose elements modify a noun or are predicated of it, and denote qualities, properties and relationships of various kinds". Following this definition, in Spanish we have several types of adjectives, depending on the relationship they establish with the noun they accompany. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will focus on the study of types of qualifying adjectives.

The adjective is a kind of word that modifies or provides information about the noun it accompanies. The adjectives are those adjectives by which a certain quality is attributed to the noun with which it relates. In this way, a qualifying adjective expresses a characteristic property of the object or reality to which the noun refers.

For example, the noun phrase "rainy day" It is made up of a noun, which functions as a syntactic nucleus, "day", and a qualifying adjective "rainy" that gives us information about what the day is like or what it is like. It is important to always bear in mind that adjectives, as such, must agree in gender and number with the noun they accompany.

One of the main characteristics of qualifying adjectives is that they can be graduated; that is, they admit the adverb "very" or the superlative form of the adjective. Continuing with the previous example, we can say "very rainy day" or "not very rainy day".

In addition, qualifying adjectives, normally, They answer the question "What is it like?" related to the noun. For example, "The car is red", "What is the car like? - Red".

Are those qualifying adjectives that are necessary because they differentiate the noun from another based on the qualification; that is, they limit the referent of the noun, distinguishing it from another.

For example, "the ripe apple", "the small house" or "the tall man" are examples of specific qualifying adjectives because they differ from the rest of the elements of the same class or category. Thus, "the ripe apple" is a specific apple, different from other apples that are greener or less ripe.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will reveal to you in detail the differences between specific adjectives and qualifiers.

East type of qualifying adjectives are the ones describe an inherent quality or proper to the noun they accompany; that is, it is a quality that we already presuppose in advance that corresponds to said noun, therefore, It is not essential in order to understand the full meaning of the phrase or sentence. So if we say "sweet sugar" or "blue sea", "prairie green" or "red blood" we are emphasizing a quality previously associated with each of these nouns.

Explanatory qualifying adjectives they are also called epithets and they tend to be used very frequently in poetic language, in order to embellish and enhance the language of lyrical or poetic compositions.

For example, "meadow green" is an epithet since all fields or meadows are by definition green, just as we all assume that sugar is sweet.