Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Adjective: With Uncountable Nouns Only As They Express Quantity and Not Number
Adjective: With Uncountable Nouns Only As They Express Quantity and Not Number
☞Rule-1 Adjective of quantity like much, LITTLE, ENOUGH, SUFFICIENT, WHOLE, etc. must be used
with uncountable nouns only as they express quantity and not number.
Ex.-Many (not much) boys are absent from the class today.
☞Rule-2 The use of ‘few’, ‘a few’ and ‘the few’ should be used with care they denote number. Few
means ‘NOT MANY’.
The little means ‘not much in quantity but all that is’.
☞Rule-4 Adjective of number must be used only with the countable nouns and not with uncountable
as they indicate number and not quantity.
☞Rule-5 Some, All, Any, No. Most etc. may be used both as adjectives of number and Adjectives of
quantity as they can express number as well as quantity.
All big machines are imported from foreign countries. (Adj. of number)
All the sugar was thrown into the sea. (Adj. of Quantity)
☞Rule-6 the comparative adjectives, ending with like superior, inferior, senior, junior, prior, anterior,
posterior, exterior etc. Take ‘to after them and not ‘than’.
☞Rule-7 Double comparative adjectives or double superlative adjectives must not be used.
☞Rule-8 Comparative degree must be used when the comparison is between two persons of things
and superlative degree when the comparison is among more than two things.
☞Rule-9 The comparative ending in ‘er’ is not used when we compare two qualities in the same
person or thing. In that case we use ‘more’ before the Adjective.
Less – Quantity
Fewer – Number
☞Rule-16 Some adjectives like (Perfect, Ideal, Full, Chief, Unique, Complete, Infinite, Extreme, Entire,
Universal, Empty, Impossible, Unanimous, square, sound etc. are not compared as they express
meaning which do not admit of any variation of degrees.
☞Rule-17 When a comparison is introduced and has ‘ANY’ after it, the things compared mustalways
be excluded from the class of things with which it is compared, by using ‘OTHER’
Ex.-London is larger than any city in England. (Incorrect)
☞Rule-18 ‘Each’ is used to indicate a limited number and ‘EVERY’ to denote an unlimited number in
selection or choice.
☞Rule-19 “Some” is used in the affirmative sentence “any” is used in negative and
interrogative sentence.
When you list several adjectives in a row, there’s a specific order they need to be written or spoken.
Native speakers of English tend to put them in the correct order naturally, but if you’re learning English,
you’ll have to memorize the order. It goes like this:
1.Determiner: The determiner tells us if the noun is singular or plural, definite or indefinite
2.Quantity or number:
3.Quality or opinion: Explains what we think about something. This is usually our opinion, attitude or
observations. These adjectives almost always come before all other adjectives.
5.Shape / Weight / Length: Tells about the shape of something or how long or short it is. It can also
refer to the weight of someone or something.
If you look at the examples above, you can ask… what are the gloves used for? (gardening) What is the
bag used for? (shopping)
This is the correct order for adjectives that come directly before a noun, and they are separated by
commas.
Ex- My beautiful, big, circular, antique, brown, English, wooden coffee table was broken in the move.
If the adjectives come after the verb “be” as the complement, then the qualifier will stick with the noun
at the beginning of the sentence. The adjectives in the complement are separated by commas with the
final two being separated by “and.”
For example-
My coffee table is beautiful, big, circular, antique, brown, English and wooden.
Ex- I love that really big old green antique car that always parked at the end of the street.