Antecedent, Modifiers & Adverbs BBS 1st Year Business English

 

Antecedent

Click for Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfJ2q8LN4jo

Antecedent is a word, phrase, or clause that is replaced by a pronoun or noun. It is an expression that gives meaning to a person that takes its meaning from its antecedent. Example: John arrived office late because traffic held him up. (John- antecedent). Most of the antecedents are nouns. Pronoun subjects are: I, we, they, he, she, it, the boy. Pronoun objects are me, us, them, him, her, it, and him. Possessive Pronouns are my, mine, your, yours, his, her, and their (See difference: its/it’s). Three ways of agreement between pronouns and their antecedents: in number, gender and a clear relationship.

Examples:

a.      Singular: If the worker continues to arrive late, he or she will be counselled.

b.     Plural: Roman and Smith reported on Monday and they said the report is incomplete.

Modifiers

Modifiers (https://youtu.be/Qu5pvwL9u4Q) is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies or gives information about another word in the same sentence. A modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which modifies the meaning of another element such as in ‘a red ball’. Let’s see the sentences:

a.      I'm going to start a new business. The word “business" is modified by the word “new" so the word ‘new’ is a modifier. (Adjective)

b.     She types the letters fast. The word ‘types’ is modified by the word ‘fast’ so the word ‘fast’ is a modifier. (adverb)

c.      The laughing client applies for a new job. The word ‘client’ is modified by the word ‘laughing’ so the word ‘laughing’ is a modifier. ( Present Participle)

d.     Stop! You can’t invest anymore. (Interjection)

Modifiers can include adjectives, adverbs, participles and interjections. Adjectives (https://youtu.be/wC5GPzMb9BE) provides extra information about noun or pronoun. It also describes the quality of a noun and specifies it. The word that answers the questions ‘which’, ‘what kind of’, ‘how many is called a modifier. Examples: (https://youtu.be/eoE3_Jb0b3Q)

a.      I ate a delicious mango. (what kind of…..)

b.     The black dog is running after the little girl. (which ….)

c.      The aggressive speaker shouted at his audience. (which ….)

d.     Fifty candidates missed a deadline for applying. (how many….)

Adjectives are also called modifiers. They can be before or after nouns such as:

a.      The black dog barks at her. The word ‘black’ is placed before the noun ‘dog’.)

b.     The building is white. (The word ‘white’ is placed after the word ‘building’.

Adjectives can be regular or irregular: Regular adjectives are often one-syllable words such as tall, high, and good that take –er / -est for comparison. Examples: (https://youtu.be/uaRAUtBS6gI)

a.      Selling shares is better than investing money in them. (Regular Adj.- good)

b.     Microsoft Company is bigger than other companies. (Regular Adj.- big)

Irregular adjectives are words with two or more syllables such as beautiful, handsome, and comfortable that take less, least, more or most in comparisons. Examples: (For Attributive Adj.: https://youtu.be/a8SaoMcjrVw )

a.      Indoor job is more comfortable than outdoor jobs. (Irregular Adj.-comfortable)

b.     Getting a job is more difficult than resigning it. ( irregular Adj. – difficult)

Adjective placed before a noun is called an attributive adjective. An adjective placed after the noun is called a predicative adjective.

a.      The famous company produces iPhones. ( Attributive Adj.)

b.     The company is famous for producing iPhones. (Predicative Adj.)

Degrees of Comparison in Adjectives (https://youtu.be/pJLJ8eE5u6Q): Adjectives change their form to show degrees of comparison. Three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative & superlative. Positive degrees describe one item or one group of items. They are found in dictionary definitions. Examples: Adjective order: https://youtu.be/qcOfYlMfDz0

a.      His smartphone has a large screen.

b.     The production line at Goldstar is efficient.

c.      The sports budget for this year is high.

Comparative degree shows differences between two items. It is formed by adding –er to regular adjectives for comparison. More or less is added to irregular adjectives for comparison. Examples:

a.      Smartphones have a larger screen than normal phones.

b.     Trained clients are more efficient than untrained clients.

A superlative degree is used to compare three or more items and it is used to emphasize something. The superlative degree is formed by adding –est to regular adjectives and ‘most’ or ‘least’ to irregular adjectives and ‘the’ is used before the superlative degree. The single syllabic adjective takes –er or –est for making comparative and superlative but more and most for the adjective that has more than two syllables. Examples:

a.      Walmart is the biggest company in the world.

b.     Apple is the most advanced company in the world.

c.      She is the most beautiful girl in class.

Absolute Adjectives: They are always used in superlative degrees but cannot compare items. Absolute adjectives are perfect, complete, unique, right, final, full, round, correct, never, dead, empty etc. However, they can be qualified by using ‘more nearly’ or ‘most nearly’. Examples:

a.      The assignment is complete.

b.     The design of the building is nearly perfect.

c.      His resume is most nearly correct. 

Compound Adjectives (https://youtu.be/eUM1O2pkLJM ) are made of two or more words to compare a single noun or pronoun. Sometimes it is hyphenated but sometimes not. Hyphenated shown in a dictionary are permanent but not hyphenated are temporary that is not given in a dictionary. If they appear before nouns or pronouns, they are hyphenated but not hyphenated if they are placed after the noun. Examples:

a.      Mr Smith is well-respected personnel. (Permanent Compound Adj.)

b.     She opened a mobile wallet account after her promotion. (Open Comp. Adj.)

c.      Fax machines that operate at a high speed are inevitable for offices. (Temp. Comp. Adj.)

Adverbs

Adverbs (https://youtu.be/C7BnQ6PmoPE ) modify, restrict, limit or describe verbs or adjectives. Adverbs also answer the questions asked with how, when, where, why, and in what manner. Adverbs generally end in ‘–ly’ such as slowly, beautifully, cleverly, quickly but fast. They are used very close to the words they modify. Examples:

a.      The quality of service dropped drastically in March. (dropped – How)

b.     The annual General Meeting is held annually. (conducted – when?)

c.      Training for supervisors will be held here next week. (held- Where?)

d.     The price of goods is increasing extremely fast. (increasing – How?)

Find the difference: She receives allowance regularly. – She regularly receives an allowance.

Placement of Adverbs

Placement of Adverbs (https://youtu.be/jXtHCBgbks0 ): An adverb may be a single word like ‘speak clearly’, a phrase like ‘speak clearly’, or a clause like ‘speak as clear as you can’. A single-word adverb is placed before or after the word it modifies like – She always goes to market. Infinitive phrases that function as adverbs usually follow the word they modify like - We have to remind him often. In case of a prepositional phrase that function as an adverb like – Usually, he attends a meeting on time. (Prepositional Phrase)

Degrees of Adverbs: Some adverbs or adjectives have positive, comparative and superlative degrees of comparison. (https://youtu.be/Nu3GDYIuuBA ). Examples:

a.      Ramu is not as tall as Hemu.           b. She talks faster than others in the meetings. 

Types of adverbs (https://youtu.be/VGYmavJYvA4 )

Simple Adverbs such as The door opened automatically.  - The order arrived yesterday.

Interrogative Adverb such as: Where have you been?       - What have you done?

Conjunction Adverb such as The boardroom isn’t available for meeting, however, the conference room should be clear.

Negative Adverbs: She seldom delivers a speech in mass.           - They never complete assignments.

Let’s see adjectives and adverbs in given sentences:

Adjectives	Adverbs
•      He is a good worker.	•      He works well.
•	•
•      It is a real computer.	•      It really is a computer.
•      The traffic is slow.	•      The traffic moves slowly.
•      This food tastes bad without salt.	•      The food badly needs salt.

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