AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
                                                                          (Judging from his walk that he is drunk this compari-
ADJECTIVE                                                          son doesn’t belong to the category of unreal, essentially).
      An Adjective is a word used to qualify a Noun or Pro-        But,
noun:                                                                     He walks as if he were drunk. (implying he is drunk,
      For example : a red cover, a long time, a beautiful girl.    but he is not).
CLASSIFICATION                                                            Þ An infinitive is used after such as / such --- as.
      Adjectives may be classified as follows :                           My behaviour was not such as to cause a problem.
  1. Qualitative — Wonderful, noble, intelligent, red, good,              I am not such a fool as to believe that.
      bad, beautiful, short, tall, big, small, sharp, blunt, long,        Þ We use such a statement (Not, a such statement)
      lovely, handsome.                                                   Such a decision (Not, a such decision)
  2. Quantitative — Little, some, much, any, no, none,                    Þ Such is not generally used demonstratively, to refer
      whole, enough, half, a lot of, lots of, a great deal of,     the things in the present situation. To express the idea, ‘of
      plenty of, some, enough.                                     the kind that I am showing you’ or ‘of the kind that we can
  3. Proper — Indian, American, English, German.                   see / hear now.’ We prefer like this / that or this / that
  4. Numerical : (a) Definite                                      kind / sort of,
     Cardinal — One, two, three etc..                                     2. Before : Whenever before is used as a conjunction
     Ordinal — First, second, third etc.                           with reference to some future event, it is never followed by
                                                                   a Verb in the Future Tense, even if the Verb in the principal
     Multiplicative — Single, double, triple etc.
                                                                   clause is future :
     (b) Indefinite—Many, a great many, a good many,
                                                                          3. If
     many a, several, various, numberous, a lot of, lots of, a            If is used to mean :
     great deal of, all, any, no, few, some                               (i) Admitting that -
  5. Possessive—My, our, his, her, their, its.                            If I am dull, I am at least honest.
  6. Distributive—Each, every, either, neither.                           (ii) Whenever -
  7. Demonstrative —                                                      If you feel any doubt, you inquire.
     (a) Definite—this, that, these, those, such, the same,               (iii) On supposition,
     the other.                                                             If he is there, I shall see him.
     (b) Indefinite—a, an, a certain, certain, another, other,            (Here the use of ‘shall’ is valid, see ‘Problems’)
     some, any etc.                                                       (iv) Whether,
  8. Interrogative — what, which, whose, etc.                             I wonder if she comes.
  9. Exclamatory — What                                                   4. ‘And’ is used after ‘Both’ (Not, as well as, or, else) :
      What a genius!                                                    Both Sita or Shyam may come today.            — incorrect
      What a blessing!                                                  Both Sita and Shyam may come today. — correct
(10) Emphasizing — own, very                                          5. ‘Except’ and ‘Without’.
      I saw it with my own eyes.                                        ‘Except’ or ‘without’ are sometimes wrongly used for
      That is the very thing we want.                              unless.
      Comparison of Adjectives — there are three Degrees                She will not come except you need her. — incorrect
of Comparison :                                                         She will not come unless you need her. — correct
Positive Comparative Superlative                                        Similarly, without is also a Preposition.
    (1)            (2)           (3)                                  Þ ‘Whether’ and ‘or’
   Tall          taller        tallest                                  ‘Or’ is used after whether (Not that)
  Great         greater       greatest                                  I do not know that he wil come or not. — incorrect
  Noble         nobler        noblest
                                                                        (Whether should be used in place of that)
 Happy          happier      happiest
                                                                      I don’t know whether he will come or not.                —
 Wealthy       wealthier    wealthiest
                                                                   correct
   Hot           hotter       hottest
                                                                        Tell me that whether you will return soon.             —
   Fat           fatter        fattest
                                                                   incorrect
 Difficult more difficultmost difficult
                                                                        ‘That’ Conjunction should never be used before a sen-
Beautiful more beautifulmost beautiful
                                                                   tence is Direct Narration, nor before Interrogative Adverbs
CONJUNCTION                                                        or Pronouns in Indirect Narration
      He sings as well as cooks                                         Þ ‘Or’ is used to introduce an alternative, you must
      (= he not only cooks, but also sings).                       work or starve.
      He sings as well as he cooks.                                     Þ ‘Or’ means ’otherwise’
      (= His singing is as good as his cooking).                        We must hasten or night will overtake us.
      1. As if and as though mean the same. We use them to              Þ ‘Or’ is also used between two numbers to indicate
say what the situation seems like. As, you look as if /            that you are giving an approximate amount :
though you’re going to kill me.                                         You are supposed to polish your can three or four times
      Þ As if / as though is used to indicate imaginary case       a year.
(Particularly to snow that a comparison is unreal).                     Þ ‘Or’ is also used to introduce a comment which cor-
      He walks as if he’s drinking.                                rects or modifies what you have just said : My organisation
                                                                   is paying rent or at least contributing to it.
                                                               SEE–85