What is an Adjective?
Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. They make your writing much more specific and interesting!
"Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing." - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Practice: Find all the adjectives in the following sentence:
"Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied." - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Answer: "Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied." - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
What is an Adverb?
Adverbs are words that describe or modify verbs, nouns, or other adverbs. They often end in the suffix "-ly" but not exclusively. Here are some examples:
The horse-drawn carriage from Beauxbatons Academy flew in roughly.
Professor Flitwick easily charms the decorations around the Great Hall.
Ron and McGonagall dance gracefully in preparation for the Yule Ball
Other Adverb Suffixes:
Not all adjectives can be changed into adverbs by adding the suffix -ly. So here is a handy chart to help you form adverbs. Furthermore, not all adverbs can be created by adding a suffix at all. There are some that are irregular, here are a few commonly used ones:
Practice: Fill in the blanks with the adverb form of the adjective in parenthesis
- Aragog was (scary) clicking his pincers at Harry and Ron.
- Luna produced a patronous (good).
- Slughorn gathered a group of (wonderful) talented students to attend his parties.
- Dumbledore held up his hands (agitated)
Answers:
- scarily
- well
- wonderfully
- agitatedly
What is an Article?
Articles are types of adjectives that are used to discuss things and people. There are only three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. Since they refer to non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles. A is used when the noun that follows begins with a consonant, while an is used if the noun that follows begins with a vowel. The word the is called the definite article because it indicates very specific people or things.
- Example:
- Harry uses the firebolt for his broomstick.
- Hermione refuses for an elf to do her cooking, cleaning, or chores out of slavery.
- Ron has a tiny owl named Pigwideon.
What is a Preposition?
Prepositions are words used to describe a noun's relation to another word in the same sentence. The prepositional word appears before the noun it is describing. The relation typically has to do with physical space or time but not always. Don't stress, you probably use prepositions all the time!
- Examples:
- Hermione set her book on the desk.
- Ron dug into the Halloween feast with gusto.
- Before arriving at Hogwarts, Harry was starved and lonely.
- Ginny put her wand in her pocket.
- Despite his size, Hagrid was gentle as could be.
- Outside the castle, the quidditch pitch was one of Harry's favorite places.
- Mad-eye Moody sacrificed himself during the mission to transfer Harry from Private Drive.
- Mrs. Weasley walked toward Harry and wrapped him into a warm hug.
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