Adjective and Adverbs

1. Adjective and Adverbs Adjective An adjective (from Latin adiicere, add to) is a class of words that is used to modify or explain a noun or pronoun. In general, an adjective comes before the noun or pronoun it modifies, but sometimes it occurs after the noun or pronoun (following a verb to be). There are several types of adjective, i.e. adjective of quality, adjective of quantity, possessive adjective, article adjective, and verbal adjective. Adjective of quality Adjective of quality is an adjective that is used to describe the quality of a noun or pronoun. Examples: Hot chilli pepper is more expensive than sweet chilli pepper during the past three years. Farmers in KayuAro are growing new potato variety. The big bunch of banana is produced by plants growing on fertile soil.

2. Adjective of quantity Adjective of quality is an adjective that is used to describe the quantity of a noun or pronoun. These are: many, much, some, a few, several, various, a number of, a little, one, two, three, a hundred, one thousand, etc. Examples: There are five mangosteen in the basket. Some farmers are discussing the irrigation system in the village. Most of Indonesian farmers are poor and uneducated. Possessive adjective Possessive adjective is an adjective that shows a possession of something by someone or by other thing. These include: my, our, your, his, her, their, its, my uncle’s, Rudi’s, etc. Examples: Our farms are located around the village. We want to see her tobacco crops attacked by TMV virus. Budi’s father is driving his new tractor.

3. Article adjective Article adjective is an adjective indicating the article of something. There include: a, an, the, this, these, that and those. Examples: The technical irrigation system increases rice production by three times. I don’t want to eat those mangoes because they are too sour. Do you want to bring these strawberries home? Verbal adjective Verbal adjective is an adjective derived from a verb. There are two types of verbal adjective: 1) in the form of present participle (-ing form), and 2) in the form of past participle (-ed form). Examples: The dryingmethod of wet paddy using solar energy is much cheaper than using machine. Farmers in Australia use harvesting machine to pick up their mango fruits. On an irrigated field we may have three times rice planting a year.

4. Adverb Adverb (Latin: adverbium)has several functions, i.e. it explains verbs, explains adjectives, and explains other adverbs or the entire grammatical constructions. In general, an adverb is formed by adding “ly” to an adjective, such as simultaneous  simultaneously, active  actively, and high  highly. However, there are some words ended with “ly” but functioning as adjectives, such as early, neighborly, ad wifely. On the other hand, words such as: very, much, many, little, few, so, too, often, always, seldom, and there, which are not ended with “ly” are adverbs. There are also some words that can function as an adjective in one time, and also function as an adverb in other time, such as: long, fast, good, etc. Adverbs qualifying verbs The potatoes in the two plots are fertilized simultaneously. (“simultaneously” is an adverb qualifying the verb “fertilized”). Virus disease seriously damage hot peppers grown in Pal Merah. (“seriously” is an adverb qualifying the verb “damage”). Jonois spraying the pesticide carefully. (“carefully” is an adverb qualifying the verb “spraying”.

5. Adverbs qualifying adjective The petals of Dendrobium are easily bruised due to hot temperature. (“easily” is an adverb qualifying the adjective “bruised”). The effect of plant growth regulators is highly significant on the growth of single-node cutting of pepper. (“highly” is an adverb qualifying the adjective “significant”). The production of Crude Palm Oil in Jambi is extremely low during the past two years. (“extremely” is an adverb qualifying the adjective “low’). Adverbs qualifying other adverb Jokoexplains the method of vegetative plant propagation extremely well. (“extremely” is an adverb qualifying the adverb “well”). Citrus crops are very often attacked by virus diseases. (“very” is an adverb qualifying the adverb “often”). Somany people are interested in growing medicinal crops for their own use. (“so” is an adverb qualifying the adverb “many”).

6. Words ended with “ly” but function as adjectives Farmers are early grower. (“early” is an adjective qualifying the noun “grower”). Women should not neglect their wifely duties. (“wifely” is an adjective qualifying the noun “duties”). We went to a lovely garden near the town hall. (“lovely” is an adjective qualifying the noun “garden”). Words that can function as adjectives or adverbs We have a long trip to oil palm plantation in Sibolga. (“long” is an adjective qualifying the noun “trip”). Father wants me to stay in the farm as long as I can. (“long” is an adverb qualifying the modal verb “can”). Goodcrop maintenance will result in high production. (“good” is an adjective qualifying the noun “crop maintenance”).

7. Students’ activity The following passage contains adjectives and adverbs you have just learned. Read the text carefully, and identify the adjectives and adverbs used in the passage. The Swainsonaformosa plant Swainsonaformosa is one of Australia’s native plants, and is one of the world’s most spectacular flowering plants. The outstanding feature of S. formosa is its brilliant-colored flowers, from white or pink through to dark red standard and keel with or without a distinctive boss. The great potential of S. formosais as a container-grown ornamental, either in a flowering pot or hanging basket, or as a cut flower. With ideal growing conditions and intensive plant care, S. formosa can also be spectacular used as a garden ornamental. The commercialization of S. formosa for the cut flower market is quite flexible. It can be marketed either as individual, single-stemmed flower clusters or as multiple clusters on a leafy branch. Asian markets, particularly Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, are a potential destination for trade in S. formosa. However, the commercialization of S. formosa as a cut flower is subject to a number of limitations. In addition to color variations, stem length and the number of blooms per cluster, another impediment to commercialization of S. formosa as a cut flower is the production of large amounts of pollen in the flowers. This brings about a reduction in flower quality due to petal staining by the pollen grains that are shed during transportation. In addition, during transportation pollination may occur, resulting in the rapid degeneration of pollinated flowers and thus reduction in the vase-life of the flowers. Flowers of S. formosastart to senesce on the plant within 2 - 3 days after effective pollination. Unpollinated flowers, on the other hand, will remain fresh on the plant for 5 – 10 days. This indicates that avoiding pollination will increase the vase-life of harvested flowers. Research on the breeding of S. formosa has been conducted with the emphasis on the production of male-sterile flowers. Two strategies have been used, an in vitro technique aimed at producing haploid plants and an in vivo technique aimed at producing triploid plants. Both haploid and triploid plants are sterile because where there is an odd number of chromosome sets reproductive fertility is usually impaired. This is because during meiosis the normal pairing of chromosomes cannot properly take place since one set of chromosomes has no homologous set with which to pair, and so gametes fail to form.