Adjective

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse
$13.99
There's no English part of speech that doesn't have its detractors. Mark Twain hated adjectives, Stephen King hates adverb, Gertrude Stein thought nouns were pointless. (Nouns? Really?) Yagoda teaches college English and has worked as a copyeditor (as have I), and he's come down, more or less, on the side of descriptiveness in language -- though there are various increasingly common constructions that make him wince. Again, I agree on both points. I have no use for prescriptive authoritarians like Edwin Newman who actually think it's possible to freeze the language, and I'll split infinitive without hesitation, but "more unique" still makes me grind my teeth. And I loathe "and/or." Moreover, Yagoda likes to go to Google to provide usage statistics. He devotes a chapter to each speech-part (though grammarians apparently don't call them that anymore) but most of the space is taken up with anecdotes (insiders always refer to "CIA," never to "the CIA") and contextual quotations from unusual authors and speakers. Still, there are some eyebrow-raisers. He defends comparative uniqueness by quoting Grahame's Toad of Toad Hall in saying a house is "very unique" -- with no apparent notion that the author was making fun of his character. And his list of adjectives which are "uncommon" (and are therefore to be avoided, so as not to sound pompous or fancy) includes baleful, supercilious, capacious, bumptious, and a number of others I would have expected to find in the second-level vocabulary of anyone with a proper education. So while there's lots of neat stuff in this not-long book, it's not as "authoritative" as the flap copy wants you to believe.

Spanish Adjectives and Adverbs [VHS]
$39.95
Adjectives and adverbs help us to give more information about the nouns and the verbs that we use. They¡Çre descriptive words that add color to language. Become familiar with the rules that govern the usage of Spanish adjectives and learn how to form adverbs from adjectives. There are many illustrated examples to facilitate comprehension. Footage shot on location in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries will expose you to the sights and sounds of the Spanish-speaking world while a basic grammar lesson is learned.

If You Were an Adjective (Word Fun)
$7.95
Provides an introduction to adjectives. Includes an activity.

The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (Kodansha's Children's Classics)
$25.00
Before describing the book, a word or two has to be mentioned regarding the publisher, Kodansha International. I don't know if it's because of the policy within Kodansha, or the Japanese culture in general, but you can feel the tidiness, accuracy, and meticulous nature of each author, and the effort expended in order to convey information to the reader the best possible way.

When first starting to learn Japanese on my own, I had tried grammar texts and dictionaries from two other publishers. I found out after a couple of months, that they only cause the reader great confusion, lack a lot of important concepts, the print is often ineligible, and the sentences are in Romaji and not in the native alphabet (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji), which is so necessary in order to learn the language properly. Other Kodansha publications which I found useful for learning Japanese are Kodanshas Essential Kanji Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People)The Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People)Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary: Japanese-English English-JapaneseAll About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics)Japanese Verbs at a Glance (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics)

Part 1 is the backbone of the Japanese adjectives, which is presented in table format, for the i adjectives and na adjectives. Part 2 discusses different modifiers which conjugate with adjectives. For example, "daro" (probably) added to "tsumetai" (cold), means "it is probably cold". Each case is presented in a block in English and Japanese, and its meaning is given to the right. Then it follows with an example of the conjugate for each type of adjective, explanation of that conjugate, and three sentences each in Romaji, Japanese, and English, where that conjugate is used. The conjugate is highlighted in bold, in the Romaji and Japanese sentence, which makes it easier to pinpoint. Part 3 introduces a long list of adverbs and the way they modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and nouns. Each section ends with 8 or 9 exercises for which answers are given at the back.

The index has to be praised in particular, because each subject includes its own index. Each of i adjectives and na adjectives are organized in two different lists in Romaji (together with Japanese to the right), and another list is given in English for both types, with Japanese to the right). The adverbs are divided into sections in Romaji, for example, those expressing time, those expressing quantity, etc. Again a comprehensive list of adverbs is given in English.

In short, I recommend it for every English speaking Japanese student learning on his or her own, or even as supplementary material at college.

For every case, two or three sentences are given, which demonstrate the various ways which the adjective or adverb is employed in sentence in Japanese. A Romaji sentence, which a transliteration in English of the Japanese one, is followed by one in Kana, that is original Japanese version, and then a complete English translation. Each case starts with a heading, of the item, in bold characters, enclosed in a box, easily found, especially when one looks for a particular adjective in the text. The index is very helpful, too. It comes in a few different flavors, covering every possible catagory that one might ascribe an adjective or an adverb, to. So, it is easy to spot quickly the item you are looking for, including the Table of Contents, itself. The depository is well beyond the ordinary ones that one might come across, in daily use of the language. Many are never encountered, depending on the field of specialization. But they are there, if you might one day need it.