Last Lesson Adjectives - How To Modify A Noun

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Have you ever noticed a word in a sentence that you almost recognized? Perhaps it looked very similar to a verb you had seen before.

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Making The Distinction Between Verb And Adjective

What is an adjective? As of now, I have been calling all 'verb style' words verbs.

However, it is now time to make the distinction between true verbs and adjectives.

Both come at the end of a sentence. Both may take the normal endings you have learned.

An adjective is a word that describes something. Words such as 'to be cold' 'to be clean', and 'to be busy' are all adjectives, because they describe something. Adjectives usually begin with 'to be' in English.

Other words, such as 'to run', 'to swim', and 'to write', are all true verbs. They are actions.

Yet, they both take the same 아요 / 어요 / 해요 endings. We use them almost exactly alike.

There will be many cases when you will need to know whether or not the 'word' you are dealing with is an adjective or a verb. I am going to introduce you to one right now, so hold on!

How To Use An Adjective To Modify A Noun

What exactly do I mean by that?

Well, you can say 'The car is blue' and you can also say 'It is a blue car'. These two sentences mean the exact same thing, except the word 'blue' is used two different ways.

In the first sentence, the whole sentence is based on describing the car, the color in particular.

In the second sentence, the writer may not necessarily be putting the emphasis on the color. The color could just be there to provide additional information. What if I were to say 'A blue car just drove across the street.'

Am I focusing on the fact that a blue car just drove across the street, or is the color of the car simply extra details?

As of now, you have been using the first form of the sentence. Let's look at the following sentence.

The weather is good.

You would probably say 날씨가 좋아요, correct?

What if you wanted to say 'Warm weather is good.'

This gets you into a situation in which you need to use another form of the adjective. You need to modify the noun - weather. It is not enough to say 날씨가 좋아요. 그리고 날씨가 따뜻해요. which means 'The weather is good, and the weather is warm.'

It doesn't quite mean the same thing.

Instead, you would say 따뜻한 날씨가 좋아요. This means 'Warm weather is good.'

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