Adjectives

  1. Consider the following adjective:

    2. su&dr beautiful

    lal red

    sfed white

    lIlu& green

    mo4u& big

    w&cu& tall

  2. We can classify these adjectives in consonant ending and vowel ending.

Consonant ending Vowel ending

su&dr beautiful lIlu& green

lal red mo4u& big

sfed white w&cu& tall

  1. The vowel ending adjectives have the following structure:
    2.

    lIl- -w& green

    mo4u&- -w& big

    w&c- -w& tall

    The -w& in these words is a neuter gender marker, which changes its shape in terms of the gender and the number of the noun they modify. Look at the following examples:

    w&co 2okro ‘a tall boy’ w&ca 2okra ‘tall boys’

    w&cI 2okrI ‘a tall girl’ w&cI 2okrIAo ‘tall girls’

    w&cu& 2okru& ‘a tall child’ w&ca& 2okra& ‘tall children’

    The adjectives of this group are called 'marked' adjectives and those, which have no overt gender marker, are called 'unmarked' adjectives.

  2. Considering this, we can conclude the following patterns.

Nouns

Adjectives Consonant ending Vowel ending

Consonant ending

Vowel ending

Examples:

  1. su&dr 3r

    2. ‘a beautiful house’

  2. su&dr 2okro

    3. ‘a beautiful boy’

  3. saru& 3r

    4. ‘a good house’

  4. saro 2okro

‘ a good boy’

Remember the following:

  1. Adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number.
  2. Feminine adjective does not agree take plural marker while agreeing with a plural noun with feminine gender. Example: sarI 2okrIAo ‘good girls’, but never sarIAo 2okrIAo.