Examples.—La urbo Londono = The City of London. La Kolonio Natalo = The Colony of Natal (see par. [253] (a)).
For numeral nouns, see par. [118]; for participial, pars. [208], [209]; for predicative, par. [109]; for compound nouns, par. [49]; for form of accusative with proper names, par. [69] (d); for the infinitive used as a noun, par. [180].
THE ADJECTIVE (La Adjektivo).
107. The Adjective always ends in -A in the singular. J is added to A to form the plural. The accusative case is formed by the addition of N to the singular or plural termination.
Examples.—Forta = Strong. Saĝa = Wise. Brava = Brave. Forta homo = A strong man. Saĝa patro = A wise father. Saĝaj patroj = Wise fathers. La brava filo = The brave son. La bravaj filoj = The brave sons.
108. There are two kinds of adjectives, viz.:—(a) Qualifying or attributive (apudmetita = put adjacent), and (b) Predicative (predikateca).
(a). A qualifying adjective is one placed before or after its noun, with which it agrees both in number and case (par. [36]).
Examples.—Johano havas bonan panon = John has good bread. Vilhelmo akrigis la tranĉilojn malakrajn = William sharpened the blunt knives.
(b). A predicative adjective, usually placed after the verb, denotes what is said about the noun or pronoun to which it refers, or denotes their state, condition, appearance, etc. It agrees with them in number, but is never in the accusative case (par. [36]).
Examples.—La pomo estas bona = The apple is good. Vilhelmo trovis la tranĉilojn malakraj = William found the knives blunt. If the adjective were in this sentence in the accusative, the meaning would be quite altered, for, Vilhelmo trovis la tranĉilojn malakrajn would mean, "William found the blunt knives," that is to say, he was looking for blunt knives, and he found them. A predicative adjective shows that ellipsis has taken place, and the omitted verb is generally esti. For instance, the ellipsis in the above sentence might be as follows:—William found (that) the