The adjectives and participles used as adjectives in the following sentences are printed in italics. Determine which adjectives are capable of comparison, and whether they are compared by adding er or est, or by the use of more and most.
In a community regulated by laws of demand and supply, but protected from open violence, the persons who become rich are, generally speaking, industrious, resolute, proud, covetous, prompt, methodical, sensible, unimaginative, insensitive and ignorant. The persons who remain poor are the entirely foolish, the entirely wise, the idle, the reckless, the humble, the thoughtful, the dull, the imaginative, the sensitive, the well-informed, the improvident, the irregularly and impulsively wicked, the clumsy knave, the open thief, and the entirely merciful, just and godly persons.—Ruskin.
PARTICIPLE PHRASES
275. If you will refer now to Lesson 9 you will find that we studied in that lesson concerning participle phrases; that is, several words used as a participle. We found that these participle phrases may also be used as nouns; as, for example:
- His having joined the union caused him to lose his position.
Having joined is here a participle phrase used as a noun, subject of the verb caused. Participle phrases may also be used as adjectives.
You remember that we had four participle phrases, as follows:
- Present perfect, active, having called.
- Present perfect, passive, having been called.
- Progressive, active, having been calling.
- Progressive, passive, being called.
These participle phrases are used as adjectives to describe and modify nouns, thus:
- The soldier, having joined his comrades, fought in the trenches.
- The nurse, having been watching for days, was nearly exhausted.