LoginProper Adjectives
Discover the rules for using proper adjectives like 'Victorian' and 'Newtonian'. Detailed explanations and a quiz to test your knowledge.
What Are Proper Adjectives?
Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. These adjectives are capitalized and serve to modify nouns or pronouns.
Adjectives: Capitalization
Based on capitalization, we can categorize adjectives into two groups:
Common Adjectives are not capitalized unless used at the beginning of the sentence.
Proper Adjectives are derived from proper nouns and are always capitalized.
Proper Adjectives: Types
Proper adjectives are used to attribute qualities of a specific person, place, language, institution, etc. to a noun or pronoun. They can be related to:
Countries: Italian, Polish, American, etc.
Religions: Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, etc.
Cities: Chicagoan, Venetian, etc.
Famous people: Shakespearean, Elizabethan, Marxist, Kafkaesque, etc.
Proper Adjectives: Usage
In a sentence, proper adjectives can act as:
Predicative Adjectives
Attributive Adjectives
As a Predicative Adjective
Proper adjectives can come after a linking verb, in which case, they act as predicative adjectives serving as the subject complement of the sentence. Check out the examples:
She is Korean.
Their ideas are essentially Marxist.
As an Attributive Adjective
When a proper adjective is used before, or less commonly, after a noun to modify it, it acts as an attributive adjective. Here are a few examples:
I bought a Shakespearean novel.
This is a prepositive adjective, used before a noun.
We need something Elizabethan to match the setting of the story.
This is a post-positive adjective, used after a noun.
Proper Noun vs. Proper Adjective
There is a subtle difference between a proper noun used as a noun modifier and a proper adjective. Proper adjectives have a proper noun as the root word, but proper noun modifiers are themselves the root word. Take a look at the examples:
We watched a French movie. → proper adjective
In this example, the root word for 'French' is 'France.'
Take a slice of this New York pizza. → proper noun modifier
In this example, 'New York' is a proper noun, not a proper adjective and it acts as a modifier for pizza.
Proper Adjectives vs. Common Adjectives
The main difference between common and proper adjectives is that proper adjectives are derived from a proper noun; therefore, they are always capitalized, which makes them easy to recognize. Common adjectives, on the other hand, are common words that modify a noun or pronoun. Additionally, most proper adjectives are relational in nature, showing an association between the noun they modify and the proper noun that serves as their root. common adjectives, on the other hand, are mostly descriptive. Here are the examples:
They studied ancient traditions.
In this example, there is no proper root noun.
They studied Christian traditions.
Here, 'Christian' shows a relation to Christianity, which is a proper noun.
Formation of Compound Nouns
When proper adjectives are used in formation of compound nouns, the compound noun is considered a common noun because the noun is the head of the compound and the adjective is just adding more information. For example:
French (proper adjective) + baguette (common noun) = a French baguette (a type of bread, not a specific bread)
Persian (proper adjective) + cat (common noun) = a Persian cat (a breed of cat, not a specific cat)
Russian (proper adjective) + roulette (common noun) = Russian roulette (a game of chance)
Proper Adjectives: Dictation Rules
Since proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns and the proper nouns are always capitalized, proper adjectives start with a capital letter as well. For example:
Italian, Christian, Victorian
Nordic, Portuguese
When a prefix is added to a proper adjective, the prefix is not capitalized and a hyphen is used between the prefix and the adjective. Here are the examples:
post-European culture
pre-Taoistic beliefs
Tip!
Sometimes, some common adjectives are capitalized in special cases, because in that particular context, they refer to an ethnic group with a shared culture, heritage, or ancestry. For example, the words 'Indigenous ' and 'Aboriginal' in countries such as Australia and Canada.
Proper Adverbs
An adverb formed from a proper adjective is also capitalized. For example:
Eating pork is not Islamically acceptable.
Living Frenchly doesn't mean you have to live in France.
Review
Proper adjectives are adjectives derived from proper nouns and capitalized at the beginning. They are usually related to the following classes of proper nouns:
countries
religions
cities
famous people
Quiz:
Which sentence uses a proper adjective predicatively?
They bought a Persian rug.
This rug is Persian.
The Persian rug felt luxurious.
This is a Persian rug.
Match each proper adjective with its correct category.
Fill each blanks with the proper adjective of the noun in parentheses.
They studied
(Europe) history before 1500.
They adopted a
(Persia) kitten.
We learned about
(Marx) ideas in class.
We enjoyed authentic
(Italy) cuisine at the new restaurant.
The museum displayed
(Buddha) artifacts from ancient temples.
Which sentence uses a proper adjective correctly?
She ordered french fries at the diner.
He loves Italian pasta from that new restaurant.
They visited the big Eiffel Tower in Paris.
B and C
Which of these compound nouns is correctly formed with a proper adjective and common noun?
french toast
German shepherd
British Shorthair
chinese Checkers
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