7.6 Adjective Use Comparison

As a brief review, determine whether the adjective is acting as Attributive, Predicative, or Substantival. The answers and explanations are in the footnotes.

  • הָאִשָּׁה הָטּוֹבָה -70
  • טוֹבָה הָאִשָּׁה -71
  • הָאִשָּׁה טוֹבָה -72
  • טוֹבָה אִשָּׁה -73
  • אִשָּׁה טוֹבָה -74
  • הַטּוֹבָה -75

  1. ATTRIBUTIVE - “Attributive Always After, Article Agrees” While a Predicative adjective can occur after the noun, this example can’t be Predicative because the adjective has the article - “Predicate dePrived of Article…”↩︎

  2. PREDICATIVE - “Predicative dePrived of article, Perhaps Prior” This example can’t be attributive because the adjective comes before the noun and the article does not agree - “Attributive Always After, Article Agrees”↩︎

  3. PREDICATIVE - “Predicative dePrived of article…” This example can’t be Attributive because the article does not agree “Attributive Always After, Article Agrees”↩︎

  4. PREDICATIVE - “Predicative dePrived of Article, Perhaps Prior”While the adjective and noun agree in definiteness (both are indefinite), this example can’t be Attributive because the adjective comes before the noun: “Attributive Always After…”↩︎

  5. ATTRIBUTIVE or PREDICATIVE The only time there can be any ambiguity between Attributive and Predicative is when the adjective comes after the noun and both are indefinite. In these situations, we need to let the context determine the use↩︎

  6. SUBSTANTIVAL This example can’t be Attributive or Predicative because there is no noun that the adjective is modifying↩︎