What is a definite numeral adjective?
1 Answer
They use cardinal (numbers used in an amount) and ordinals (numbers used as an order) to tell us something certain about a noun.
Explanation:
An adjective is a word that helps give us more information about a noun. If I say the brown cat, "brown" is the adjective - it tells us more about the noun "cat".
A numeral adjective is an adjective that tells us about how many or how much or in what order the noun is in. There are three kinds of numeral adjectives:
- Definite numeral adjectives use cardinal (numbers used in an amount) and ordinals (numbers used as an order). Examples are:
Three cats ran up the steps - the word "three" is a cardinal number telling us the number of cats.
The third cat was the brown cat - the word "third" is an ordinal number telling us some information about the position of the brown cat (i.e. it was third in line).
- Indefinite numeral adjectives give us an idea as to how many, but it's not specific. I can say:
A few cats ran up the stairs - was it three? four? more? "Few" tells us something about the number of cats but nothing definite.
- Distributive numeral adjectives tell us something about the a group. For instance:
Each cat that ran up the stairs had blue eyes
