Adjectives: Limiting

These types of adjectives specify or limit the noun.

An adjective that limits a noun; they include definite articles, indefinite articles, possessive adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, indefinite adjectives, interrogative adjectives, cardinal adjectives, ordinal adjectives, proper adjectives and nouns used as adjectives.

[In the following examples, the adjective is bold and the noun is underlined.]

The two teams have met every season since 1932.

• TWO tells us how many TEAMS and EVERY tells us how many SEASONS.
• Note: It does not describe the teams; it tells us which ones to limit our attention to.

Saturday, Oregon plays USC before what should be a sellout crowd.

• SELLOUT tells us what size of crowd. A specific number would also be limiting.

Did Garret see this article that appeared in the paper?

• THIS indicates which “limited” article.
• Note: In this sentence, THIS is NOT a demonstrative pronoun.

Will you be sitting at the captain’s table this evening?

• CAPTAIN’S limits what table we are considering.
• Note: This type of possessive is called a possessive noun.

This season, the two are meeting on a home-and-home basis, unusual for non-conference rivals.

• HOME-AND-HOME limits the basis for meeting.
• Note: We use hyphens to connect words that work together to modify the noun.

NOTE: This is a fairly limited (no pun intended) discussion of adjectives so as requested, a more in-depth discussion of the types of limiting adjectives with examples can be found here.
 

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