Life and Nature
Senior 6 · English (Languages)
Life and Nature
Lesson 3 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
Good description is not a matter of piling up adjectives. A writer who says "the very beautiful, extremely tall, really green trees" has told us less than one who says "the trees climbed out of the mist". This lesson covers the grammar of adjectives and adverbs that A-level writing needs, including word order, gradability and the linking-verb trap, and then uses it in the craft of description: choosing precise words and fewer of them.
A descriptive passage written for this lesson.
The forest woke before we did. By the time we had stumbled out of the guesthouse, stiff and half-asleep, the ridge was already loud: a turaco coughing somewhere above us, water ticking off the leaves, and far below, the low, steady roar of a river we could not see. Mist lay in the valleys like milk poured into a bowl.
We climbed slowly. The path was narrow and treacherously slick, and the red earth clung to our boots in heavy clods. Giant tree ferns leaned over us, their fronds still curled at the tips like the heads of violins. Every few minutes the guide stopped, raised one hand and listened, and we stood absolutely still, breathing as quietly as we could.
Then the sun reached the top of the ridge. It did not rise so much as spill: a thin gold line along the crest, then a wash of light down the slope, turning the mist from grey to white to nothing at all. Somewhere on the far side of the valley a chimpanzee screamed, and was answered, and the whole forest seemed briefly to hold its breath.
"Lucky," the guide said quietly, without looking round. We did not feel lucky. We felt very small, and entirely awake.
Definition
Key terms
| Point | Right | Wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Gradable takes very; extreme takes absolutely | very cold; absolutely freezing; absolutely still | very freezing; absolutely cold |
| -ing describes the cause, -ed the feeling | The climb was exhausting. We were exhausted. | We were exhausting (unless we tired others out) |
| Compound adjectives with numbers are singular and hyphenated | a two-hour walk; a ten-year-old girl | a two-hours walk; a ten-years-old girl |
| Some adjectives are only predicative | The child was asleep. (or: a sleeping child) | an asleep child |
| Some adjectives are only attributive | the main path; an utter mess | the path is main |
| Point | Example |
|---|---|
| Three positions: front (for emphasis or comment), mid (before the main verb, after be or the first auxiliary), end (manner, place, time) | Somewhere a chimpanzee screamed. The guide quietly raised his hand. We climbed slowly. |
| Adverbs modify adjectives and other adverbs | treacherously slick; absolutely still; very quietly |
| Linking verbs take adjectives | The forest smelt damp. The guide sounded calm. (not damply, calmly) |
| The same verb as an action takes an adverb | She looked careful (appearance) / She looked carefully at the track (action). |
| Flat adverbs and changes of meaning | hard (with effort) / hardly (almost not); late / lately (recently); near / nearly (almost) |
Worked example
From flat to precise: rewriting a sentence
Flat: "There was a lot of very thick white mist in the valleys and it looked really nice."
Precise: "Mist lay in the valleys like milk poured into a bowl." Ten words instead of seventeen, and a picture instead of a verdict.
Worked example
Analysing the passage's choices
Warning
Practice
Sources and credits
