Complements #4: Modifiers (Punctuating Adjective & Adverbs) Video Lecture | Learn and Master: Business Writing - Communication

in this next segment we're going to talk
about the a part of Mad modifier rules
so remember there are three rules under
compliment that teach us how to
appropriately use modifiers right now
we're going to talk about adjectives and
adverbs and how to correctly use them in
our sentence well first of all we have
to understand the difference between an
adjective and an adverb
so first of all adjectives we need to
understand what exactly adjectives and
modify adjectives can modify to things
they can modify nouns and they can
modify pronouns so in this case I bought
a blue book my adjective is the word
blue blue is modifying my noun book so
now let's talk about adverbs
you
so I love adverbs adverbs are cool words
why are they so cool because adverbs can
modify more things than adjectives
remember adjectives modify two things
adverbs are the only words that can
modify other adverbs adjectives and
verbs they just modify more things so
let's look at this sentence and try to
identify some of those people get
confused because they go do I have
multiple adjectives in here well the
reality is if you've got a word
modifying another adjective it's going
to be an adverb so here again I have I
bought a very blue book remember blue is
my adjective modifying book and in this
case berry is my adverb and very I know
it's an adverb because it's modifying
the word blue now there's another rule
related to adjectives and adverbs and it
deals with hyphens sometimes we can use
a hyphen to create a special type of
modifier known as a hyphenated compound
adjectives and I want to tell you what a
hyphenated compound adjective looks like
you
okay this is a very common sentence that
we see in business writing the small
business owner attended a conference you
might look at this and go that sentence
looks great we've got an owner of a
small business who went to the
conference but actually what this
sentence is telling you is that you have
a little tiny business owner who
attended a conference and the reason
that the sentence says that is because
currently I have the word owner and it's
being modified by the word business
which is being um and owner is also
being modified by the word small now in
fact if I were trying to say that I had
a little business owner who was
attending the conference I would need to
put in a comma right here if I were to
put in a comment that would tell me that
I'm dealing with two adjectives two
adjectives and that those adjectives are
both in fact modifying this noun now
when I link two adjectives or when I
have two adjectives before a noun with a
comma it means those adjectives are of
equal strength and I can switch them so
if I really in fact we're trying to say
but there was a little business owner
attending the conference
I could switch these to say the business
and small owner the business small owner
attended the conference now it sounds
weird because in fact I'm not trying to
say that what am I trying to say I'm
trying to say that the small business
owner
meaning it's an owner of a small
business attended the conference so how
can I link these two adjectives together
well they can't do it on their own an
adjective on its own can't modify
another adjective but I can link them
with a hyphen
so now if I put in a hyphen and I make
this a compound adjective this whole
entire adjective is modifying the word
owner let me give you another example to
help illustrate why clarity around
adjectives and - use is very important -
meaning
so I'm on a business trip out on the
Oregon coast and I see a blue gray whale
well is this a gray gray well that's
kind of blue or is this a blue gray
colored whale or is this a blue and gray
whale well what I saw and how I
communicate that to you is going to be
shaped by how I punctuate this sentence
right now this sentence is telling me
that I have a gray whale which is a
coordinate noun meaning unused
to nouns to make one noun gray whale is
its own word and that gray whale is blue
so it's called a grade well but it's
blue now here's what happens if I put in
a comment so putting in a comma tells me
that again I have two adjectives and
they are of equal strength and because I
put in the comma I know that they're
interchangeable so now suddenly I have a
whale that is both blue and gray it's
sort of spotted it's blue and gray or I
could say I saw the gray comma blue
whale it's a whale that's both blue and
gray well we have one more option
because remember we can take two
adjectives and we can link them together
with a hyphen and let's see what happens
when we do that
you
okay so now when I put in a hyphen
between blue and gray remembers a - lets
this adjective describe this adjective
so now what I'm saying is that this is
the whale that's a bluish gray so blue
because I've got the - there is
describing gray and I've created one
whole hyphenated compound adjectives
that's describing the word whale so when
you're looking at the sentences remember
that you need to evaluate what is the
word modifying and if if the word is
modifying if both of the adjectives are
modifying this you put in a comment if
the adjective is modifying this
adjective you put in a hyphen