Dr. H.

Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

CHAPTER 7
ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS

Specific instructional aims

Students are able to understand and describe the function of adjective and
adverb correctly.

Sub topics
adjectives (adjective of quality, adjective of quantity, possessive
adjective, article adjective, verbal adjective)

adverb (adverb qualifying verbs, adverb qualifying adjectives, adverb

qualifying other adverbs)

Adjective
An adjective (from Latin adiicere, add to) is a class of words that is used to
modify or explain a noun or pronoun. In general, an adjective comes before the
noun or pronoun it modifies, but sometimes it occurs after the noun or pronoun
(following a verb to be). There are several types of adjective, i.e. adjective of
quality, adjective of quantity, possessive adjective, article adjective, and verbal
adjective.

Adjective of quality

Adjective of quality is an adjective that is used to describe the quality of a

noun or pronoun.

Examples:
1. Hot chilli pepper is more expensive than sweet chilli pepper during the past
three years.
2. Farmers in Kayu Aro are growing new potato variety.
3. The big bunch of banana is produced by plants growing on fertile soil.
4. Many of tropical crops originated from South Asia and Central Asia.
5. Cacti grow abundantly in arid soils of a desert.

32
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

Adjective of quantity

Adjective of quality is an adjective that is used to describe the quantity of a

noun or pronoun. These are: many, much, some, a few, several, various, a
number of, a little, one, two, three, a hundred, one thousand, etc.

Examples:
1. There are five mangosteen in the basket.
2. Some farmers are discussing the irrigation system in the village.
3. Most of Indonesian farmers are poor and uneducated.
4. Many of tropical crops originated from South Asia and Central Asia.
5. Agricultural students will take a field trip to Bangko in a few days.

Possessive adjective

Possessive adjective is an adjective that shows a possession of

something by someone or by other thing. These include: my, our, your, his,
her, their, its, my uncles, Rudis, etc.

Examples:
1. Our farms are located around the village.
2. We want to see her tobacco crops attacked by TMV virus.
3. Budis father is driving his new tractor.
4. Your garden looks very beautiful.
5. They are using the planting equipments of their own.

Article adjective

Article adjective is an adjective indicating the article of something. There

include: a, an, the, this, these, that and those.

Examples:
1. The technical irrigation system increases rice production by three times.
2. I dont want to eat those mangoes because they are too sour.
3. Do you want to bring these strawberries home?
4. Jono is going to rent a hand tractor.
5. My father is an agricultural extension officer.

33
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

Verbal adjective

Verbal adjective is an adjective derived from a verb. There are two types
of verbal adjective: 1) in the form of present participle (-ing form), and 2) in the
form of past participle (-ed form).

Examples:
1. The drying method of wet paddy using solar energy is much cheaper than
using machine.
2. Farmers in Australia use harvesting machine to pick up their mango fruits.
3. On an irrigated field we may have three times rice planting a year.
4. An effective way of preventing plant pest and disease is by applying blended
chemicals.
5. An improved rice variety will allow farmers to obtain better production.

Adverb
Adverb (Latin: adverbium) has several functions, i.e. it explains verbs,
explains adjectives, and explains other adverbs or the entire grammatical
constructions. In general, an adverb is formed by adding ly to an adjective,
such as simultaneous simultaneously, active actively, and high highly.
However, there are some words ended with ly but functioning as adjectives,
such as early, neighborly, ad wifely. On the other hand, words such as: very,
much, many, little, few, so, too, often, always, seldom, and there, which are not
ended with ly are adverbs. There are also some words that can function as an
adjective in one time, and also function as an adverb in other time, such as:
long, fast, good, etc. Observe the following examples.

Adverbs qualifying verbs

1. The potatoes in the two plots are fertilized simultaneously.
(simultaneously is an adverb qualifying the verb fertilized).
2. Virus disease seriously damage hot peppers grown in Pal Merah.
(seriously is an adverb qualifying the verb damage).
3. Jono is spraying the pesticide carefully.
(carefully is an adverb qualifying the verb spraying.

34
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

4. The golden snail can be easily eradicated by using appropriate chemicals.

(easily is an adverb qualifying the verb eradicated).
5. The use of foliar fertilizer significantly increase crop production.
(significantly is an adverb qualifying the verb increase).

Adverbs qualifying adjective

1. The petals of Dendrobium are easily bruised due to hot temperature.
(easily is an adverb qualifying the adjective bruised).
2. The effect of plant growth regulators is highly significant on the growth of
single-node cutting of pepper.
(highly is an adverb qualifying the adjective significant).
3. The production of Crude Palm Oil in Jambi is extremely low during the past
two years.
(extremely is an adverb qualifying the adjective low).
4. Growing vegetables is as equally important as growing food crops.
(equally is an adverb qualifying the adjective important).
5. The price of imported seeds is very expensive.
(very is an adverb qualifying the adjective expensive).

Adverbs qualifying other adverb

1. Joko explains the method of vegetative plant propagation extremely well.
(extremely is an adverb qualifying the adverb well).
2. Citrus crops are very often attacked by virus diseases.
(very is an adverb qualifying the adverb often).
3. So many people are interested in growing medicinal crops for their own use.
(so is an adverb qualifying the adverb many).
4. You will get stomach ache if you drink too much coconut water.
(too is an adverb qualifying the adverb much).
5. There are quite few farmers in our village planting new rice variety.
(quite is an adverb qualifying the adverb few).

35
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

Words ended with ly but function as adjectives

1. Farmers are early grower.
(early is an adjective qualifying the noun grower).
2. Women should not neglect their wifely duties.
(wifely is an adjective qualifying the noun duties).
3. We went to a lovely garden near the town hall.
(lovely is an adjective qualifying the noun garden).
4. They put the potato tubers in orderly packages.
(orderly is an adjective qualifying the noun packages).
5. Mr. Hasan is a fatherly teacher in our school.
(fatherly is an adjective qualifying the noun teacher).

Words that can function as adjectives or adverbs

1. We have a long trip to oil palm plantation in Sibolga.
(long is an adjective qualifying the noun trip).
2. Father wants me to stay in the farm as long as I can.
(long is an adverb qualifying the modal verb can).
3. Good crop maintenance will result in high production.
(good is an adjective qualifying the noun crop maintenance).
4. I cant do seed sowing as good as you do.
(good is an adverb qualifying the verb cant do).
5. Aisah is a fast fruit picker.
(fast is an adjective qualifying the noun fruit picker).
6. Aisah picked up the tomatoes very fast.
(fast is an adverb qualifying the verb pick up).

Students activity
The following passage contains adjectives and adverbs you have just
learned. Read the text carefully, and identify the adjectives and adverbs used in
the passage.

36
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

The Swainsona formosa plant

Swainsona formosa is one of Australias native plants, and is one of the worlds most
spectacular flowering plants. The outstanding feature of S. formosa is its brilliant-colored
flowers, from white or pink through to dark red standard and keel with or without a distinctive
boss.

The great potential of S. formosa is as a container-grown ornamental, either in a flowering pot or

hanging basket, or as a cut flower. With ideal growing conditions and intensive plant care, S.
formosa can also be spectacular used as a garden ornamental. The commercialization of S.
formosa for the cut flower market is quite flexible. It can be marketed either as individual,
single-stemmed flower clusters or as multiple clusters on a leafy branch. Asian markets,
particularly Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, are a potential destination for trade in S. formosa.

However, the commercialization of S. formosa as a cut flower is subject to a number of

limitations. In addition to color variations, stem length and the number of blooms per cluster,
another impediment to commercialization of S. formosa as a cut flower is the production of large
amounts of pollen in the flowers. This brings about a reduction in flower quality due to petal
staining by the pollen grains that are shed during transportation. In addition, during
transportation pollination may occur, resulting in the rapid degeneration of pollinated flowers and
thus reduction in the vase-life of the flowers. Flowers of S. formosa start to senesce on the plant
within 2 - 3 days after effective pollination. Unpollinated flowers, on the other hand, will remain
fresh on the plant for 5 10 days. This indicates that avoiding pollination will increase the vase-
life of harvested flowers.

Research on the breeding of S. formosa has been conducted with the emphasis on the
production of male-sterile flowers. Two strategies have been used, an in vitro technique aimed
at producing haploid plants and an in vivo technique aimed at producing triploid plants. Both
haploid and triploid plants are sterile because where there is an odd number of chromosome
sets reproductive fertility is usually impaired. This is because during meiosis the normal pairing
of chromosomes cannot properly take place since one set of chromosomes has no homologous
set with which to pair, and so gametes fail to form.

This review begins with the discussion on the significance of male-sterility, particularly in
ornamental plants. A number of factors affecting male-sterility in plants are then reviewed. The
potential of ploidy modification for crop improvement is described and the methods used in
modifying ploidy level, including haploidysation via anther culture and chromosomes doubling by
the use of chemicals, are discussed. Plant embryology as a fundamental aspect in plant
breeding is also reviewed and discussed with particular emphasis in legumes.

(Source: Zulkarnain. 2003. Breeding Strategies in Sturts Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa
(G.Don) J.Thompson) Using In Vitro and In Vivo Techniques. PhD Thesis. The University of
New England, Armidale, Australia).

37
 Dr. H. Zulkarnain: English for Students in Agriculture (PNU 122): A Resource Book

Vocabulary list

arid = keadaan kering (seperti di gurun)

bruised = memar
bunch = ikatan (bunga, sayur, dll).
cacti = kaktus
chilli pepper = cabe (lombok)
coconut water = air kelapa
crop maintenance = pemeliharaan tanaman
cutting = penyetekan (dari kata setek)
Dendrobium = anggrek genus Dendrobium
Dendrobium Golden Shower = jenis anggrek Dendrobium hibrid
eradicate = eradikasi (pemusnahan)
fruit picker = pemetik buah
mangoes = mangga
mangosteen = manggis
medicinal crops = tanaman obat-obatan
petals = daun mahkota bunga
plant growth regulator = zat pengatur tumbuh
plots = petak percobaan
potato tubers = umbi kentang
seed sowing = penaburan benih
single-node = nodus tunggal (satu nodus/satu huku)
strawberries = tanaman stroberi
TMV virus = virus TMV (Tomato Mosaic Virus)
vegetatif plant propagation = perbanyakan tanaman secara vegetatif

38