The Adjective

[MichelleDE]

In the exercises at the end of the "adjective" section of Harvey's Elementary Grammar, p. 22, sentence #1 reads: "Both horses are lame."

"Both" is a definitive adj., and "lame" is a descriptive adj. according to the answer key. This makes sense to me.

However, on sentences #2 : "Ripe peaches are plentiful."
and #3: "Large houses are expensive."

only "Ripe" and "large" are listed as descriptive adjectives. What happened to "plentiful" and "expensive?" Are these not adjectives or is there a mistake in the answer key? I thought maybe they didn't want predicated adjectives, but that doesn't explain why "lame" would be acceptable in sentence #1.

Thanks for your help.

Michelle
who is doing better with Harvey's than expected but still looking forward to Christmas break.

[Lene in CO]

You are right. If lame is included, plentiful and expensive should be too. No bones about it.

Sadly I have found the Harvey answer keys to contain a number of mistakes here and there. This was particularly troublesome when my son and I got to Moods and had to deal with the difference between subjunctive and potential moods something utterly new to me. I disagreed with the answer key so many times I stopped using it and just went with my gut feeling... as well as looked up things on the web.

The Harvey answer key was written by Mott Media and is not Harvey's own. It was constructed over the last 10 years or so. Harvey, the precise meticulous man that he was, would probably turn in his grave if he knew.

Thanks for posting.

Lene