Describers and classifiers

There are actually a couple of types of adjectives—we can call them describers and classifiers. Luckily the names make total sense!

  • Describers are the types of words that usually come to mind when we think of adjectives: words like hot, cold, red, brown, dusty... these are all describers.
  • Classifiers, on the other hand, classify things into classes, categories or groups: police car, race car, sports car, electric car... 

The next snippet has a handful of each type of adjective. Can you spot them?

Snotlout was good at everything and a natural leader. Dogsbreath was as tall as his father and could do amusing things like farting to the tune of the Berk national anthem.

Let's rewrite this snippet, replacing only the describers. (We'll leave the classifiers alone for now.) 

Also, we want to replace the describers with other describers, not with classifiers!

Snotlout was splendid at everything and a gracious leader. Dogsbreath was as foul as his father and could do grotesque things like farting to the tune of the Berk national anthem.

If you're ever confused about whether an adjective is a describer or classifier, you can test it really quickly by putting it in front of the phrase '...and sweaty cow'. If your adjective still makes sense, then it's a describer.

For example, let's test a few adjectives:

  • good and sweaty cow
  • An amusing and sweaty cow
  • A natural and sweaty cow

Those ones all work, so they're all describers. You might think they sound better without 'and', sure, but they still make sense and feel okay.

Now what if we try doing it with a classifier?

  • French and sweaty cow
  • police and sweaty cow

These ones just... don't really make sense written this way. A sweaty French cow is a sweaty cow from France. But what's a French and sweaty cow?  A sweaty police cow is self explanatory, but what's a police and sweaty cow?

These combinations don't make as much sense, which is a clue that the adjectives are classifiers. 

Write your own version of the snippet above and change only the describers.