Describing a Noun
A common descriptive phrase names the thing first and then gives its quality.
How It Works
Color words such as pupa, ‘red’, and funfun, ‘white’, follow nouns. Established descriptive forms such as kékeré, ‘small’, and gíga, ‘tall’, also occur after nouns. Compare igi gíga, ‘a tall tree’, with igi ga, ‘the tree is tall’.
Learn the established attributive form rather than applying an unrestricted copying rule. In àwọn igi gíga, ‘tall trees’, plurality is explicit before the noun; the modifier does not acquire a gender or plural ending in this construction. Postnominal order is common rather than universal: the textbook also places certain association descriptors before nouns. Learn the attested descriptive word for each quality; this pattern does not supply an automatic new ending for every stem.
Examples (3)
- àpò pupa
A red bag (noun-phrase fragment).
Pupa follows àpò.
- fìlà funfun
A white cap (noun-phrase fragment).
Funfun follows fìlà.
- ilé kékeré
A small house (noun-phrase fragment).
Kékeré is the established descriptive form.
How It Connects
Related Patterns
Practice Describing a Noun in Bubblegum
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