When we communicate we have the need to transmit information of a quantitative nature. For this we resort to a form of adjectives, the numerals. These are divided into five distinct subgroups: cardinal, ordinal, proportional, partitive, and distributive. Like any other adjective, these have the function of accompanying the noun.
The noun by itself does not communicate complete information, since it needs some kind of specific specification.
A brief tour of the different numeral adjectives
The cardinal numerals are those that we use to count and mention concrete and complete quantities. We say that we have "two problems" or that "we have bought four books." The numeral adjective one is altered in the form of an apocope when it precedes a noun (we do not say a friend but a friend), but in feminine there is no such alteration.
The words both-as also belong to this category and serve to specify something about two people or things (both houses are expensive or both professionals work with us).
Ordinal numerals serve to indicate the order or position related to something. We say "the third runner is the favorite" or "the fifth volume is the most interesting".
The proportional numerals indicate the number of times it contains a certain amount (I earn twice as much as she or I managed to save three times as much as last year).
Partitive numerals indicate how many parts a unit is divided into (I have half the pie or a third of the population is underage).
Distributive numerals are rarely used and they refer to the fact that one thing corresponds to another. By saying "the two came with weapons in their hands" we are affirming that each of the two people had a weapon.
Recapping
The different numeral adjectives provide information that can be quantified in some sense. Thus, we can know the number of something, its position, how many parts it is divided into or how many times it is multiplied.
Other adjectives
In addition to numerals, there are other categories of adjectives:
- demonstrative (this, that, that), determinative (my or that),
- qualifiers (good, nice or cheap), possessive (mine, yours, his),
- undefined (some, many or many), exclamatory (how many or how many),
- relational (they are those that express a direct relationship of something in relation to something else, for example "it was a very familiar encounter"),
- and interrogatives (those that accompany a noun as a question, like what or what).
Fotolia photos: sebra / rukanoga
