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> Parts of Speech

  Subjective Noun (-or)
  Subjective Adjective (-ax)
  Objective Noun (-endus)
> Objective Adjective (-abilis)
  Present Participle (-ens)
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  Supine (-tum)
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  An Example

Objective Adjective (-abilis)

The objective adjective (yet another made-up name) is an adjective that describes things that can be the object of a verb. From the verb “traho”, “I pull”, for example, we get, via the supine “tractum”, the adjective “tractabilis”, which in English becomes “tractable”, “can be pulled”.

The objective adjective often uses the suffix “-ibilis”, which of course becomes “-ible” in English. Here are some examples.

navigoI sail acrossnavigabilisnavigable
horreoI dreadhorribilishorrible
credoI believecredibiliscredible
 
edoI eatedibilisedible
tangoI touchtangibilistangible
fungorI performfungibilisfungible

I'm going to keep the last three examples separate because they're not quite correct—the Latin subjective adjectives could be words, but, according to my dictionary, aren't.

The subjective noun and adjective have the same implication for how the action is performed. Is the same true of the objective noun and adjective? Not quite. The noun implies that the action should be performed, while the adjective implies only that it could be—compare “memorandum” and “memorable”.

 

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  Summary (Parts of Speech)

@ April (2002)