We have been talking about adjectives. An adjective modifies a noun by giving extra information about the noun.
I see a red balloon.
The blue car is driving too fast.
My friend has two dogs.
I might get lost in the huge house.
In each of these sentences, the adjective comes right before the noun that it modifies.
What kind of balloon? A red balloon.
Which car? The blue car.
How many dogs? Two dogs.
What kind of house? A huge house.
In a sentence, we usually find the adjective just before the noun.
However, sometimes the adjective is separated from the noun that it is modifying. Look at these examples:
My mom is hard-working.
My dad is handsome.
My toy is broken.
The party was fun.
We have a hard-working mom, a handsome dad, a broken toy, and a fun party.
Hark-working, handsome, broken, and fun are all adjectives, but in these sentences, the adjective is separated from the noun. The verb is or was comes in between the noun and the adjective.
When you see a sentence structured like this, be aware that the word at the end of the sentence is still an adjective. It still modifies the noun. An adjective like this, separated from the noun, is called a predicate adjective.
Why do we call it a predicate adjective? Predicate is another word for verb, and the adjective after the verb is or was finishes off the predicate. It helps that sentence to make sense.
If we say My mom is, we technically have a sentence, but the sentence doesn’t make much sense. We don’t know what Mom is.
Finish off the sentence with an adjective so that we can understand.
My mom is nice.
My mom is pretty.
The predicate adjective finishes off the predicate so that the sentence makes sense.
Remember – sometimes an adjective is not right before the noun. Sometimes the adjective is after the verb is or was. We call that a predicate adjective.