Qualifiers in Writing- Definition and Examples

Time qualifiers

Qualifiers of time indicate the frequency in which an action occurs.

Examples of time qualifiers are: often, sometimes, rarely, and usually.

Relative quality qualifiers

Qualifiers of relative quality indicate how much something or someone exists or how it is, compared to others.

Examples of relative quality qualifiers are smallest, most, and least.

Quantity qualifiers

These are called numerals, and they qualify nouns or verbs. They show how many members of a group or how much of something is being described.

Examples of quantity qualifiers are three, several, all, some, none.

Other examples of qualifiers are: barely, just, nearly, practically, seemingly.

Sentence examples for other qualifiers:

• I could barely hear the song.

Here, barely is a qualifier that intensifies the meaning of hear by describing it as weak.

• The party is nearly over.

Here, the qualifier nearly intensifies the meaning of over by describing it as being almost done.

• His behavior is practically perfect.

In this sentence, ‘practically’ intensifies the meaning of ‘perfect’ by describing it as practical.

Overusing qualifiers

Certain qualifiers will water down your work if you overuse or necessarily use them. This is because qualifiers are used when something is not clear or when you want to enhance the meaning of a noun. When overused, they will make your writing too wordy or repetitive.

In the first sentence, very is overused because it does not need to be there. The word new already indicates a high level of freshness.

In the second sentence, you can use ‘intelligent‘ instead of ‘very bright.‘ This way, you won’t need the qualifier ‘very’ since ‘intelligent’ is enough to describe the students.

If you overuse qualifiers, you’ll come off as an incompetent writer, and your audience will not enjoy your content.

Participial phrases/clauses as qualifiers

Participial phrases or participial clauses are also considered qualifiers. They start with a present participle form of a verb, and they usually end with a noun or pronoun. A participial phrase is a word group that can be used as an adjective or adverb to increase the quality signified by a noun or verb.

Examples of participial phrases are: Confused by the movie’s abrupt ending, the audience members shuffled out of the theater.

Participial phrases can be placed at the beginning, in the middle of a sentence, or at the end. These phrases and clauses are used as qualifiers because they give more information to the sentence. They can be used as adjectives or adverbs or as nouns.

A sentence with participial phrases or clauses as qualifiers:

• The woman walking toward the church was late for her son’s wedding.

Here, walking is a present participle verb that is used as an adjective to describe the woman.