Question

Say which class the underlined adjective belongs to:

Every man has his duties.

• A. Adjective of Quality
• B. Indefinite Numeral Adjective
• C. Definite Numeral Adjective
• D. Distributive Numeral Adjective

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

Distributive Numeral Adjective

Definite Numeral Adjectives consist of ordinal and cardinal numbers. They tell us the exact number of the noun. Indefinite Numeral Adjectives tell us a tentative numeral idea of the noun. Since 'every' is neither a number nor a tentative numeral idea or quantity, Options B and C are incorrect. 'Every' is a Distributive Numeral Adjective, which means it denotes a singular number of a noun among many, over here, it talks about every man among all men. Hence Option D is correct. 'Every' describes a singular noun as part of a larger group, and not its kind or quality, hence option A is incorrect.