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Home > Articles > English lessons > Adjectives and their position in a sentence

Adjectives and their position in a sentence

14th January 2019 by Andrew 4 Comments

Adjectives describe nouns. In fact we say that adjectives modify nouns. Adjectives give us more information about a noun.

Example:
Mark and Jane are carrying a heavy chair.

red chair
by Ambro | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

(The adjective “heavy” is describing the noun “chair“. It gives us more information about the chair by indicating its weight.)

The form of the adjective is the same for singular nouns and plural nouns. In English, there is no “agreement” between a noun and an adjective. This is very different to many other European languages, like French for example.


Examples:
Jane is holding a red apple. correct

red apple
There are some red apples on the plate. correct
There are some reds apples on the plate. wrong

Position of adjectives

Broadly speaking, there are 2 types of position in a sentence for adjectives:

Before a noun (attributive position)

Examples:
There is a small dog in the garden.
I have some new shoes.

After link verbs (predicative position)

Examples of link verb: appear, be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, taste.

Example sentences:
The car is old.
Jane is feeling cold.
The flower smells nice.

Adjectives after a link verb function as a subject complement. This means that the adjective after the linking verb is giving us more information about the subject of the sentence.

Most adjectives are used in both positions.
Certain adjectives are used only in the attributive position.
Certain adjectives are used only in the predicative position.

Adjectives that are used only before the noun

elder, eldest, live, main

These adjectives are used only before the noun (attributive position):

Examples:
My elder sister is a teacher. correct
There is a live fish in the aquarium. correct
I crossed the main road. correct

These adjectives are not used after a link verb (predicative position):
My sister is elder. wrong
The fish seems live. wrong
The road is main. wrong

Adjectives used only after a link verb

afraid, alone, ashamed, asleep, awake

These adjectives are used only after a link verb (predicative position)

Examples:
He seems afraid. correct
She is alone for Christmas. correct
He feels ashamed. correct
The baby is asleep. correct
She is awake. correct

These adjectives are not used before the noun (attributive position)
The afraid man…. wrong
The alone woman….. wrong
The ashamed man… wrong
The asleep baby….. wrong
The awake girl….. wrong

After “find” / “make” / “keep” + object

The adjective is placed at the end of the following structure as shown:

“find” or “make” or “keep” + object + adjective

Examples:
He found the article interesting.
Alcohol makes him tired.
man alcohol

Coffee keeps me awake.

The adjective functions as an object complement. This means that the adjective is giving us more information about the object of the sentence.

Adjectives are always placed after certain words

Adjectives always go after (not before) these words:

anything, everything, nothing, something
anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere
anybody, everybody, nobody, somebody

Examples:
Did you do anything exciting yesterday?
I want to go somewhere quiet.
There wasn’t anybody famous at the party.

Adjectives without nouns

“the” + adjective

We use the expression “the” + adjective to describe certain groups of people.
The meaning is general. We are generalising.
The expression is always plural in meaning. We are referring to all members of the group.

Example: The unemployed
The unemployed think that the government is ignoring them.

“the unemployed” is referring to all unemployed people. Notice the form of the verb “think” – It is in the third person plural form because “the unemployed” is considered to be plural.

More examples:
the blind
the dead
the deaf
the disabled
the old
the poor
the rich
the unemployed

Example:
Mark often gives money to the poor.

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Comments

  1. Mobom Nyorak says

    14th January 2019 at 6:01 pm

    Andrew, you’re really a great teacher and i really like the way you teach us. I watched almost all your lessions on Youtube. Can i get PDF form of all your lessions.

    Reply
  2. Md.Ali says

    20th August 2019 at 2:45 pm

    Outstanding

    Reply
    • Luke says

      14th April 2020 at 1:24 pm

      Hello sir,
      Thank you so much.

      Reply
  3. Aiguee says

    13th December 2021 at 3:54 pm

    Thank you very much for the articles!

    Reply

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