Adjectives and noun modifiers in English article

By Kerry G Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield

Type: Reference material
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An article by Kerry Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield covering ways to approach
teaching adjectives.
Introduction Position of adjectives Position: attributive only Position: predicative only
Position: immediately after noun Position and meaning Adjective complementation
Order of adjectives
Introduction
The book critic R. Z Sheppard once remarked that adjectives are the potbelly of
poetry. Many English language teachers would not take such a disparaging view.
Adjectives are often quite fun to teach and the rules surrounding them are, usually,
quite straightforward. This months article is the first of two in which we throw the
spotlight on adjectives. We start by looking at adjectives in relation to the wider
phrasal structures they occur in, examining issues of position, complementation, and
ordering.
When we want to give more information than can be provided by using a noun alone,
we can add an adjective to identify a person or thing, or describe them in more
detail, e.g.:
her new dress
a kind person
the phonetic alphabet
accuracy is important
Note that sometimes nouns can be placed before other nouns as a way of identifying
a particular type of person or thing, e.g.:
a chocolate cake
the football player
Nouns used in this way are usually referred to as noun modifiers. Though they are
functioning in a similar way to some adjectives, we classify them as nouns.
Examples like this are often referred to as compound nouns, with the first noun
identifying a particular type in relation to the group of people or things described by
the second noun.In the following article, we will focus on true adjectives, rather than
noun modifiers.

Position of adjectives
Most adjectives can appear before a noun as part of a noun phrase, placed after
determiners or numbers if there are any, and immediately before the noun, e.g.:

She had a beautiful smile

He bought two brown bread rolls.
Adjectives placed before a noun in this way are generally referred to as occurring in
the attributive position.
Most adjectives can also occur as complements of the verb be and other link verbs
such as become, feel or seem, e.g.:
Her smile is beautiful
She didnt seem happy
Adjectives placed after the verb in this way are generally referred to as occurring in
the predicative position.
When the information contained in an adjective is not the main focus of a statement,
then the adjective is usually placed before the noun in the attributive position.
However, when the main focus of a statement is to give the information contained in
an adjective, the adjective is usually placed after the verb in the predicative position,
compare:
He handed me a bucket of hot water. (attributive position)
I put my hand in the bucket, the water was very hot. (predicative position,
emphasising hot.)
Though most adjectives can be used in both the attributive and predicative positions,
there are a number of adjectives that can occur in one particular position only, as
described below:
Position: attributive only
There are some adjectives which can only be used before a noun, in the attributive
position. For instance, we talk about the main problem but cannot say, the problem
was main.
Adjectives which occur only in the attributive position are generally those which
identify something as being of a particular type. For instance, we can talk about a
financial decision where financial distinguishes this from other types of decision, e.g.:
medical, political. This group of adjectives are often referred to as classifying
adjectives, and rarely occur in the predicative position unless we specifically want to
emphasise a contrast, e.g.:
a chemical reaction not, e.g.: a reaction which was/is chemical
the phonetic alphabet not, e.g.: the alphabet is phonetic
It was an indoor pool. not, e.g.: The pool was indoor
Other adjectives which generally appear in the attributive position are those which
are used for emphasis, e.g.:
The show was absolute/utter rubbish.
You made me look a complete fool.

The project was a total disaster.

Position: predicative only
There are some adjectives which only usually occur in the predicative position, as
complements of be or other link verbs. For instance, you can say He felt glad. but
wouldnt normally talk about a glad person.
Adjectives which usually occur in the predicative position include those which
describe feelings, such as afraid, content, glad, ready, sure, sorry and upset, e.g.:
She felt afraid. but not, e.g.: an afraid girl
My daughter is upset. but not, e.g.: my upset daughter
They also include a group of adjectives with prefix a-, such as asleep, alive, alone,
ashamed, awake, aware, e.g.:
I like being alone. but not, e.g.: I like being an alone person.
The babys asleep. but not, e.g.: the asleep baby.
Position: immediately after noun
Some adjectives that describe size or age can occur immediately after a noun that
indicates a unit of measurement, e.g.:
She was about five feet tall
Her baby is ten months old.
The walls were six inches thick.
There is a small group of adjectives, sometimes referred to as post nominal
adjectives, which can only occur immediately after a noun. Examples are:
the president elect
the devil incarnate
Many other adjectives can be used immediately after a noun when they form part of
a (reduced) relative clause, e.g.:
Lets use the time available.
Is she someone capable of making difficult decisions?
Id like to speak to all the people involved.
Position and meaning
There are some adjectives which can occur either before or after a noun, but the
position they occur in has an effect on their meaning, e.g.:
the concerned parents (= the parents who are worried)
the parents concerned (= the parents who are involved/mentioned)
the present situation (= the situation which exists now)
the people present (= the people who are here/there).
a responsible person (= a person who is sensible/reliable)
the person responsible (= the person who is to blame or has responsibility for
something)

Adjective complementation
When adjectives occur in the predicative position, after be or other link verbs, they
are sometimes followed by a prepositional phrase or verbal complement. Some
typical examples are summarised in the table below:
pattern
typical adjectives
example
Adjective + of
aware, proud, capable
She was proud of her son.
Adjective + to
kind, sensitive, similar, equal
Her house is similar to mine.
Adjective + with
angry, impatient, honest I felt angry with him.
Adjective + on
keen, gentle, dependent Hes totally dependent on his
parents.
Adjective + ininterested, disappointed Were not interested in selling our house.
Adjective + about pleased, glad, anxious
She was anxious about the results.
Adjective + to-infinitive
difficult, easy, ready The book was easy to read.
Adjective + that-clause
worried, confident, sure
Im confident that shell
succeed.
Adjective + wh-clause
unsure, uncertain He was uncertain what to do next.
Adjective + -ing
busy, silly, awkward Theyre busy painting the kitchen.
Order of adjectives
Adjectives describing the main characteristics of a person or thing are often grouped
together before the noun they describe, e.g.:
a beautiful young woman
a large round table
Two or three descriptive adjectives are often used together in this way, though note
that placing more than three adjectives before a noun would start to sound unnatural,
e.g.:
a beautiful wooden table
sounds fine, but a structure like:
a beautiful large round carved wooden table
though grammatical, would not normally occur in everyday speech or
writing.Descriptive adjectives used in this way belong to seven main types. The table
below summarises the types and the usual order in which they appear if more than
one adjective is placed before a noun:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
opinion size age shape colour origin material
lovely big old triangular white Italian wooden
For example, if you wanted to use an adjective referring to size and an adjective
referring to shape, you would put the size adjective first, e.g.:

a large round table

Similarly, an age adjective would normally be placed before an origin adjective, e.g.:
a young Italian woman
An opinion adjective would occur before a shape or colour adjective, and a shape or
colour adjective would occur before a material adjective, e.g.:
a beautiful green silk dress
If two colour adjectives are used, then and is placed between them, e.g.:
She was wearing a long black and gold scarf.
If three colour adjectives occur, a comma is placed after the first and the last two are
linked with and, e.g.:
The table was covered by a large red, white and blue flag.
As a general rule, the adjective which is closest to the noun is the most closely linked
to the meaning of the noun, describing a feature which is the most permanent about
it, compared to adjectives which express a variable characteristic, such as an
opinion. For instance, if we consider:
an expensive/cheap/beautiful black leather bag
the leather-ness of the bag is a more essential characteristic than cost or
appearance.
If more than one adjective occurs which expresses an opinion or describes a general
quality, then the adjective with a more general meaning, e.g.: nice, bad usually
precedes the one with a more specific meaning, e.g.: comfortable, clean, for
example:
a lovely soft blanket
If two adjectives with similar meanings are used, the shorter one often comes first,
e.g.:
a soft comfortable pillow
The conjunction but is sometimes placed between two adjectives which describe
contrasting qualities, e.g.:
a difficult but rewarding job
The order of adjectives in predicative position, i.e.: after the verb be or link verbs
such as seem or feel, is less fixed than the order before a noun. The conjunction and
is generally used to link adjectives in this position, occurring before the last adjective
used, e.g.:
The room was small and dirty.
He felt cold, wet and hungry.
Adjectives expressing opinion are often placed last, e.g.:
Annabel was young, tall and beautiful.
If we want to imply a contrast between adjectives, the conjunction but is sometimes
used, e.g.:

Anchor Point:bottomThe flat was small but comfortable.

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