LoginAdjective Placement and Order
This article dives into the rules of adjective placement and order, like 'a small, round, wooden table'. Detailed explanations and a quiz to test your knowledge.
Where Are Adjectives Placed?
Adjectives can be categorized into two main groups based on whether they appear before a noun or after a verb: attributive adjectives and predicative adjectives. Predicative adjectives have a more fixed position in the sentence, but attributive adjectives are more flexible.
Attributive Adjectives
Attributive adjectives provide descriptive information about certain characteristics of a person, place, or object, such as its appearance, color, shape, size, age, origin, etc. For example:
The old man was smoking a pipe.
You are my favorite person in the whole world.
Attributive Adjectives: Placement
Based on whether they appear before or after the noun they are modifying, attributive adjectives can be categorized as:
Pre-positive Adjectives
Post-positive Adjectives
Pre-positive Adjectives
'Pre' means before. So, as the name suggests, pre-positive adjectives can only appear before the noun they modify.
She is such a smart lady!
He is obviously a nice guy.
Post-positive Adjectives
It is possible for attributive adjectives to come after the noun or, more commonly, the indefinite pronoun they modify. Because of this placement, we call them postpositive adjectives or postnominal adjectives.
We need someone powerful.
Postpositive adjectives mainly appear after indefinite pronouns.
I saw something extraordinary.
In English, postpositive adjectives are less common. They are used in archaic or poetic texts, phrases borrowed from Roman or Latin, and some fixed grammatical structures. Here are some examples:
I watched the demons dark and wicked.
heir apparent
those anxious to leave
Tip!
All adjectives can be used postpositively after this/that/so. These adverbs show the degree of the adjective by forming the structure:
(a/an) + noun + this/that/so + adjective
Who would wear a hat this big?
Buy me a painting that expensive and then we're even!
Predicative Adjectives
A predicative adjective (also called predicate adjective) follows a linking verb. These adjectives can take an adjective complement after them or appear alone. Predicative adjectives have a fairly fixed position in the sentence. For example:
That baby is cute.
I tried not to be afraid of the dark.
Attributive Adjective Order
Adjectives are used to assign specific qualities or descriptions to nouns. However, when assigning more than one quality to a noun, there is a specific order in which the adjectives should appear. This order is normally important when the adjectives appear as a series, one after another. When the adjectives are coordinated using "and" or commas, their order becomes less important.
Opinion and evaluation: beautiful, lovely, nice, strange, delicious, comfortable, friendly, etc.
Size and dimensions: big, small, tiny, tall, short, huge, enormous, gigantic, long, wide, etc.
Age: old, ancient, primeval, new, young, modern, fresh, current, contemporary, etc.
Shape and weight: round, triangular, square, angular, curved, heavy, fat, etc.
Color: blue, black, green, whitish, green, pale, dark, vibrant, fluorescent, etc.
Origin: American, German, Mexican, foreign, marine, oriental, native, etc.
Material: wooden, gold, plastic, ceramic, silver, metallic, wooly, etc.
Purpose: decorative, protective, recreational, therapeutic, sanitary, etc.
Now, let's look at an example. Note that it is not very common to use so many adjectives before a noun. This is just an example to show that it's theoretically possible:
beautiful small new shiny red Italian sports car
fancy big old round brown German wooden musical clock
In reality, it is more common to have one or two adjectives before a noun:
a big fat cat
a wooden decorative shelf
Tip!
Some adjectives describe a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun (such as nice, beautiful, lovely, strange, etc.). Other adjectives describe a specific opinion and can only describe particular kinds of nouns (such as "delicious" for food, "comfortable" for furniture, "intelligent" for people, etc.). When forming sentences, we use adjectives of general opinion before adjectives of specific opinion.
a lovely comfortable home
a nice friendly person
Modification
Adverbs, particularly adverbs of degree, can come before adjectives to modify them. When using multiple adjectives before a noun, the adverb can come before the first adjective to modify all the adjectives. However, when the adverb is intended to modify only one of the adjectives, it must appear immediately before it. Compare the examples:
Look at that really big old green antique car in front of the house!
She is a beautiful and really generous lady.
Here, "really" only modifies "generous."
You can also use a different adverb for each adjective:
They form a highly skilled but poorly managed team.
Review
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. Sometimes more than one adjective is used to describe different qualities of a noun. In this case, the adjectives must appear in a specific order:
Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Origin
Material
Purpose
A cute 3-year-old child. ( NOT A 3-year-old cute child.)
The red French silk sofa was placed behind the curtain. (NOT The French silk red sofa was placed behind the curtain.
Quiz:
Which sentence uses a predicative adjective?
The happy children played happily.
The soup tasted delicious.
A wooden table stood in the corner.
We need someone reliable for this task.
Match each sentence to the type of adjective placement.
Sort the words to make a correct sentence.
Put the adjectives in parentheses in the correct order.
She owns a(n)
,
,
bracelet." (antique / small / lovely)
They live in a(n)
,
house." (enormous / modern)
They drove a
car. (German / luxurious / sports)
We found a(n)
vase in the attic. (small / ceramic / antique)
Which sentence correctly places the adverb to modify ONLY the second adjective?
She wore an incredibly elegant and stylish dress.
She wore an elegant and incredibly stylish dress.
She wore an incredibly elegant and incredibly stylish dress.
She wore an elegant and stylish incredible dress.
Comments
(0)
Recommended
