Adjective Placement
Adjective Placement
Adjective Placement
Order of adjectives
When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a
particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually
come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):
If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of
adjectives is:
Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which
included all these types would be extremely rare.
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.
And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a warm,
welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more adjectives of
the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:
Order of adjectives
When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a
particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually
come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):
If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of
adjectives is:
Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which
included all these types would be extremely rare.
She was a 1beautiful, 2tall, 3thin, 5young, 6black-haired, 7Scottish woman.
When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such as be (a linking verb), the
second last adjective is normally connected to the last adjective by and:
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.
And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a warm,
welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more adjectives of
the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:
Adjectives
de English Grammar Today
Adjectives are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs.
Examples of adjectives are: big, small, blue, old, rich and nice. They give us more
information about people, animals or things represented by nouns and pronouns:
She is tall.
See also:
Nouns
Pronouns
Meanings of adjectives
Adjectives give us more information. They modify or describe features and qualities of
people, animals and things.
The waiter was very polite. Descriptions of people and things in terms of their
actions.
Other examples:
Other examples:
examples meaning
organic (vegetables),
impressionist (painter), wild
(salmon)
See also:
Adjective phrases
Oppositeness
Most common adjectives are members of a pair of opposites (antonyms):
Small:
Hot:
One type of adjective is not gradable. These are the adjectives that we use to classify
people and things into types:
Warning:
Adjective phrases
de English Grammar Today
An adjective phrase always has an adjective acting as the head. The adjective phrase
may also contain words or phrases before or after the head (modifiers and
complements):
Adjective (head):
Some people weren’t willing to pay extra to book a seat on the plane.
When an adjective is used with a noun, the usual order in English is adjective + noun:
a yellow balloon
See also:
Adjective phrases
With numbers and with words like first, last, next, the usual order is first/next + number
+ adjective + noun:
When we use words like absolute, complete, perfect to talk about degree, they can only
be used before nouns. This group of adjectives includes proper, pure, real, sheer, true,
utter:
That’s an absolute lie. I did not use your car when you were away.
Some time and order adjectives, such as former, present, future, are used before the
noun only. Other examples are latter, old (an old friend = ‘a friend for many years’),
early (early French literature = ‘of the initial period in the history of something’), and
late (the late Mr Richards = ‘died recently’):
Her former husband had bought the house but she never liked it.
Not: This is a church from the Romanesque period. The Romanesque period was early.
When we use early after a verb (predicatively) it means something different. The train
was early means that it came before we expected it.
Adjectives like certain, main, major, only, particular limit the noun that they go before
(the only people who know, the particular road that we travelled on). Other examples
are principal, sole (meaning ‘only’), very, chief:
The main reason why the cinema closed is because the building was too old and
dangerous.
We can’t use adjectives with the prefix a- before a noun. We use them after linking
verbs such as be, seem, become, feel, smell, taste. Common examples of adjectives with
the prefix a- include awake, alive, asleep, aboard (on a plane, boat, bus or train), afloat,
ablaze (on fire):
The passengers were all aboard when they heard the loud bang.
If we want to express a similar meaning with an adjective in front of the noun, we can
use a related adjective.
Compare
Most commonly, the adjectives ill and well are used after a verb and not before a noun:
I feel ill.
Not: He went to visit his ill sister.
The major exception is the degree adverb enough, which goes after the adjective (a
postmodifier):
See also:
Enough
He had lost his usually calm attitude and become very nervous. (adverb of frequency +
adjective)
He made an insensitively timed remark that upset her. (comment adverb + adjective)
Before gradable adjectives, we can use words which show different degrees of the
feature in question. These are usually adverb phrases.
Some degree adverbs (so, too, as) need a word or phrase to complete their meaning (a
complement). The complement may be a clause or a phrase. The complement comes
after the adjective head.
Compare
The waves were so So is the degree adverb before the adjective high.
high that they went It needs the complement that they went onto the
onto the street! street in order to complete its meaning.
Too is the degree adverb before the adjective high.
The waves are too high to go
It needs the complement to go sailing in order to
sailing.
complete its meaning.
The waves are as high as the wall To say that things are the same, we use as +
in the winter. adjective + as + complement.
To compare two things which are different, we
The waves are higher than the wall
add the suffix -er to the adjective before the
in the winter.
complement.
How is used to ask questions and to make exclamations about degree. There is an
important difference in word order.
Compare
A question about degree:
How high are the waves?
how + adjective + verb + noun phrase?
An exclamation about degree:
How high the waves are!
how + adjective + noun phrase + verb!
Warning:
Some adjectives cannot be made bigger, smaller, higher, lower, stronger, weaker, etc.
These are called ungradable adjectives:
My dog is female.
The most common gradable adjectives can be grouped into pairs of opposites
(antonyms) which refer to features like height: short – tall; heat: hot – cold, size; big –
small, etc. These adjectives are at the upper and lower parts of an open-ended scale (a
scale with no maximum or minimum):
short tall
big small
Warning:
My working day is very long. I start work at 8 am and I don’t finish until 8 pm.
My house is so hot.
Some other gradable adjectives can express features which have a maximum and/or
minimum (zero) value:
full empty
possible impossible
black white
We can use degree adverbs such as absolutely, completely, entirely, totally and other
similar words before these adjectives:
We haven’t had rain for two months. The garden is completely dry.
Other degree adverbs which we can use before this type of gradable adjective include
almost, barely, half, scarcely:
Warning:
The ungradable adverb quite has different meanings depending on whether it is used
with an open-ended gradable adjective (hot – cold) or an adjective which has a
maximum and/or minimum (black – white).
Compare
See also:
Quite
Gradable and ungradable
Different meanings of adjectives before the noun and
after the verb
We can use some adjectives before the noun or after the verb but the meaning differs.
Compare
See also:
Nouns
very
a/an cold day
moderately
extremely
indefinite article adjective degree adverb noun
a cold enough day
Special cases
The normal order with quite is quite a cold day. The order a quite cold day (indefinite
article + intensifier + adjective) is also possible but it is not as common.
The normal order with rather is a rather cold day. The order rather a cold day
(intensifier + indefinite article + adjective) is also possible but it is not as common.
See also:
Quite
Rather
The most common order with as and so in negative clauses in speaking is a man as/so
tall as him (as/so + adjective + as + complement):
The order as/so tall a man as him is also possible but it is more common in writing.