Top Tips Grammar: Position of adjectives

Main points

*There are two main position for adjectives: in front of a noun, or as the complement of a link verb.
*Most adjectives can be used in either of these positions, but some adjectives can only be used in one.

 

a) Most adjectives can be used in a noun group, after determiners and numbers if there are any, in front of the noun.

- He had a beautiful smile.
- She bought a loaf of white bread.
- There was no clear evidence.

 

b) Most adjectives can also be used after a link verb such as ‘be’, ‘become’, or ‘feel’.

- I’m cold.
- I felt angry.
- Nobody seemed amused.

 

c) Some adjectives are normally used only after a link verb.

afraid	content	ready	well
alive	due	sorry
asleep	glad	sure
aware	ill	unable

For example, you can say ‘She was glad’, but you do not talk about ‘a glad woman’.

- I wanted to be alone.
- We were getting ready for bed.
- I‘m not quite sure.
- He didn’t know whether to feel glad or sorry.

 

d) Some adjectives are normally used only in front of a noun.

eastern	atomic	indoor	occasional
northern	countless	introductory	outdoor
southern	digital	maximum
western	existing	neighbouring

For example, you talk about ‘an atomic bomb’, but you do not say ‘The bomb was atomic’.

- He sent countless letters to the newspapers.
- This book includes a good introductory chapter on forests.

 

e) When you use an adjective to emphasize a strong feeling or opinion, it always comes in front of a noun.

absolute	outright	pure	true
complete	perfect	real	utter
entire	positive	total

- Some of it was absolute rubbish.
- He made me feel like a complete idiot.

 

f) Some adjectives that describe size or age can some after a noun group consisting of a number or determiner and a noun that indicates the unit of measurement.

deep high	old	thick
long	tall	wide

- He was about six feet tall.
- The water was several metres deep.
- The baby is nine months old.

Note that you do not say ‘two pounds heavy’, you say ‘two pounds in weight’.

 

g) A few adjectives are used alone after a noun.

designate

elect

galore

incarnate

- She was now the president elect.
- There are empty houses galore.

 

h) A few adjectives have a different meaning depending on whether they come in front of or after a noun.

concerned	present	responsible
involved	proper

For example, ‘the concerned mother’, means a mother who is worried, but ‘the mother concerned’ means the mother who has been mentioned.

- It’s one of those incredibly involved stories.
- The people involved are all doctors.
- I’m worried about the present situation.
- Of the 19 people present, I knew only one
- Her parents were trying to act in a responsible manner.
- We do not know the person responsible for his death.

 

 

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
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See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.

Top Tips Grammar: Order of adjectives

Main points

*You put opinions adjectives in front of descriptive adjectives.
*You put general opinion adjectives in front of specific opinion adjectives.
*You can sometimes vary the order of adjectives.
*If you use two or more descriptive adjectives, you put them in a particular order.
*If you use a noun in front of another noun, you put any adjectives in front of the first noun.

 

a) You often want to add more information to a noun that you can with one adjective.  In theory, you can use the adjectives in any order, depending on the quality you want to emphasize. In practice, however, there is a normal order.

When you use two or more adjectives in front of a noun, you usually put an adjective that expresses your opinion in front of an adjective that just describes something.

- You live in a nice big house.
- He is a naughty little boy.
- She was wearing a beautiful pink suit.

 

b) When you use more than one adjective to express your opinion, an adjective with a more general meaning such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘nice’, or ‘lovely’ usually comes before an adjective with a more specific meaning such as ‘comfortable’, ‘clean’, or ‘dirty’.

- I sat in a lovely comfortable armchair in the corner.
- 1He put on a nice clean shirt.
- It was a horrible dirty room.

 

c) You can use adjectives to describe various qualities of people or things. For example, you might want to indicate their size, their shape, or the country they come from.

Descriptive adjectives belong to six main types, but you are unlikely ever to use all six types in the same noun group. If you did, you would normally put them in the following order.

size	shape	nationality
age	colour	material

This means that if you want to use an ‘age’ adjective and a ‘nationality’ adjective, you put the ‘age’ adjective first.

- We met some young Chinese girls.

Similarly, a ‘shape’ adjective normally comes before a ‘colour’ adjective.

- He had round black eyes.

Other combinations of adjectives follow the same order.

Note that ‘material’ means any substance, not only cloth.

- There was a large round wooden table in the room.
- The man was carrying a small black plastic bag.

 

d) You usually put comparative and superlative adjectives in front of other adjectives.

- Some of the better English actors have gone to live in Hollywood.
- These are the highest monthly figures on record.

 

e) When you use a noun in front of another noun, you never put adjectives between them. You put any adjectives in front of the first noun.

- He works in the French film industry.
- He receives a large weekly cash payment.

 

f) When you use two adjectives as the complement of a link verb, you use a conjunction such s ‘and’ to link them. With three or more adjectives, you link the last two with a conjunction, and put commas after the others.

- The day was hot and dusty.
- The room was large but square.
- The house was old, damp and smelly.
- We felt hot, tired, and thirsty.

 

 

 

 

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Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
---------------------------------------------

 

See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.

Top Tips Grammar: Adjective + ‘to’ or ‘that’

Main points

*Adjectives used after link verbs are often followed by ‘to’- infinitive clauses or ‘that’- clauses.
*Some adjectives are always followed by ‘to’- infinitive clauses.
*You often use ‘to’- infinitive clauses or ‘that’- clauses after adjectives to express feelings or opinions.
*You often use ‘to’- infinitive clauses after adjectives when the subject is impersonal ‘it’.

 

a) After link verbs, you often use adjectives that describe how someone feels about an action or situation. With some adjectives, you can add a ‘to’- infinitive clause or a ‘that’- clause to say what the action or situation is.

afraid	disappointed	happy	sad
anxious	frightened	pleased	surprised
ashamed	glad	proud	unhappy

If the subject is the same in both clauses, you usually are a ‘to’- infinitive clause. If the subject is different, you must use a ‘that’- clause.

- I was happy to see them again.
- He was happy that they were coming to the party.

You often use a ‘to’- infinitive clause when talking about future time in relation to the main clause.

- I am afraid to go home.
- He was anxious to leave before it got dark.

You often use a ‘that’- clause when talking about present or past time in relation to the main clause.

- He was anxious that the passport was missing.
- They were afraid that I might have talked to the police.

 

b) You often use ‘worry’ with a ‘that’- clause. Note that ‘that’ is often omitted.

- I’m very sorry that I can’t join you.
- I’m sorry I’m so late.

 

c) Some adjectives are not usually used alone, but have a ‘to’- infinitive clause after them to say what action or situation the adjective relates to.

able	due	likely	unlikely
apt	inclined	prepared	unwilling
bound	liable	ready	willing

- They were unable to help her.
- They were not likely to forget it.
- I am willing to cry.
- I’m prepared to say I was wrong.

 

d) When you want to express an opinion about someone or something, you often use an adjective followed by a ‘to’- infinitive clause.

difficult	impossible	right
easy	possible	wrong

- She had been easy to deceive.
- The windows will be almost impossible to open.
- Am I wrong to stay here?

Note that in the first two examples, the subject of the main clause is the object of the ‘to’- infinitive clause. In the third example, the subject is the same in both clauses.

 

e) With some adjectives, you use ‘that’- clause to express an opinion about someone or something.

awful	extraordinary	important	sad
bad	funny	interesting	true
essential	good	obvious

- I was sad that people had reacted in this way.
- It is extraordinary that we should ever have met!

 

f) You can also use adjectives with ‘to’- infinitive clauses after ‘it’ as the impersonal subject. You use the prepositions ‘of’ or ‘for’ to indicate the person or thing that the adjective relates to.

- It was easy to find the path.
- It was good of John to help me.
- It was difficult for her to find a job.

 

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------
Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
---------------------------------------------

 

See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.

Top Tips Grammar: Adjective + preposition

Main points

*Some adjectives used after link verbs can be used alone or followed by a prepositional phrase.
*Some adjectives must be followed by particular prepositions.
*Some adjectives can be followed by different prepositions to introduce different types of information.

 

a) When you use an adjective after a link verb, you can often use the adjective on its own or followed by a prepositional phrase.

- He was afraid.
- He was afraid of his enemies.

 

b) Some adjectives cannot be used alone after a link verb. If they are followed by a prepositional phrase, it must have a particular preposition:

aware of	unaware of	fond of
accustomed of	unaccustomed of	used to

- I’ve always been terribly fond of you.
- He is unaccustomed to the heat.

 

c) Some adjectives can be used alone, or followed by a particular preposition:

*used alone, or with ‘of’ to specify the cause of a feeling

afraid	critical	jealous	suspicious
ashamed	envious	proud	terrified
convinced	frightened	scared	tired

- They may feel jealous of your success.
- I was terrified of her.

*used alone, or with ‘of’ to specify the person who has a quality

brave	good	polite	thoughtful
careless	intelligent	sensible	unkind
clever	kind	silly	unreasonable
generous	nice	stupid	wrong

- That was clever of you!
- I turned the job down, which was stupid of me.

*used alone or used with ‘to’, usually referring to:

Similarity	: close, equal, identical, related, similar
Marriage	: married, engaged
Loyalty	: dedicated, devoted, loyal
Rank	: junior, senior

- My problems are very similar to yours.
- He was dedicated to his job.

*used alone, or followed by ‘with’ to specify the cause of a feeling

bored	displeased	impatient	pleased
content	dissatisfied	impressed	satisfied

- I could never be bored with football.
- He was pleased with her.

*used alone, or with ‘at’ usually referring to:

Strong reactions	: alarmed, amazed, astonished, shocked, surprised
Ability	: bad, excellent, good, hopeless, useless

- He was shocked at the hatred they had known.
- She had always been good at languages.

*used alone, or with ‘for’ to specify the person or thing that a quality relates to.

common	essential	possible	usual
difficult	important	unnecessary
easy	necessary	unusual

- It’s difficult for young people on their own.
- It was unusual for them to go away at the weekend.

 

d) Some adjectives can be used alone, or used with different prepositions.

*used alone, with an impersonal subject and ‘of’ and the subject of the action, or with personal subject and ‘to’ and the object of the action.

cruel	good	nasty	rude
friendly	kind	nice	unfriendly
generous	mean	polite	unkind

- It was rude of him to leave so suddenly.
- She was rude to him for no reason.

*used alone, with ‘about’ to specify a thing or ‘with’ to specify a person

angry	delighted	fed up	happy
annoyed	disappointed	furious	upset

- She was still angry about the result.
- They’re getting pretty fed up with him.

 

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------
Top Tips Abz Ingles: Part A    -    Part B
---------------------------------------------

 

See also:

Words related to Failure to Cooperate	Irregular Verbs list
Common Phrasal Verbs	Common Slangs
Common misspellings	Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Common Errors	Frequently confused words
Common Slangs	Lista de Términos Gramaticales
Common Clichés	Common Prepositions

 

No te olvides de compartir esto con tus amigos y compañeros, hagamos de este Blog una comunidad de difusión del Inglés como segundo idioma. Antes de irte deja tu comentario y haz clic en Me Gusta.