Adjective.docx

The Adjective A. Order of Adjectives 1. Attributive and Predicative Most adjectives of quality are used in both positions, while other types of adjectives are only attributive (demonstrative – this, that; distributive – each, either; quantitative – some, no, twenty; interrogative – whose, what; possessive – my, your etc.); both present and past participles can be used as adjectives: a tiring play/ a tired teacher; I am bored/boring etc. Further Observations 1. Besides “be” there are other verbs that require adjectives in a predicative position: become, seem, feel, smell, sound, taste, turn, make Ex. The idea sounds interesting. He makes me feel great. 2. Note the difference between the use of these verbs with adjectives or adverbs: He looked calm (he appeared to be calm) to the crowd./calmly (in a calm way) at the crowd. The soup tasted horrible. He tasted the soup greedily. 3. Some adjectives are used only attributively or predicatively, or change their meaning when they change position: bad/good; big/small; heavy/light; old, poor Ex. He is an old friend of mine./ His father is old.; He is a small farmer. (He has a small farm)/ He is rather small. (physically short); Poor man! This man is quite poor. Only before the noun: chief, main, principal, sheer, utter etc. Only after the verb: afraid, upset, alive, one, ashamed, asleep etc. Exceptions to the attributive use: the people present, the president elect, court martial etc. 2. Generally, when more than one adjective precedes the noun, the order in English is: 1. Quantity or number 2. Quality or opinion 3. Size 4. Age 5. Shape 6. Color 7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material) 8. Purpose or qualifier (sometimes this category is a gerund or verbal adjective that forms a compound noun) ex. walking sick/stick for walking; riding boots/ boots for riding => to be distinguished from the present participle in “a walking dictionary” (an erudite person); running water (water that runs) etc.

See also: www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar.../adjectives/order-of-adjectives Order of adjectives – examples Quantity Determiner or number A

beautiful

The

three

An amazing

Quality or

Size

Age

Shape Color

opinion old

Italian

beautiful little

golden

heart-

redandwhite

shaped

Purpose or NOUN Origin qualifier (Material) sports

car plates

French

diningroom

sofa

More examples: "The interesting, small, rectangular, blue car is parked in my space." "I bought a beautiful, long, red, Italian, silk tie." "My father lives in a lovely, gigantic, ancient, brick house." "I have an annoying, small, circular, American, tin, alarm clock that wakes me up." "Let’s order a delicious, huge, rectangular, pepperoni pizza." "We all love our smart, petite, British teacher." "They all received several dazzling, small, ancient, gold coins." "She owns a stunning, large, old, brown dog named Boris." Exercise: Recognize the categories of adjectives: 1. I love that really old big green antique car that always parked at the end of the street. [quality – age – size – color – proper adjective] 2. My sister has a big, beautiful, tan and white, bulldog. [size – quality – color – color] 3. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin] 4. A big square blue box. [dimension – shape – color] 5. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion – color – material] 6. Some slim new French trousers. [dimension – age – origin] 7. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion – age – origin] 8. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color – material] OBS 1: When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word and is placed between the two adjectives: 1. The house is green and red. 2. The library has old and new books

OBS 2: When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma between each of the coordinate adjectives: 1. We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street. 2. My friend lost a red, black and white watch. OBS 3: A comma is not placed between an adjective and the noun. OBS 4: Sometimes, adjectives of personality come after adjectives of physical description Ex. A small suspicious official, a pale anxious girl, an inquisitive brown dog, a long patient queue etc. OBS 5: Since adjectives such as little, old and young are often used as part of an adjective-noun combination, they are then placed next to their nouns; but when they are used to convey information they occupy position 4 (age) Ex. A nice little boy, an irritable old lady, an angry young man etc. versus: a young colored man; an old Welsh writer, a little grey cat etc. OBS 6: the adjective “pretty” precedes the adjectival phrase only when it means “very” Ex. A pretty cool movie but a cool pretty girl

B. The Irregular Comparison Good – better – the best Bad – worse – the worst Far – farther – farthest/ further – furthest (ex. Further supplies/debate/ demands; near/middle east/ far north etc.) Little – less – the least (ex. The least I can do is…) Many/much – more – the most Old – elder/older – eldest/the oldest

Constructions with the comparative: Not so+adj+as/Not as+adj+as; the+comparative+the+comparative; continuous tense+comparative and comparative Ex. He is not so smart as her. The sooner, the better. It is getting colder and colder.

C. Other structures - “the”+ adjective => category/class (the rich, the poor, the beautiful etc.) - adj+inf: impossible to study; hard to find; brave of you to talk like this; how intelligent of him to do this; such a wicked thing to say; necessary for him to leave; better not to have known him; it is awful/boring/terrible to do/say such a thing; he is lucky to be alive, etc. -adj+that-clause: it’s good/luck/unlucky that - aware/conscious+that/of: I’m aware that you can help. I am conscious of the problem.