Position of adjectives in sentences

1. Concept of Adjectives in Sentences

• Examples of adjectives describing people: tall, short, beautiful, friendly, etc.
• Examples of adjectives describing objects: cheap, expensive, good, bad, small, big, etc.

2. Adjectives in Noun Phrases, Modifying Nouns

Summary:

• In a noun phrase, adjectives come before the main noun to modify it.
• If multiple adjectives modify the same noun, their order is: opinion → size → quality → shape → age → color → origin → material → type → purpose.
• When two adjectives belong to the same category, they are connected with the word and.

Position of Adjectives in Noun Phrases:

• In a noun phrase, adjectives come before the main noun to modify it.
• Specifically, adjectives follow all determiners and precede the noun they modify.

Examples:

• Today is a very special day.
• The adjective special follows the determiner a and the adverb very, modifying the noun day.
• Those two tall high school students play basketball every day.
• The adjective tall follows the determiners those and two and precedes the noun high school, modifying the noun students.

Those two tall high school students play basketball every day.

Multiple Adjectives Modifying a Single Noun

Multiple adjectives can modify a single noun at the same time:

• a pretty tall thin young black-haired English woman
• two long red plastic cooking spoons
• a round Italian bread-like cake
• If multiple adjectives modify a noun, their order is:

Examples:

Opinion	Size	Quality	Shape	Age	Color	Origin	Material	Type	Purpose
Pretty	Tall	Thin		Young	Black-haired	English
	Long				Red		Plastic		Cooking
			Round			Italian		Bread-like

When two adjectives belong to the same category (e.g., both describe color), they are connected with and:

• an old green and white T-shirt

3. Adjectives Following TO BE or Linking Verbs

After to be and linking verbs (seem, look, feel, taste, remain, become, sound, etc.), adjectives are used.

Examples:

• Her English is very good.
• Train fares remain unchanged.
• She was becoming confused.

4. Adjectives Modifying Indefinite Pronouns

Adjectives are used after indefinite pronouns to modify them.

• We hope to prevent anything unpleasant from happening.
• The doctor said there was nothing wrong with me.
• She wanted to go somewhere nice.

The doctor said there was nothing wrong with me.

Common indefinite pronouns include:

	People	Things	Places
some-	someone somebody	something	somewhere
any-	anyone anybody	anything	anywhere
no-	no one nobody	nothing	nowhere
every-	everyone everybody	everything

5. Other Structures of Adjectives in Sentences

Adjectives are also used in the following structures:

MAKE + object + adjective

• I just want to make her happy.
• That made me really sad.

FIND + object + adjective

• We find the phone very easy to use.
• You may find it hard to accept your illness.

6. Position of Adjectives Relative to Nouns in Noun Phrases

Summary

In some cases, adjectives follow the noun they modify:

• When the adjective phrase is too long, placing it before the noun would make it hard to understand.
• Some adjectives ending in -able/-ible can be placed before or after the noun they modify.

In most cases, adjectives modifying a noun come before it. We have seen this rule in the examples in section 2:

• a very special day → special comes before day
• those two tall high school students → tall comes before students

However, in some cases, adjectives follow the noun they modify. These "exceptions" include:

• When the adjective phrase is too long, placing it before the noun would make it hard to understand.

Examples:

• We need a box bigger than that.
• If we say "We need a bigger than that box," it would be hard to understand.
• He showed me a book full of errors.
• If we say "He showed me a full of errors book," it would be hard to understand.

Some adjectives ending in -able/-ible can be placed before or after the noun they modify. Examples:

• It is the only solution possible.
• She asked me to book all the tickets available.

These "exceptions" are actually reduced forms of relative clauses. However, this is a more advanced topic, so we don’t need to study it in detail here. Just note that these exceptions exist!

• We need a box bigger than that.
• He showed me a book full of errors.
• It is the only solution possible.
• She asked me to book all the tickets available.