What do adjectives in the English language determine?
Adjectives in English define nouns and pronouns or persons.
Person |
Thing |
Mandy is a careful girl. |
This is a nice car. |
She is careful. |
It is nice. |
Mandy is careful. |
Position of adjectives in the sentence
Adjectives in the English language can be placed before the noun or after the verb to be.
When they come before the noun, they are attributes:
Person |
Thing |
Mandy is a careful girl. |
This is a nice car. |
When they come after the verb to be, they are part of the predicate.
Person |
Thing |
The girl is careful. |
This car is nice. |
Adjectives in the English language can also be placed after the following verbs: appear, become, feel, get, go, keep, turn.
Using adjectives without nouns
Yes, adjectives in English can be used without nouns.
With the definite article the:
the rich = rich people
'The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish.'
(from the fairy tale 'Cinderella')
The Scottish live in the North of the United Kingdom.
Using two or more adjectives at the same time
In such cases, they are placed before the noun or after the verb to be:
a fat old cat
In the second case (after the verb to be), 'and' is placed between the second-to-last and last adjectives.
It was cold, wet and windy.
Adjectives ending in -ing and –ed
Before the noun:
Yesterday I read an amusing story in a magazine.
Doris has a boring job.
We watched the group of excited people.
After the verb:
I was not at all amused by the discussion.
Children get bored very quickly.
The end of the film was really exciting for me.
More articles on English grammar
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