SOFENG REPORTING

ADJECTIVE PHRASE

Adjective Phrase- It refers to a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a

sentence. It tells more information about a noun or pronoun. It can be placed before or after the
word (noun or pronoun) it modifies or describes. A regular adjective phrase is formed using an
adjective and adverb. The adverb stands as the intensifier or mitigator of an adjective.

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):
That’s a lovely cake.
These flowers are wonderful.
Adjective preceded by a modifier (underlined):
That soup is pretty cold.
Many of the exercises are fairly difficult.
Adjective + a modifier after it:
The food was tasty enough.
The car is economical for its size.
Adjective + a word or phrase which is required to complete its meaning (a
complement):
She was aware of the danger of travelling alone.
Some people weren’t willing to pay extra to book a seat on the plane.
Adjective preceded by a modifier + a word or phrase which is required to
complete its meaning (a complement):
We’re not very keen on having an activity holiday.
Are you really interested in rock and roll?
Some adjective phrases have more complex structures.
ADJECTIVE PHRASES – FUNCTIONS

One of the main functions of adjective phrases is that they go with nouns and change or add to their
meaning.

EYES – BLACK EYE , BROWN EYES, SPARKLING BLUE EYES, EMERALD EYES

Adjective phrases before a noun are called attributive phrases.

- SHE DANCES IN A GRACEFUL MANNER (ADJP – GRACEFUL) (NOUN – MANNER)
- I’D LOVE A CUP OF HOT COFFEE (ADJP – HOT) (NOUN – COFFEE)
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

Adjective phrases before a noun occur after determiners.

- SARAH IS MY YOUNGER SISTER (DET: MY) (ADJP: YOUNGER) (NOUN: SISTER)
- WHERE ARE THE REALLY BIG BOWLS? (DET: THE) (ADJP: REALLY BIG) (NOUN: BOWLS)
- I KNOW SOME VERY GOOD RESTAURANTS (DET: SOME) (ADJP: VERY GOOD) (NOUN: RESTAURANTS)

Warning:
For a number of adjectives, the whole adjective phrase must follow the noun when a
complement of the adjective is used. These include closed, eager, full, happy, keen,
open, ready, responsible, (un)willing, worth.
Noun phrase Adjective phrase + complement

Who is the person responsible for security?

Fans keen to get a ticket waited all night in the queue.

We have a boat ready to leave in an hour.

Adjective phrases with verbs (Brenda is happy)

The second main function of an adjective phrase is to be a complement to a verb. It
completes the meaning of verbs that describe what the subject is, does or experiences.
These verbs include be, seem, become, feel, smell, taste (linking verbs). When
adjective phrases complement verbs, this is called their predicative function.

Subject Linking verb Adjective phrase

I felt sad.
This soup smells really wonderful.
She thought the room was very strange.
That coffee tastes too strong.

Object complements
We also use adjective phrases to give more information about an object (underlined) so
as to complete its meaning (object complement):
Sitting in traffic drives me crazy.
The fire has made the room much warmer.
Money doesn’t always make us happy.
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

Adjective phrases: position

When an adjective is used with a noun, the usual order in English is adjective + noun:

COMB BLUE

BLUE COMB ✓

Adjectives with nouns and verbs

Adjectives can go before the noun (attributive) or after linking verbs such as be,
become, seem (predicative):
What a beautiful flower! (attributive)
This bridge looks unsafe. (predicative)
Some adjectives can only be used in one position or the other.
Adjectives normally only used before a noun
Numbers and first, last
With numbers and with words like first, last, next, the usual order is first/next + number
+ adjective + noun:
Special offer on the last three remaining sofas.
There used to be two big fields here when I was young.
I don’t have to work for the next four days.
That’s the second large study on unemployment this year.
Some adjectives of degree
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.
Not: That lie is absolute.
Lily has always been a true friend to me.
Not: My friend Lily is true.
Some adjectives of time and order
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.
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

Not: Her husband was former …

This is a church from the early Romanesque period
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.
Some adjectives that limit the following noun
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.
Not: The reason is main why the cinema …
That’s the very tool I am looking for. (very means ‘exact’)
Not: That tool is very …
Adjectives normally only used after a noun
We use some -ed forms after a noun:
Most of the issues mentioned in the documentary are not very important.
Not: Most of the mentioned issues …
The difference in percentages is clear from the illustrations shown.
Not: … from the shown illustrations.
Adjectives normally only used after a verb
Adjectives with the prefix a-
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):
Katie was awake at the time.
Not: Katie was an awake person at the time.
People were asleep in the bedroom.
Not: There were asleep people in the bedroom.
The passengers were all aboard when they heard the loud bang.
Not: The aboard passengers heard the loud bang.
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

COMPARE
before a noun after a verb

Even fourteen days after the earthquake, Even fourteen days after the earthquake,
rescue workers were still finding live babies rescue workers were still finding babies who
in the rubble. were alive in the rubble.

It is very strange to see a lone wolf. They
always stay together in groups called a ‘pack’
There was a blazing fire in the cinema. It
took many firemen to put it out.
It is very strange to see a wolf who is alone.
They always stay together in groups called a
‘pack
The cinema was ablaze for many hours and
it took many firemen to put out the fire.

Some adjectives referring to states of health

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.
She’s not well.
Not: He’s not a well child.
Words and phrases that go before and after adjectives
The most typical words and phrases that go before adjectives (premodifiers) are adverb
phrases expressing degree:
He was pretty surprised then.
This cake tastes a bit strange.
Photographs are really cheap nowadays.
The major exception is the degree adverb enough, which goes after the adjective (a
postmodifier):
I am strong enough to face the difficulties.
Is that car big enough for all of us?
See also: Enough
Other types of adverbs can also go before adjectives:
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)
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/spellcheck/british-grammar/?q=Adjective+phrase

How to identify adjective phrases

When you need to pick out an adjective phrase in a sentence, look for the noun first.
Identify who or what the sentence is about. Let’s use this sentence as an example:

After shopping around for months, I finally found a reliable, yet affordable, used truck.

There are two nouns in this sentence: the speaker and the truck. Next, look
for adjectives—the words that modify these nouns. In our example sentence, only one
noun, the truck, is described: It’s a used truck.

But if you look a little closer, you’ll see that it isn’t just a used truck—more specifically,
it’s a reliable, yet affordable, used truck. The phrase “reliable, yet affordable, used” is an
adjective phrase because it provides descriptive details about the noun “truck.”

We could delete this adjective phrase, and the sentence’s meaning would stay the
same: After months of shopping, I finally found a used truck. But by including the full
phrase, we’re more deeply describing the exact kind of truck the speaker wanted, giving
context for why they shopped around for so long.

Look for phrases that could be cut from their sentences without changing their meaning,
but remain because they provide valuable context. Here are a few more bolded
adjective phrases that serve this purpose:

• The horse’s large, menacing eyes said a fight was imminent.

• Your cluttered ’90s-era living room badly needs an update.
• I didn’t enjoy the book because it was too long and convoluted for me to
follow.

By design, an adjective phrase contains multiple words. As you can see from
the examples above, more than one of them may be adjectives. When you’re
looking for an adjective phrase in a sentence, look for words that follow the
Royal Order of Adjectives, the standard order English adjectives follow in
sentences. Although you might not consciously think about the order
adjectives need to follow in a sentence, you’ll notice when they’re out of order
because the sentence will sound wrong. (MY SCRIPT)

Examples of adjective phrases

Adjective phrases come in many different forms. Some incorporate comparative and
superlative adjectives, such as these examples:

• We experienced the decade’s most destructive storm.

SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE

• They saw only the brightest stars through their telescope.

Compound adjectives are often part of adjective phrases, too:

• The movie, short and whitewashed, faced criticism from historians.

• The playlist was too slow-paced for the crowd that night.

Adjective phrases can contain adverbs:

• It was a deliciously sensational play.

• His hair, shockingly dyed pink, surprised his parents.
• The salesperson, who went abroad, took the rest of the week off.

And they can incorporate prepositions:

• The kids, like popcorn, were bouncing all over their trampoline.
• My grandmother from New York makes a delicious egg cream.

Sometimes, an adjective phrase is just a series of adjectives:

• My old, slow, gas-guzzling minivan finally died.

• They took an intense, time-consuming physics course.

No matter what an adjective phrase contains or where it appears in a sentence, it

always makes the sentence more descriptive without changing the sentence’s core
meaning.

Adjective phrase FAQs

What is an adjective phrase?

An adjective phrase is a phrase that’s headed by an adjective and provides context,

clarity, or details that support that adjective.

How do you identify an adjective phrase?

To find an adjective phrase within a sentence, locate the adjective and then determine
which words are describing or adding meaning to the adjective.

What is an example of an adjective phrase?

Here are three:

• The horse from the neighboring farm won every race.

• His brand-new, unreleased album went viral.
• We ordered a much cheesier pizza last week.
SOFENG REPORTING
ADJECTIVE PHRASE