Adjectives – Attributive and Predicative

Adjectives in English may not seem like they should cause any problems. You do
not need to change their endings according to the gender and case of the noun
they qualify, as in German. Nor do you have to know whether they should be
placed in front of or after the noun, as in French *. In fact, however, there are a
number of difficulties that English adjectives can cause, even to the more
advanced learners of the language. Let's have a look at some of these.

In general, adjectives can be both attributive and predicative. This means simply
that we can say both the big house .. and the house is big; or the
interesting book and the book is interesting. There are some exceptions
however. Many adjectives beginning with the letter a cannot be used
attributively. So, for instance, we can say the girl is asleep but not the asleep
girl; or the animal is alive but not the alive animal. Similarly, we can say
that a child is ill but to refer to an ill child does not seem right (although a sick
child is acceptable English). The word poor is interesting, too. In its meaning of
not rich, it can be used both ways: the people are poor or the poor people.
But when it has the meaning of unfortunate or unhappy, it can only be used
attributively. In other words, we can say the poor child, but not the child is
poor.

Some adjectives, the so-called classifying adjectives, behave in the opposite way.
For example you can speak about a woollen jacket, but we do not say my
jacket is woollen. Similarly we refer to outdoor sports, but the sentence this
sport is outdoor is impossible. A piece of writing may contain countless
mistakes, but we cannot tell a child that her mistakes are countless.

Another problem for non-native speakers is knowing the correct order of

adjectives when there are more than one qualifying a noun. For example, is it a
big, old house or an old, big house? Do we speak of the three first days of
the vacation or the first three days? Is someone who is annoying us a little
obnoxious boy or an obnoxious little boy? Native speakers do not have to
worry themselves with questions like this. They intuitively chose the correct
order, although very few have any idea of the "rules" they are following when
they do so.

A related problem, and one not intuitive to native-speakers, is the punctuation of

strings of adjectives used attributively or predicatively. Can we write: She's a
silly little girl .. or must it be She's a silly, little girl ..? If a nice big blue
belt is acceptable (in British English at least), why isa wonderful enormous
aquamarine belt not? He has a large, beautiful, powerful car .., is correct,
but what about His car is large, beautiful, powerful .. ?
A further difficulty with adjectives is knowing the comparative and superlative
form of those of two-syllables. Do they follow the one-syllable rule of adding "-
er"? Or do they require more/most as three-syllable adjectives do? For
example, is John a commoner name than Wilberforce or a more common one?
Is this restaurant crowdeder than that one ormore crowded? Is
Mary politer than Susan or more polite? There are no rules that are of much
use to answer these questions. The learner must rely on a good dictionary in
order to employ the words correctly.

Quiz

To test your knowledge of the use of adjectives in English, see if you can answer
these questions:

1. Can the following adjectives be used both attributively and predicatively?

• little
• afraid
• closed
• shut
• daily

2. He's an old friend of mine. What does this sentence mean?

3. Put these adjectives into the correct order to qualify the given noun:

• leather - Spanish - red - beautiful: belt

• round - ancient - heavy: mirror
• lazy - wonderful - long: vacation

4. A silly little girl and a silly, little girl are both possible. Is there a difference
in meaning between them?

5. Do we form the comparative of the following two-letter adjectives with-

er or more?

• handsome
• narrow
• stubborn
• tired
• clever
Answers

1. Attributive, predicative or both?

• little: attributive only. We can speak of a small house or a little

house, and we can say the house is small, but we do not say the
house is little.
• afraid: predicative only. We can say the boy is afraid but we do not
talk of an afraid boy. It must be something likea fearful boy or a
frightened boy.
• closed: both. We can say both the door is closed and a closed
door.
• shut: predicative only. The door is shut is acceptable, buta shut
door does not sound right.
• daily: attributive only. We can say this is a daily paper but we do
not say this paper is daily. It would have to be something like This
paper is published daily (in which casedaily is an adverb).

2. He's an old friend of mine means that I have known him for a long time. To
express the idea of his advanced age you would need to say something like: he's
a friend of mine. He's (very) old.

3. These are the usual orders of attributive adjectives.

• a beautiful Spanish red leather belt

• an ancient round heavy mirror
• a wonderful long lazy vacation

The examples from the text above are as follows:

• a big, old house

• the first three days of the vacation
• an obnoxious little boy

4. Yes, there is a difference in meaning. A silly, little girl is a girl who is

silly and who is little. The writer wants to give equal weight to both adjectives.
A silly little girl, on the other hand, is a girl who is silly. The writer wants to
emphasize her silliness, not her littleness. In fact, she may not even be
particularly little in size - the littleness is in the immaturity of her behaviour.

5. -er or more

• more handsome (handsomer seems just about possible)

• narrower is the usual form
• more stubborn
 • more tired
• cleverer is more usual but more clever is acceptable

The other examples from the text

• commoner and more common are both acceptable

• it has to be more crowded
• politer and more polite are both ok