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ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are

WORDS DESCRIBING NOUNS or

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE NOUNS

There is not much to say about  adjectives in English because they are so simple.

1. When the noun and the adjective describing it are together the adjective

MUST always come first –

A small house, a big man, a green car, a long journey.

It is helpful to remember that all colours are adjectives. The only exceptions to the ‘together’ rule are in old songs, sayings or adverts. You do not need to study these.

When the noun and the adjective are not together then it is a matter of syntax {order of words} and the adjective can conveniently appear later – much later – in a sentence. For example:

a.   The car he was driving was old and it was green.

b.   My love for music is passionate.

c.   The flowers around the window of the cottage were colourful.

In all the examples on this page, the noun is underlined and the adjective is shown in bold red print.

As shown in examples a, b and c above it is clear that the adjective can come after the noun when it is not together with the noun.

2. The adjective in English NEVER changes to agree with the GENDER

of the noun, nor with the PLURAL of the noun.

For example –

a happy wife, happy wives

a happy husband, happy husbands,

a studious man, studious men,

a studious woman, studious women.

Of course the noun usually changes in the plural, but the adjective (happy) (studious) never does.

THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES:

It is important to remember that in modern English we don’t use many adjectives. Normally you shouldn’t use more than two.

However, you need to know about the order in which adjectives appear – their position in relation to the noun and to each other.

This is still a popular subject in schools and as a topic of exams, but you will appreciate that if we don’t use a lot of adjectives in modern English their order in a sentence is not as important as it was.

WHEN THERE IS MORE THAN ONE ADJECTIVE

THE ORDER OF PRIORITY IS:

1.  Opinion: for example – handsome, ugly, foolish, fat, kind, clever.

2.  Size: - big, small, long, enormous.

3.  Age: - old, young, ancient.

4.  Shape: - round, square, long, triangular.

5.  Colour: - any colour

6.  Origin: - American, Turkish, Egyptian, Russian.

7.  Purpose: - washing (machine), cooking (pot) drawing (board)

Thus we should say, for example -

A clever young woman.

A round cooking pot.

A big grey Egyptian ship.

A small blue Turkish carpet.

Following the above priorities will give you a natural sentence, although sometimes the order can change. For example, ‘An ugly big building’ could also be, ‘A big ugly building’, but it’s best to follow the priorities.

But remember - these priorities are a bit like ranks in the armed services:  Field Marshall, General, Colonel, Major, Lieutenant, Sergeant, Corporal – just because they exist doesn’t mean you’re going to meet them all at the same time.

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