Grammar V

Erika Arguello

Mario Salazar

Shirley Vásquez

Position of adjectives in a sentence

28– April - 2015

Adjectives

The simplest definition of an adjective is that it is a word that describes or clarifies a

noun. Adjectives describe nouns by giving some information about an object’s size,

shape, age, color, origin or material.

It’s a big table. (size)

It’s a round table. (shape)

It’s an old table. (age)

It’s a brown table. (color)

It’s an English table. (origin)

It’s a wooden table. (material)

It’s a lovely table. (opinion)

It’s a broken table. (observation)

It’s a coffee table. (purpose)

When an item is defined by its purpose, that word is usually not an adjective, but it acts

as one in that situation.

coffee table

pool hall

hunting cabin

baseball player

What Do Adjectives Look Like?

English can be very tricky, so you have to be careful, but a lot of English adjectives end

with these suffixes:

-Able/-ible – adorable, invisible, responsible, uncomfortable

-Al – educational, gradual, illegal, nocturnal, viral

-An – American, Mexican, urban

-ar – cellular, popular, spectacular, vulgar

-ent – intelligent, potent, silent, violent

-ful – harmful, powerful, tasteful, thoughtful

-ic/-ical – athletic, energetic, magical, scientific

-ine – bovine, canine, equine, feminine, masculine

-ile – agile, docile, fertile, virile

-ive – informative, native, talkative

-Less – careless, endless, homeless, timeless

-ous – cautious, dangerous, enormous, malodorous

-Some – awesome, handsome, lonesome, wholesome

Many adjectives also end with -y, -ary and -ate, but lots of nouns and adverbs also end

with -y, lots of nouns also end with -ary, and lots of nouns and verbs also end with -ate,

so be careful with those.

In many languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the adjective order in English is:

1. Quantity or number

2. Quality or opinion

3. Size

4. Age

5. Shape

6. Color

7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)

8. Purpose or qualifier

For example:

1. I love that really big old green antique car that always parked at the end of the street.

2. My sister adopted a beautiful big white bulldog.

When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word andis placed between the two adjectives:

1. The house is green and red.

2. The library has old and new books.

When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma between each of the coordinate adjectives:

1. We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street.

2. My friend lost a red, black and white watch.

A comma is not placed between an adjective and the noun.

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner

Quantity or number

Quality or opinion

Size

Age

Shape

Color

Proper adjective

Purpose or qualifier

Noun

Abeautiful

old

Italian

sports

car

The threebeautiful

little

gold

plates

Anamazing

heart-shaped

red and white

sofa

More examples:

1. I love that really old big green antique car that always parked at the end of the street. [quality - age - size - color - proper adjective]

2. My sister has a big, beautiful, tan and white, bulldog. [size - quality - color - color]

3. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion - age - origin]

4. A big square blue box. [dimension - shape - color]

5. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion - color - material]

6. Some slim new French trousers. [dimension - age - origin]

7. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion - age - origin]

8. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color - material]

POSITION OF ADJECTIVES IN A SENTENCE.

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, they are usually separated by

commas.

A large, round table

A short, fair, pretty girl

Note that we do not put a comma after the last adjective in the series.

When the last two are adjectives of color, they are usually separated by and.

A black and white cow (NOT black white cow)

Red and blue socks

When two or more adjectives come in the predicative position, we use and between the

last two.

It was hot and sultry.

The boy was handsome, smart and polite.

The clouds looked white and fluffy.

Sometimes we put an adjective after the noun for the sake of emphasis.

There lived an old man strong and wicked. (More emphatic than ‘There lived a strong

and wicked old man.’)

In phrases such as those given below, the adjective always comes after the noun.

Time-immemorial

Heir-apparent

God Almighty

President elect

In lines of poetry, too, the adjective is sometimes put after the noun.

O men with sisters dear! (Instead of ‘O men with dear sisters’)

Linkography

http://www.english-for-students.com/Adjective-Position.html.

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/adjectives/what-is-an-

adjective.html.

http://www.englishgrammar.org/position-adjectives/

http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/adjectives/order-of-adjectives/

ACTIVITY

PUT THE ADJECTIVES IN ORDER:

1) my teacher old math smelly.

Answer: My smelly old math teacher.

2) new a perfect system.

Answer: A perfect new system.

3) a big old brown bear.

A big old brown bear.

4) He was wearing a dirty old flannel shirt.

dirty old flannel

flannel old dirty

old dirty flannel

5) I used to drive an old blue German car.

a blue old German

an old German blue

an old blue German

Test

Name:

Level:

Complete the test about the position of the adjectives in a sentence.

Time: 5 minutes.

1. Write your own definition about an adjective.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

2. Write 10 adjectives that you know.

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

3. Underline the adjective:

The hot Sun beat down on us all day.

This product does not deserve this high price.

He asked me my present address.

4. Underline the adjective:

• It is the only treatment suitable.

• It is an offer available only to the club members.

5. Put in the correct order the following adjectives: Box – square - big - blue - a

_____________________________________

Italian - clock - old - wonderful

_______________________________________