WHERE TO PLACE AN ADJECTIVE IN A SENTENCE [ADJECTIVE POSITIONS]

WHERE TO PLACE AN ADJECTIVE IN A SENTENCE

The Position of Adjectives in a Sentence

In order to ensure that you have a properly formed and grammatically correct sentence, it is important to position the adjectives in the correct place. We are now going to take a look at where the adjective should be placed within a sentence in order to make it sound as authentic as possible.

An attribute adjective is placed before the noun it is modifying. Let’s take a look at some examples of this.

Fore example:

She is a pretty girl.

This is my green dress.

Today, we will have heavy rain.

Ants have tiny legs.

It is a hot day.

You can also have a predicative adjective which is placed after the noun which it is modifying. Here are some examples to demonstrate this.

For example:

This sandwich is tasty.

The boy is tall.

My cats eyes are yellow.

The cake is not healthy.

My daughter is beautiful.

There is also the opportunity to place an adjective after certain verbs in order to modify them. This does not apply to all verbs, so let’s take a look at some examples verbs which can be modified with an adjective. It is worth noting that when using an adjective to modify a verb, the verb should come before the adjective, it will not sound correct if placed the other way around. The following verbs can be modified with an adjective.

appear

become

go

get

turn

feel

keep

Here are some examples of these verbs being modified with an adjective.

I feel amazing after my spa day.

He has become lazy having not had a job for weeks.

The dog appears aggressive.

You can also use an adjective after the verbs to smell, to taste, to sound and to look. Let’s take a look at some examples of the adjective placement for these verbs.

That pizza tastes fantastic.

The music sounds good.

It looks stunning.

That smells awful.

ADJECTIVES WITHOUT A NOUN

It is possible to use an adjective as a standalone word without a noun. This can be seen in an example such as the following. “He is rich” the adjective here is being used with the pronoun he, however this can be used on its own as simply describing something as “rich.” You might also use an adjective on it’s own in a sentence such as the following, “The largest must go at the back.”

ADJECTIVES IN PAIRS

You might wish to use more than one adjective in order to give you sentence a very descriptive feel. For example, you might say “This is a large, red car.” or “I am a clever, thoughtful person.”