5/29/2020 Adjective phrases: functions - English Grammar Today - Cambridge Dictionary

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Adjective phrases: functions  

Grammar > Adjectives and adverbs > Adjectives > Adjective phrases > Adjective phrases: functions

from English Grammar Today

Adjective phrases with nouns

One of the main functions of adjective phrases is that they go with nouns and change or add to their
meaning.
Hair: black hair, brown hair, straight blonde hair, long red hair.
Adjective phrases before a noun are called attributive phrases.

adjective phrase noun

She speaks in a very slow voice.

We never cycle in heavy rain.

I’d love a cup of hot chocolate.

Adjective phrases before a noun occur after determiners.

determiner adjective phrase noun

Sarah is my youngest sister.

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Contents
I know some very good restaurants. To top 

If the head of the noun phrase is one of the following pronouns, the adjective phrase occurs after the
pronoun:

anyone everyone no one someone

anybody everybody nobody somebody

anything everything nothing something

anywhere everywhere nowhere somewhere

noun phrase

head adjective phrase

There’s nowhere nice to go for a walk here.

I have nothing good to say about it as a holiday resort.

There’s something terribly sad about saying goodbye, isn’t there?

Let’s go somewhere different.

If an attributive adjective needs a word or phrase to complete its meaning (a complement), either the
whole adjective phrase or just its complement must follow the head noun.
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Are they a similar colour? adjective (in bold) with no complement

Search Grammar    
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She was wearing a dress similar to the one

adjective (in bold) and complement (underlined)
that she wore when she first met her
both after the noun head (dress)
husband.

I was living in a similar apartment to this adjective (in bold) before the noun head
one. (apartment); complement (underlined) after the
noun head

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 adjective phrase +

phrase complement

the
Who is responsible for security?
person

waited all night in the

Fans keen to get a ticket
queue.

We
a boat ready to leave in an hour.
have

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
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seem, become, feel, smell, taste (linking verbs). When adjective phrases complement verbs, this is
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called their predicative function.
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Search Grammar subject linking verb 

adjective phrase 
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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.

See also:

Adjective phrases

Verbs
Complements

Popular searches
01 Advice or advise?

02 As well (as)

03 Word formation

04 Adverbs and adverb phrases: position

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05 At, on and in (place)
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06 Open or opened?
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07 Discourse markers (so, right, okay)

08 Verbs

09 As … as

10 If or whether?

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