Linguistic Overview
Adjectives are a large, open lexical class, meaning there are many adjectives in the English dictionary and new adjectives are added all the time. Adjectives usually modify nouns and pronouns, but they can also modify other nominals like Gerunds, Content Clauses, or even Infinitive Phrases.
Descriptive vs. Specifying
Adjectives provide more information about the nouns or other nominals they modify. Some of that information is not required for the comprehension of the noun phrase; we call these adjectives descriptive. For example, in “I went for a ride in my red truck,” the adjective ‘red’ probably doesn’t help the listener identify the truck (unless the speaker is known to also have another truck in a different color).
Other adjectives are crucial for understanding because they narrow the possibilities of which noun the speaker refers to; we call these adjectives specifying. For example, in “I enjoy romantic movies,” the listener understands which type of movies the speaker enjoys, as the adjective ‘romantic’ is one type out of many that a movie-goer might enjoy.
Genres of Adjectives
For the purposes of this page, a ‘genre‘ is defined as a category of adjectives that refer to similar fields of description, details, or interest. Genres include (but are not limited to) value, size, color, shape, material, and origin. Thus, ‘large’ and ‘small’ belong to the same genre, but ‘large’ and ‘metallic’ belong to different genres.
The various genres are not strictly defined, but they do play a role in the arrangement of adjectives.
Adjective Placement
Adjectives can be placed in a few different positions within the sentence structure. These positions sometimes determine their attributes, which types of nominals they can modify, or even importance of the adjectives.
In the examples shown below, adjectives are bold while the nouns they modify are underlined.
Attributive
Attributive adjectives are ones that are included in the same noun phrase as the nominals they modify. They are versatile in that they can modify nouns in any role, whether they are subjects or objects.
Pre-Nominal
Pre-nominal adjectives, also called prepositive adjectives, are perhaps the most common type of adjectives. They come immediately before the nouns they modify (but after any connected determiners).
- a difficult challenge
- this fresh, bold approach
- terrifying giant orange monsters
Though there are some exceptions with non-traditional usage, pre-nominal adjectives only work before common nouns (not proper nouns, pronouns, Content Clauses, etc.)
The pre-nominal position is the only position in which we are likely to use multiple adjectives of different genres. Pre-nominal adjectives are more likely than most other adjectives to be characteristic of the noun (for instance, we can assume that the monsters from above are consistently giant and orange).
Post-Nominal
Though it’s far less common, adjectives can come immediately after the nouns they modify, as in “They travelled to worlds unknown,” or “We need a couch wide enough for everyone,” or “Something strange is going on here.” Such adjectives can modify common nouns and pronouns — and in fact are often paired with indefinite pronouns — but not proper nouns.
Post-nominal adjectives, aka postpositive adjectives, are very situational: what’s true of their nouns today may not be true of them tomorrow.
Predicative
The second most common position for adjectives is in the predicate. The predicate of any clause is the verb plus any complements (such as objects) and any related modifiers. Predicative adjectives follow Linking Verbs to modify the sentence’s subject. For example:
- That box looks pretty heavy.
- Tiana was exhausted.
- The butter got softer outside the refrigerator.
Notice that the italicized words are Linking Verbs. The primary purpose of these verbs is to connect each subject to its predicative adjective.
Unlike pre-nominal adjectives, predicative adjectives are not necessarily characteristic of their nouns. For instance, we can’t expect Tiana to usually be exhausted, and butter is probably not as soft when its inside the refrigerator.
Also unlike attributive adjectives, predicative adjectives can modify any type of nominal, including proper nouns, pronouns, Content Clauses, and more.
Other
Prepositional
Adjectives can come after the preposition ‘as’, typically after cognitive or communication verbs. For example, “I always thought of the dog as well-behaved.” Similarly, they can come after the preposition ‘than’ for comparative purposes. Other prepositions that can precede adjectives include ‘besides’, ‘between’, ‘beyond’, ‘far from’, ‘instead of’, ‘other than’, ‘rather than’, and ‘until’.
Prepositional adjectives have the same traits as predicative adjectives (though they play a different structural role.)
Discourse Adjunct
Adjectives can function as an aside, coming before or after the main clause of the sentence, as in “Satisfied, Jenna departed the store.” In this example, ‘satisfied’ directly modifies the subject, but it also sheds light on the entire clause. In this way, they are similar to Discourse Adverbs.
Order of Adjectives
When there are multiple pre-nominal adjectives of different genres, it matters which order they come in. In many cases, only one order is considered correct. For example, “the yellow new umbrella” does not feature the appropriate word order; it should instead be “the new yellow umbrella”. This gets more complex with more adjectives, as with “the lovely big new yellow nylon umbrella”.
Categorical Order
Adjectives should generally come in a certain order based on their category, where each category contains a set of genres. The genres in this section are featured in italics. The order from one category to the next is fairly strict, while the order of genres with a category may be a bit more flexible.
The over-arching order looks like this:
Here’s a breakdown of each category presented in the image above:
- Limiters: These include quantity post-determiners (like ‘every’, ‘7’, ‘few’, etc.) and Limiting Adjectives like ‘first’, ‘best’, ‘only’, etc. Limiters are strong specifiers, heavily restricting the noun possibilities. Read the Limiters section in ‘Advanced Concepts’ below for more.
- Adjectives of Quality: These are highly subjective and/or situational, meaning they might be dependent on circumstance or change over time. These adjectives might indicate the noun’s state, value, personality, demeanor, or reputation, (each its own genre) among other considerations. Usually, generally agreed-upon opinion adjectives come before the personal opinions of the speaker.
- Physical Adjectives: These are concrete aspects of the noun, often that we can see or feel. Within this category, there are subcategories (which are also families of genres, listed in italics) that usually come in the following order:
- magnitude (size, temperature, weight, age)
- condition
- appearance (shape, color, pattern)
- Design Adjectives: These are immutable and permanent characteristics of the noun, including where it’s from (origin or nationality), what it’s made of (material), and it’s purpose (which may be an object’s functionality or a person’s occupation).
Order of Importance
A key thing to remember is that the more an adjective reflects an intrinsic characteristic of its noun, the closer it should be to that noun (which means it’s written on the right end of the spectrum and spoken toward the end of the list for pre-nominal adjectives). On the other hand, the more subjective or situational the adjective is, the further away it should be from its noun (which means it’s written on the left end of the spectrum and spoken toward the beginning of the list).
This principle is used to determine the order of adjectives within the same category. Some grammar resources list age before shape, while some list the other way around. So which order is correct?
- As they are both physical adjectives, it’s safe to say they should come after value but before origin, for instance.
- Consider “an old blocky phone”. Here, the blocky nature of the phone isn’t only its shape, but also a part of its design; that phone has always been blocky (even when it was new). Therefore, ‘blocky’ is closer to its noun.
- Consider “a stout old man”. Here, the descriptor ‘old’ is probably an aspect of the man’s very identity in the eyes of his community. Therefore, ‘old’ is closer to its noun.
Although it is less common, the order of importance can even override the categorical order.
- A classic example is “the big bad wolf”. Usually ‘bad’ is a subjective opinion, and thus it would come before size. But in the case of the fairy tale character, ‘bad’ is an intrinsic aspect of his nature, so it must come immediately before the noun.
- Another example is “a haunted house”. When there are other adjectives that come after ‘haunted’, then the speaker is merely saying that the house happens to be haunted, among other things. But if instead ‘haunted’ comes after other adjectives, the speaker indicates that the primary characteristic of the house is that it is haunted.
Coordinate Adjectives
Order matters with multiple adjectives of different genres. But with coordinate adjectives — multiple adjectives belonging to the same genre — the order is flexible. For instance, “a rare, expensive watch” and “an expensive, rare watch” mean the same thing and are both grammatically correct, since the two adjectives belong to the value (quality) genre.
Furthermore, coordinate adjectives should be separated by commas and/or conjunctions. For example:
- “a sad, confused child”, or alternatively: “a sad and confused child”
- “a green, white, and blue flag”
Gradable vs. Non-Gradable Adjectives
Gradable Adjectives
Many adjectives are gradable, meaning they can be evaluated at varying degrees. The extent of the adjective — or how [adjective] the noun is — can be expressed in a few ways:
- with the interrogative how;
- with Adverbs of Degree (like ‘very’, ‘barely’, ‘extremely’, ‘fairly’, ‘somewhat’, etc.);
- with too or enough;
- with so _____ that …;
- as Comparatives or Superlatives.
For instance, one could say, “How hot is that flame?”; “This flame is terribly hot“; “The flame is not hot enough“; “This flame is hotter than that flame.”
Absolute Adjectives
Other adjectives are non-gradable or absolute, meaning they do not have varying degrees. Absolute adjective typically fall into one of two categories: extreme adjectives and boolean adjectives.
Extreme Adjectives, or intensive adjectives, are variations of gradable adjectives taken to their highest degree, perhaps in a perfect or complete fashion. For example:
- big (gradable) → enormous, gigantic (non-gradable)
- cold (gradable) → freezing (non-gradable)
- funny (gradable) → hilarious (non-gradable)
- tired (gradable) → exhausted (non-gradable)
In other words, “exhausted” is identical in meaning to “extremely tired”.
Boolean Adjectives are simply applicable/true or inapplicable/false, with no room for anything in-between. These include ‘complete’, ‘duplicate’, ‘missing’, ‘atomic’, ‘inaugural’, ‘pregnant’, ‘fatal’, ‘unique’, ‘crucial’, ‘true’, ‘molecular’, ‘primary’, ‘vegan’, ‘dead’, ‘stationary’, ‘left-handed’, and ’empty’, as just a few examples.
Non-gradable adjectives, in their traditional uses, cannot be accompanied by how, too, enough, or Adverbs of Degree; nor can they be expressed in Comparative or Superlative form. However, it is possible to apply gradeability to non-gradable adjectives in a tongue-in-cheek fashion or to highlight the characteristics of that adjective.
Various Adjective Forms
There is no special form inherent to adjectives, but there are some patterns found among some adjectives. Futhermore, adjectives used in particular ways (such as for comparison) may have altered forms.
Suffixes for Adjectives
Some adjectives have roots in other parts of speech. To turn a noun, verb, etc. into an adjective, we usually attach a suffix to the original root.
| Root | Suffix | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
|
VERB |
-able, -ible
|
capable of being |
avoidable • impressionable • sensible |
|
-ed, -en * |
affected by |
broken • confused • heated • sunken |
|
|
-ing * |
enacting |
alarming • charming • intriguing |
|
|
-ive |
tending to |
creative • divisive • elusive • repetitive |
|
|
[misc] |
-ant, -ent |
notable for |
dependent • excellent • vigilant |
|
-ful |
abundant in |
beautiful • cheerful • wonderful |
|
|
-ious, -ous |
characterized by |
nutritious • ridiculous • studious |
|
|
NOUN |
-al |
pertaining to |
emotional • musical • seasonal |
|
-esque |
reminiscent of |
Kafkaesque • picturesque • statuesque |
|
|
-ian |
deriving from |
bohemian • Canadian • Dickensian |
|
|
-ic |
pertaining to |
domestic • elastic • mythic • scenic |
|
|
-ish |
approximating |
childish • greenish • snobbish • hellish |
|
|
-less |
without |
careless • doubtless • effortless |
|
|
-y |
characterized as |
bulky • fruity • grouchy • nerdy |
* The -ed/-en suffix and the -ing suffix are a part of Participle Adjectives.
Comparative & Superlative
Adjectives take a slightly different form when expressing how they measure up to the same quality in a different noun.
The Comparative form is used to express the extent of an adjective for a particular noun relative to that of other nouns (in most cases, just one other noun).
- The greater Comparative is expressed as “[adjective]-er” (when the adjective has fewer than two syllables) or as “more [adjective]” (when the adjective has more than two syllables).
- The lesser Comparative is expressed as “less [adjective]”.
The Superlative form is used to express the extent of an adjective for a particular noun as the extreme among all other nouns in the context.
- The greater Superlative is expressed as “[adjective]-est” (when the adjective has fewer than two syllables) or as “most [adjective]” (when the adjective has more than two syllables).
- The lesser Superlative is expressed as “least [adjective]”.
- Superlatives must immediately follow “the” or some other determiner. An adjective that is Superlative is also a Limiter.
Comparatives and Superlatives are usually ordered first in a string of adjectives.
Compound Adjectives
Two or more words can join together to form an adjective (i.e., their combination both establishes an adjective meaning and is used to modify nouns). Often, compound adjectives are made up of one of the following combinations:
- Adverb – Participle, e.g.: well-regarded, high-flying, neatly-trimmed, fresh-baked
- Noun – Participle, e.g.: sun-dried, hair-raising, award-winning, weather-worn
- Extent – Noun, e.g.: first-time, nine-year-old, short-term, mid-century, two-time
- Extent can be either a number or an adjective that indicates ordinals, distance/duration, repetition, frequency, etc.
- Noun – Adjective, e.g.: duty-free, forest-green, sidewalk-adjacent, ice-cold
Compound adjectives are usually hyphenated, especially when used a attributive adjectives. Predicative adjectives may or may not be hyphenated; it depends on readability and the writer’s style.
Adjective Phrases
Adjectives can act as the nucleus of entire phrases, and those phrases modify nominals. Other elements of an adjective phrase are often other modifiers: either adverbs or modifier phrases (such as prepositional phrases, adverbial clauses, etc.). Here are some examples:
- “very happy” ← (adverb + ADJ)
- “happy enough” ← (ADJ + adverb)
- “happy about the outcome” ← (ADJ + prepositional phrase)
- “happy relaxing by the pool” ← (ADJ + participial phrase)
- “happy to help” ← (ADJ + infinitive phrase)
- “happier than ever” ← (ADJ + adverbial clause)
Adjective Phrases can also be collections of adjectives linked together with a conjunction, as in “happy, healthy, and wise”.
Advanced Concepts
Restrictive Modifiers
Recall that specifying adjectives are crucial for understanding, as with ‘romantic’ in “I enjoy romantic movies.” In a different way, adjectives may or may not be essential to the structure of the sentence. If we remove ‘romantic’ from the previous example, we are left with “I enjoy movies,” which is still a complete sentence. So while ‘romantic’ is essential for the meaning of the sentence, it is not essential for the structure of the sentence. We call these ‘non-restrictive‘ (or ‘non-essential’).
But in the example “Hallie is hungry,” the adjective ‘hungry’ cannot be removed (that would leave us with “Hallie is”, which is not a complete sentence). This is an example of a ‘restrictive‘ (or ‘essential’) adjective. Whether an adjective is restrictive depends on its role or position within the sentence:
- Predicative adjectives and prepositional adjectives are restrictive.
- Attributive adjectives and discourse adjectives are non-restrictive.
The restrictiveness of adjectives is virtually inconsequential in English language learning. However, it does play a more important role in modifier clauses, especially Relative Clauses (which serve a role similar to adjectives).
Substantives
Sometimes, an adjective can serve the role of a nominal. This applies when the unvoiced noun is obvious from the context. Substantive adjectives, also called nominalized adjectives, both modify their nouns and take the place of those nouns in the sentence. Substantives must be preceded by ‘the’.
For example, in “The new fashion catered exclusively to the rich,” the adjective ‘rich’ functions as the recipient noun (similar to an indirect object) in the form of a prepositional object. Here, “the rich” means “rich people”. Since it should be obvious that the true noun is ‘people’, it can be unvoiced, and the substantive adjective takes on its grammatical role.
Substantives often represent people groups, and common substantives include the blind, the deaf, the disabled, the poor, the rich, and the wealthy, along with people from a certain place, as in the Dutch, the English, the French, the Irish, etc. Substantives like these work as generalizations (applying to their nouns as a whole, but not necessarily every single member of that noun).
Substantives can also come into play when contrasting two nouns of the same noun type. For example: “She likes the blue car, but I like the green.” These substantives do not represent collective nouns or establish generalizations like the ones in the previous two paragraphs. But the nouns they do represent are still obvious… this time because they were previously stated (substantives like these are similar to pronouns in this way).
Attributive Nouns
The inverse of substantives is attributive nouns (aka qualifying nouns); while substantive adjectives are lexical adjectives that act like nouns, attributive nouns are lexical nouns that act like adjectives.
As modifiers, attributive nouns represent a specific type, style, purpose, or origin of the referent noun. For example, ‘a wine glass’ refers to a drinking glass designed specifically for wine, and ‘delicious chicken soup’ is soup made from chicken.
Attributive nouns come immediately before the nouns the modify. They should come after any pre-nominal adjectives, which fits well with the usual order of adjectives, since attributive nouns would fit best within the design category.
Limiters
Limiters, or Limiting Adjectives, is a loosely-defined sub-category of adjectives that also function as post-determiners. Also known as intensifiers, these adjectives narrow the field of possible nouns (much like determiners do) by stating what is distinct about them. While other adjectives may specify a noun, they are generally context-specific. (For example, the adjective in “the metal pan” is only specific if only one of the pans in the context is metal. In a different context, ‘metal’ might be a descriptor, but not unique enough to be a specifier.) In contrast, the definitions of Limiting Adjectives make them specifiers in just about any context.
Here are just some of the adjectives that could be categorized as Limiters:
- ‘real’, ‘genuine’, ‘true’
- ‘only’, ‘sole’, ‘lone’, ‘single’
- ‘whole’, ‘entire’, ‘complete’, ‘full’
- ‘primary’, ‘top’, ‘chief’, ‘principal’, ‘main’
- ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘previous’, ‘latest’, ‘last’, ‘final’
- ‘favorite’, ‘featured’, ‘signature’, ‘key’, ‘notable’
- ‘certain’, ‘particular’, ‘specific’, ‘exact’
- ‘best’, ‘worst’, ‘finest’, ‘greatest’
- ‘rare’, ‘odd’, ‘occasional’
- ‘mere’, ‘utter’
- ‘other’
Any Superlative can also function as a Limiter.
Limiting Adjectives can come either before or after amounts, especially numerals. But the order can make a difference. For example, in “the three best nights of my life,” the speaker is likely talking about three disparate nights; but in “the best three nights of my life,” the speaker is likely talking about three nights that occurred back-to-back, forming a single experience.
Limiters should almost always be preceded by ‘the’, ‘my’, or some other central determiner.
See Also
More Adjectives
Nominal Phrases
More Modifiers
Lexical Classes (Parts of Speech)
Noun Phrases: Determiners • Adjectives • Nouns • Pronouns
Verb Strings: Auxiliary Verbs {Modal Verbs} • Adverbs • Verbs
Subsets of Verbs: Linking Verbs • Stative Verbs • Irregular Verbs
Linkers: Conjunctions • Adpositions
