A few adjectives are used only or mostly in attributive position - i.e. with a noun. After a verb, other words must be used.
Elder and eldest are used in expressions like elder brother, eldest daughter (older and oldest are also possible). After a verb, only older and oldest can be used. Ex: My brother's three years older than me.
Live /laiv/ (meaning the opposite of 'dead') is only used attributively, mainly to talk about birds, animals etc (e.g. a live fish). In predicative position, we use alive (e.g. That fish is still alive). When live has other meanings, it can also be used predicatively (e.g. This broadcast comes to you live from Buenos Aires; You'll get an electric shock if you touch that wire - it's live).
When old is used with words like friend, it can mean that a relationship has lasted for a long time. In this case, it can only be used attributively. An old friend is one you have known for a long time; if you say My friend's quite old, you can only be talking about the person's age.
Little is mostly used in attributive position. We can say A nice little bouse, but we would probably say 'The house is small', not *The house is little. Learn later the difference between Little and Small.
Adjectives which are used to intensify (emphasize or strengthen) the meaning of a noun can only be used attributively. We can say 'He's a mere child; It's sheer madness; You bloody fool'; but mere, sheer (in this sense) and bloody (in this sense cannot normally be used after a verb.
Compound adjectives like one-eyed are usually used attributively, and adjectives made from nouns (like sports, in a sports car) are also mostly used attributively...
A few adjectives are used only or mostly in predicative position - i.e. after a verb.
A number of adjectives beginning with a- come in this group. For stance, you can say She's awake, but not *an awake girl. Other adjectives like this are afloat, afraid, alike, alight, alive, alone, asleep. Before nouns, other words usually have to be used: e.g. floating, instead of afloat, frightened instead of afraid, live /laiv/ instead of alive, sleeping and waking instead of asleep and awake. Note that very is not often used with some of these adjectives. Instead of *very awake we say wide awake; instead of *very asleep we say fast asleep; instead of *very alone we say very much alone or all alone or very lonely.
Ill and well are generally used only in predicative position. We can say*He's very well or You look ill, but not normally *a well man or *ill people. Instead, we would say a heathy man or sick people.
Two other words that are generally used only in predicative position are content and lit (e.g. I am feeling quite content; The candle's lit). On the other hand, contented and lighted can both be used in any position in a sentence.
Some attributive adjects come immediately after the noun, instead of before it. This happens in the following cases:
Present follows the noun when it means 'here' or 'there'. Compare the following:
the members present (= the ones who are there at the meeting)
the present members (= those who are members now)
Proper follows the noun when it means 'itself' or 'themselves'. Before the noun it means 'real', 'genuine'. Compare the following:
After the introduction we started the meeting proper.
Snowdon's not very high, but it's a proper mountain, not a hill.
Participles can be used as adjectives. When they are put with nouns, they sometimes come before and sometimes after, depending on the exact meaning. Compare the following:
There's a broken window in the kitchen.
The window broken yesterday will have to be paid for.
In the first example, broken is more like an ordinary adjective that it tells you what the window looks like, but does not really talk about the action of breaking. In the second example, broken is more like a verb which was broken yesterday. Here are some more expressions in which the participle must go after the noun:
the only place left the people taking part any person objecting
all children wishing to compete the success obtained in the first six months
Most of the people singing were women.
Some participles change their meaning according to their position.
Words ending in -ible or -able may also come after the noun that they are with. The rules for position are similar to those for participles.
It's the only solution possible. (or ...possible solution.)
Are there any tickets available?
I'd like to speak to the person responsible.
When an adjective is part of a longer expression, like clever at games, it normally comes after the noun. We would say Any boy clever at games... or Any boy who is clever at games..., not *Any clever at games boy... In some cases, the adjective can be put before the noun and the rest of the expression after it.
a different life from this one
the next house to the Royal Hotel.
This is possible with different, similar, next, last, first, second, etc; easy, difficult, impossible; comparatives and superlatives; the same; enough.
a difficult problem to solve
the second train on this platform
the best mother in the world
Adjectives come after something, everything, anything, nothing, somebody, anywhere, and similar words.
Have you read anything interesting lately?
Let's go somewhere quiet.
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