Level: intermediate
Two adjectives
We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:
a handsome young man
a big black car
that horrible big dog
Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun:
good bad lovely strange |
nice beautiful brilliant excellent |
awful important wonderful nasty |
He's a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful teacher.
That's a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful book.
Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of noun, for example:
Food | Furniture, buildings | People, animals |
---|---|---|
delicious tasty |
comfortable uncomfortable |
clever intelligent friendly |
We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:
nice tasty soup
a nasty uncomfortable armchair
a lovely intelligent animal
We usually put an opinion adjective in front of a descriptive adjective:
a nice red dress
a silly old man
those horrible yellow curtains
- Order of adjectives 1
- Order of adjectives 2
Adjectives after link verbs
We use some adjectives only after a link verb:
afraid alive alone asleep content glad |
ill ready sorry sure unable well |
Some of the commonest -ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:
annoyed bored finished pleased thrilled |
We say:
Our teacher was ill.
My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
The policeman seemed to be very annoyed.
but we do not say:
We had
an ill teacher.
When he heard the news he wasa very glad uncle.
He seemed to bea very annoyed policeman.
- Order of adjectives 3
Level: advanced
Three or more adjectives
Sometimes we have three adjectives in front of a noun, but this is unusual:
a nice handsome young man
a big black American car
that horrible big fierce dog
It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.
Adjectives usually come in this order:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General opinion | Specific opinion | Size | Shape | Age | Colour | Nationality | Material |
- Order of adjectives 4
Adjectives in front of nouns
A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:
north |
northern southern eastern western |
countless occasional lone mere |
indoor outdoor |
We say:
He lives in the eastern district.
There were countless problems with the new machinery.
but we do not say:
The district he lives in is eastern.
The problems with the new machinery were countless.
Hello agie,
'Suitable' sounds positive but not particularly enthusiastic. It tells us that the house is the right size/location etc, but not that we really like it.
You can use any thesaurus to find alternative ways to say 'good'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Cloudy Cloudy
In reality, it's very unusual to use more than a couple of adjectives in a series, so most of the time the order here and whatever order you saw elsewhere will probably yield the same result. We think the most useful order to learn is the one on our page.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Backlight
No, the list of adjectives in Adjectives in front of nouns is not comprehensive -- in other words, there are other adjectives like these one. A complete grammar reference for English would be extremely long; what we provide here is what we feel are the most important points for learners of English.
I think I have answered your question, but if not, please feel free to ask us again.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie,
You need to include an adjective before 'enough' in the first sentence: '...is high enough to...'
The second sentence does not seem to make sense. I'm not sure why you have 'I' there. You could say 'It is far from enough', where 'it' refers to your level and the word 'high' is omitted because it was used in a previous sentence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello InmaLD
I'm afraid there is no easy way to explain this; it's just the way English is used. Anyone would understand the sentence you propose, but it would sound unnatural to native speakers.
By the way, our House Rules ask you to write only in English so that everyone can understand your comments. I have translated your question into English, but in the future we won't be able to do this for you.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MissR
The rules here are guidelines, which means they don't explain every single possibility. If you explained the full context, that might help us be able to explain it.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Pablo Diablo
Yes, despite the differences in name, that's the idea. The important thing is distinguishing between an opinion and something more objective.
In that example, 'delicious' is an opinion and 'fried' is a fact/description. For example, for many people, fried chicken is delicious, but for vegans it is disgusting. On the other hand, a fried chicken is fried whether you are a vegan or a meat-eater.
Does that make sense?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Roman...
You can find this in the Verbs section of our English grammar reference.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Goktung123,
The first sentence has a mistake. It should be '...as you to run with'.
In terms of meaning there is only one distinction.
The first sentence makes it clear that the point of comparison is 'you': ...someone as wild as you...
The second sentence leaves this ambiguous: ...someone just as wild (as who?)...
Of course, the context may make this clear.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Goktug123
I hope you don't mind me answering for Peter. I'm not completely sure I understand your question, but let me answer what I think you are asking about.
The 'as + adj + as' structure does quantify the adjective, but this quantification is relative to another person. In 'She is just as brave as me', 'me' is this reference point, but if you don't mention who the other person is after the second 'as', then it must be understood from context -- for example, maybe the sentences before explain who this person is and how brave they are. There must be another person whose bravery is described for this structure to make sense.
'She is brave enough to run with me' also quantifies 'her' bravery, but her bravery is not compared to my bravery -- it is relative to whatever it is about my running that requires bravery. Again, this has to be understood from the context.
I hope this answers your question, but if not, please ask again, making your question as specific as possible.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Zeeshan Siddiqii,
The correct form here would be as required, without 'per'. I would suggest one or two other changes to make the sentence more natural:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Goktug123
Yes, that's right, 'printed' is an adjective here. In general, adjectives go before the noun they modify, so the first sentence is correct and the second one is not.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie
If you say you want your coffee black, it means with no milk. Everywhere I've been, they give you a packet of sugar so you can add it yourself if you want it. The same is true for an espresso.
If I were in a place where the server added the sugar, I'd say 'just a little sugar' to communicate that.
A suburb is technically outside a city. I'd probably say the 'northern part of Madrid'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello html,
It depends whether you are using a noun or an adjective.
The correct forms for nationalities using a noun are as follows:
If you use an adjective then no article is needed:
Note that the noun and the adjective sometimes look the same (American, for example).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi chrisp,
What I'd say is 'wavy, black hair'. To be honest, I don't think I'd ever say the second combination of adjectives -- it's quite rare to use more than a couple. But if I had to, I suppose I'd say 'short, curly, black hair'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie,
In this context 'funny' means strange or odd. That would suggest hours which are not typical or hours which are not regular, and certainly not regular 9-5.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi anie2,
Yes, 'full of life' is good. You could also say 'vibrant', but I wouldn't say 'vivid' or 'living' here.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Sasan1989,
My ear tells me that the correct order if 'distinct healthy sport'. I'm afraid, however, that since I don't understand what a 'distinct sport' would be, it's difficult for me to justify or explain my intuition. If you could explain what you mean by this and what context it would be in, I can try to help you understand it a bit better.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amol,
You only need to use the article once. It is not grammatically incorrect to repeat it, but it is poor stylistically.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Elusik,
All of them are correct and it is really a question of style and context as to which is preferable in a given example.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi mitykg,
Task 3 covers characteristics of some adjectives. 'afraid', for example, is not used predicatively, i.e. before a noun -- this is mentioned in the explanation above where it says that some adjectives are used only after a link verb. Therefore, the third option in the first sentence is incorrect, since 'afraid' is not used this way.
The other pairs of adjectives work similarly -- the first ones are not use predicatively, whereas the second ones are.
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Van Hua,
Thank you for letting us know about this. It seems that some of the links here are not working correctly. I have passed it on to our technical team and I hope they will fix the problem quickly.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team