Adjective phrases: functions

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.
Where are	the	really big	bowls?
I know	some	very good	restaurants.

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.

Compare

Are they a similar colour?	adjective (in bold) with no complement
She was wearing a dress similar to the one that she wore when she first met her husband.	adjective (in bold) and complement (underlined) both after the noun head (dress)
I was living in a similar apartment to this one.	adjective (in bold) before the noun head (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.

	nounphrase	adjective phrase + complement
Who is	the person	responsible for security?
	Fans	keen to get a ticket	waited all night in the queue.
We have	a boat	ready to leave in an hour.

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 that describe what the subject is, does or experiences. These verbs include be, seem, become, feel, smell, taste (linking verbs). When adjective phrases complement verbs, this is called their predicative function.

	subject	linking verb	adjective phrase
	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