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I know that dead is an adjective.

however, in two sentences,

  1. He is dead
  2. Dead man is over there.

I am confused of property of adjective.

It seemed that 1 used as predicative adjective, whereas 2 used as attributive adjective.

Am I right..?

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    It can also be a noun (bring out your dead) and an adverb (they are dead tired).
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 7:30
  • Your secoind example is incorrect. It needs the word "The" or "A" at the beginning. This isn't optional.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Aug 14, 2022 at 8:25

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Yes, you are correct. Dead can be used as a predicative and attributive adjective. Most adjectives can be used as both a predicative and attributive adjective.

  1. He is dead

dead comes after the linking verb is in this sentence, so it is a predicative adjective.

  1. The dead man is over there.

Dead comes before the noun man in this sentence, so it is an attributive adjective. An article "The" is also needed for English grammar.

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  • Yes, although I would point out that dead man is over there doesn't seem to be a complete sentence. Although it could be an example of left-edge deletion ("[The] dead man is over there"), if it's intended as a complete sentence we'd want to repair it somehow; the specific repair would depend on context that we don't have here.
    – user230
    Commented Jun 11, 2018 at 2:46

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