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I have observed that in some sentences adjectives are used after nouns, whereas in some sentences adjectives are used before nouns. Or, if my understanding is wrong about these, in the first sentence they work as adjectives and in the second one, they work as verbs.

Could you please clarify?

1) Please find an example in the below given sentence. (before)
2) Please find an example in the below sentence given. (after)

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    The standard order would be sentence given below. Here, below goes with given (I can't decide whether it's an adverb or a complement), so below sentence given is utterly wrong.
    – Peter Shor
    Feb 14, 2015 at 14:28
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    It's a reduced relative clause, like most of the choppy chunks we get here. The sentence (which is) given below is where it comes from, and Whiz-Deletion does the rest, leaving a two-word modifier given below that must appear after the noun it modifies, with the words in that order.
    – John Lawler
    Feb 14, 2015 at 16:05
  • Thank you both of you. As of now I was thinking that "below" and "given" are an adjective in sentence mentioned above , but according to you these are modifier, therefore could you please tell me what is difference between "modifier" and "adjective"
    – Charmi Sapariya
    Feb 15, 2015 at 8:38
  • "adjective" is old term for the "part of speech" (word) that modifies a noun. " modifier" is broader, and function-oriented; it includes any word or words that are USED to modify a noun, regardless which "part of speech" they are. In this case, "given" is a participle and "below" is an adverb (although in other situations you might call "below" a preposition)
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Feb 17, 2015 at 9:46
  • Thank you Brian...I have an question 1) does "modifier" always come AFTER "Noun" or it can come BEFORE also?
    – Charmi Sapariya
    Feb 23, 2015 at 6:11

1 Answer 1

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Adjectives qualify nouns or people.

A new big wooden bed (= the bed is a noun. New, big and wooden are adjectives.)

A beautiful slim dark-haired American girl(=the girl is a people. Beuatiful, slim and dark-haired and American are adjectives.)

Attributive adjectives PRECEDE the noun or people.

clever girl(=Adjective before people.)

coloured dress(=Adjective before noun.)

big duck(=Adjective before noun.)

Predicative adjectives FOLLOW the noun or people.

The shoes look expensive (='The shoes' are the subject, 'look' is the linking verb and 'expensive' is a predicative adjective. Follow the noun.)

But if we say:

The expensive shoes (='expensive' is become to attributive adjective. There isn't linking verb. Precede the noun.)

Other example;

The lorry is broken-down (='The lorry' is the subject, 'is' is the linking verb and 'broken-down' is a predicative adjective. Follow the noun.)

But if we say:

The broken-down lorry (='broken-down' is become to attributive adjective. Precede the noun.)

Everything depends of what you want to say.

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