42
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Why use an adjective after a noun?
Rather than Noun + Adjective, it can be thought of as Noun that is Adj, which uses relative clause but that is is omitted.
We always have to go to, you know, someplace that is nice.
Is there ...
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12
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Accepted
Why use an adjective after a noun?
There are two possible mechanisms that could explain the position of the adjective in the example sentences that you provided: postpositive adjectives and whiz-deletion.
When you apply an adjective ...
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5
votes
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What is the difference between an adjective before the noun and after the noun?
The problem is that grammar is somewhat tied to meaning here. The position of an adjective in a sentence depends on its role.
When used attributively (to describe a noun), as stated in other comments ...
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Noun + anonymous examples
Those are both names of organizations. There are many organizations with names that follow that pattern. The first was Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which is an organization to help alcoholics quit (and ...
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4
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When should I add an adjective behind the noun?
Those are not exactly adjectives. In English, almost always, and by "almost always" I mean 99.99% of the time, adjectives go before the noun they modify except in situations where adjectives like ...
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4
votes
When do we put adjectives before or after nouns?
Adjectives usually go before nouns in English.
Adjectives can be a subject complement, in which case they will follow a linking verb as described below. The following is an excerpt from here that ...
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3
votes
Accepted
To adverb or not to adverb? How about using a postpostive adjective?
Native AmE speaker. "Independently" and "independent" are modifying different parts of your sentence. Which you choose depends on your intended meaning, see emphasis below.
1) Not only do ...
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provided chart vs chart provided
Both of these options are grammatically correct.
However, if you have to pick between the two, the second option sounds a bit better.
i.e. The charts provided illustrate the information about ...
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3
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Is this sentence grammatically correct? "the birth a planet the size of Jupiter"
This is grammatically incorrect:
...witnessed the birth a planet...
Since it was the birth of something that was witnessed, you need to add of:
...witnessed the birth of a planet...
A ...
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3
votes
"Delusions dispelled" What grammar construction is this? Is this an idiom?
It's an adjective: In "delusions dispelled" the participle is functioning as an adjective. This can cause confusion with language learners simply because there is a lot more emphasis and material on ...
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2
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proper -- can this postpositive adjective be substituted for "in and of itself"?
Short Answer:
No
Long Answer:
The expression in and of itself is defined by both the Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms and Random House Dictionary to mean either intrinsically or considered ...
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2
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One seldom upset
Upset describes the person in this case. It's not a separate noun.
I think what threw you is the "one". It's not used in the sense of "1 seldom upset" but rather in the sense of a short version of "...
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Accepted
proper -- can this postpositive adjective be substituted for "in and of itself"?
Both of those phrases are used to distinguish between a core concept or object and other things that may be linked to it, but they are used to eliminate different things.
The expression "X proper" ...
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Accepted
past -- a postpositive adjective?
Yes, past is an adjective following the noun. It's unconventional word order, but this can indeed be done in English.
The inverted word order gives the phrase a grand, majestic feeling. Here, though, ...
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2
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Plausibility notwithstanding and Otherwise?
Plausibility notwithstanding
It's not surprising that this confuses you: it involves both an unusual construction, an over-casual ellipsis, and at least one misuse.
Notwithstanding= “despite” acts ...
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2
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Accepted
Postpositive adjective and plural form
Yes, you can pluralize the nouns in phrases that use postpositive adjectives.
For example, matters unknown, things innumerable, accounts payable, poets laureate, attorneys general, and so on.
In ...
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2
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postpositive participles
Past participle verbs postmodifying nouns are non-finite clauses, not adjectives, not predicatives. So in your first example "gained" is a past-participial clause postmodifying "experience". Past-...
2
votes
She IS a two-time Academy Award nominee vs He WAS the champion of 2015 competition
The difference here is whether the honor is transient or lasting. Discerning which is which is a fuzzy area and beyond the scope of this question. But:
For transient honors, such as sports ...
2
votes
"the tangent line to a circle" vs. "the line tangent to a circle"
These are all idiomatic:
The house nearest to the state house.
A line tangent to a circle.
A cheap battery compatible with my aging APC UPS
Enough people say this to consider it idiomatic:
The ...
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2
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What is the difference between an adjective before the noun and after the noun?
In modern English adjectives are put before the noun they qualify.
There are however archaisms where this rule is violated, reminding us of older usage :
The Astronomer Royal, a knight errant, ...
2
votes
Accepted
Adjective Placement
The verb "keep" can have a predicative adjective following its object. Only a few verbs have this pattern: "make" and "keep" are the usual examples:
The card made him ...
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1
vote
Bill alone cannot solve this problem
They are both grammatically correct; they're using two different definitions of the adverb form. See https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alone#Adverb
Example "a" appears to be usage 2. Example &...
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"a movie worth seeing" or "a worth seeing movie"
Worth is used as a preposition here, and worth seeing is a prepositional or adjectival phrase describing the movie.
While adjectives in English usually come before the nouns they modify, adjectival ...
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"the tangent line to a circle" vs. "the line tangent to a circle"
Phrase 1
Idiomatic? you gotta be kidding. Tangent is a technical word. For technical stuff, you go for precise meaning, not idiom. Get the exact phrasing for the meaning that you want from a reliable ...
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1
vote
Accepted
"reason given" vs "given reason"
The former.
'That is the reason given' is interpreted by English speakers to implicitly read 'that is the reason that is given'. The latter is awkward in this case because 'the given reason' is ...
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the suggested exercises/ the exercises suggested
'Suggested' really only has one meaning, so in the first example, the two sentences are identical in meaning.
In your other example, however, with concerned people, there is indeed a significant ...
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What is the difference between an adjective before the noun and after the noun?
In modern English, the adjective should come before the noun it modifies.
Excited people are looking forward to seeing this event.
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Plausibility notwithstanding and Otherwise?
The construction X notwithstanding (and the somewhat less common sequence notwithstanding X) is a "qualifier" that modifies the immediately preceding or following statement/assertion within the ...
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1
vote
Accepted
One seldom upset
In this case, the adverb/adjective pair "seldom upset" acts as an adjective to describe "one." The phrase has an implied "that is," as in "one (that is) seldom upset."
This is very formal phrasing, ...
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proper -- can this postpositive adjective be substituted for "in and of itself"?
May be this could be helpful.
I've often corrected people around me, here in India. Let's take this conversation as an example.
Where do you live, Anand? ~ I live in Mumbai
Oh! Proper Mumbai? ...
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