Adjectives and Adjective Clauses

Adjectives and
Adjective Clauses
- Adjective Order

In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a
noun -- for example, "He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic
woman." When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the
right order, according to type. This page will explain the different types
of adjectives and the correct order for them.

The basic types of adjectives

Opinion	An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you). Examples: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult
Size	A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. Examples: large, tiny, enormous, little
Age	An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. Examples: ancient, new, young, old
Shape	A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples: square, round, flat, rectangular
Colour	A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something. Examples: blue, pink, reddish, grey
Origin	An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
Material	A material adjective describes what something is made from. Examples: wooden, metal, cotton, paper
Purpose	A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with "-ing". Examples: sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin")

Some examples of adjective order

	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Origin	Material	Purpose
a	silly		young			English			man
a		huge		round			metal		bowl
a		small			red			sleeping	bag

Adjectives and Adjective Clauses
- Adjective Clauses

Here is a brief review of adjective clauses and relative pronouns.

	An adjective clause is used to describe a noun:
The car, which was red, belonged to Young-Hee.

	A relative pronoun is usually used to introduce an adjective clause:
Young-Hee, who is a Korean student, lives in Victoria.

The main relative pronouns are:
	Who: used for humans in subject position::
Hans, who is an architect, lives in Berlin.

	Whom: used for humans in object position::
Marike, whom Hans knows well, is an interior decorator.

	Which: used for things and animals in subject or object position::
Marike has a dog which follows her everywhere.

	That: used for humans, animals and things, in subject or object position (but see below)::
Marike is decorating a house that Hans designed.

There are two main kinds of adjective clause:
	Non-defining clauses: give extra information about the noun, but they are not essential:
The desk in the corner, which is covered in books, is mine.
(We don't need this information in order to understand the sentence. "The desk in the corner is mine" is a good sentence on its own -- we still know which desk is referred to. Note that non-defining clauses are usually separated by commas, and that is not usually used in this kind of context.)

	Defining clauses: give essential information about the noun:
The package that arrived this morning is on the desk.
(We need this information in order to understand the sentence. Without the relative clause, we don't know which package is being referred to. Note that that is often used in defining relative clauses, and they are not separated by commas.)

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» الجمل الظرفية adverb clauses
» Participial Adjectives