Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun:

the blue sea	~ the sea is blue
the old man	~ the man is old
happy children	~ the children are happy

Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.

Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions:

the Governor General the Princess Royal times past

We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun:

something useful everyone present those responsible

Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives:

the shortest route possible the worst conditions imaginable the best hotel available

Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive and the predicative positions. However, a small number of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For example, the adjective main (the main reason) can only occur in the attributive position (predicative: *the reason is main). Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child was afraid) can only occur predicatively (attributive: *an afraid child).

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