ATTRIBUTIVE AND PREDICATIVE USE

Adjectives from the first five categories (page 5, “Kinds of Adjectives”) come before their nouns: this book, each person, which pen, my house and are called attributive adjectives.

Adjectives of quality, however, can be used either before their nouns, i.e.
attributively: a happy man a clever boy a nice day

or after certain verbs, i.e. predicatively.

e.g. The hot sun beat down on us all day. ─ The sun was hot.

The high price surprised him. ─ The price seemed high.

These verbs are called link verbs. They are:

a) be, become, seem

b) appear, feel, get/grow (= become), keep look (= appear), make, smell,
sound, taste, turn.

But a problem with verbs in group b) is that when they are not used as
link verbs they can be modified by adverbs in the usual way.

Compare: She turned pale (adjective). (= She became pale)

She turned angrily (adverb).

The soup tasted strange. (adjective)

He tasted that dish suspiciously. (adverb)

Some adjectives can be used only attributively or only predicatively, and
some can move from one position to the other, very often with the change of
meaning. Compare how the meaning of early and late depends on their
position: an early / late train means a train scheduled to run early or late in
the day. The train is early / late means that it is before / after its proper time.

Some adjectives are seldom or never used before the noun they describe. These include:

Some of these 'a-' adjectives have related adjectives that can be used either before a noun or after a linking verb. Compare:

The animal was alive. and A living animal, (or The animal was living.)

Other pairs like this include:

afraid - frightened, alike - similar, asleep - sleeping.

Notice that (un)happy can be used in both positions:

He's an unhappy man. and The man felt unhappy.

Some classifying and emphasizing adjectives are seldom or never used after a linking verb. For example, we can talk about 'a nuclear explosion', but we can't say 'The explosion was nuclear.'

Other adjectives like this include:

Some adjectives can be used immediately after a noun. These include:

• some -ible and -able adjectives such as available, imaginable, possible, suitable. However, we use these adjectives immediately after a noun only when the noun follows words such as first, last, next, only and superlative adjectives, or when a prepositional phrase follows the adjective:

e.g. It's the only treatment suitable, (or ...the only suitable treatment.)

It is an offer available to club members only.

• concerned, involved, opposite, present, responsible. These words have different meanings when they are used before a noun and immediately after it. Compare:

e.g. I was asked for my present address. (= my address now)

All the people present (= who were there) approved of the decision.

The party was excellent, and I'd like to thank all the people concerned (= involved).

Cars drive too fast past the school and concerned (= worried) teachers have complained to the police.

Exercise 47. Ann has been married for several years. She’s looking at old photographs and writing comments on them. Complete each comment by choosing the correct words in brackets.

1. When I first met Karl he always dressed so (smart / smartly).

2. But after a month or two he started to look (awful / awfully)!

3. And when I took him home for the first time he behaved (dreadful / dreadfully).

4. Karl always looked (good / well) on the tennis court, but he never played (good / well).

5. This meal we had together in the south of France tasted (delicious / deliciously).

6. When I took this picture, Karl said I shouldn’t make fun of an (ill / sick) man.

7. On our wedding day the church bells sounded (wonderful / wonderfully), and the organist played the wedding march (loud / loudly) as we left the church.

8. As for the weather, our wedding day seemed (perfect / perfectly) – then the rain came down!

Exercise 50. Choose one verb and one adjective from these lists to complete each sentence.

Verbs: come, fall, feel, get, go, grow, keep, make, sit, turn

Adjectives: asleep, better, blue, ill, mad, old, quiet, sure, still, true

1. I was so tired that I _______ in the chair. 2. Do dreams ever _______? 3. I hear you’ve been ill. I hope you’ll _______ soon. 4. I think I’ll _______ if I hear that song again! 5. My hair’s grey and my teeth are falling out. I must be ______. 6. Please ______ or you’ll wake the baby. 7. Don’t move! Just ______ while I cut your hair. 8. Have you put all the lights out? I’ll just go and ______. 9. He was so cold that his nose ______. 10. Jane was _______ so she went to the doctor’s.

Exercise 51. Decide whether the underlined words are right or wrong. Correct those which are wrong.

1. We lost the match because we didn’t play very good. (wrong – well ) 2. Ann has been working hard recently. 3. Give my best wishes to your parents. I hope they are well. 4. The children behaved themselves very good. 5. I tried hardly to remember his name but I couldn’t. 6. The company’s financial situation is not well at present. 7. Jack has started his own business. Everything is going quite good. 8. Don’t walk so fast! Can’t you walk more slowly? 9. See you soon! Don’t work too hard.

Exercise 52. Decide whether the underlined words are right or wrong.

Example: The driver of the car was serious injured. wrong – seriously

1. Be quiet, please! I’m trying to concentrate. 2. I waited nervous in the waiting-room before the interview. 3. Why were you so unfriendly when I saw you yesterday? 4. It rained continuous for three days. 5. Alice and Stan are very happy married. 6. Tom’s French is not very good but his German is almost fluent. 7. Eva lived in America for five years, so she speaks very well English. 8. Everybody at the party was very colourful dressed. 9. Ann likes wearing colourful clothes. 10. Sue is terrible upset about losing her job.

Exercise 53. Complete each sentence with a verb and an adjective from the lists.

A: feel, smell, look, sound, seem, taste

B: awful, nice, fine, upset, interesting, wet

1. Ann seemed upset this morning. Do you know what was wrong? 2. I can’t eat this. I’ve just tried it and it ______. 3. Jim told me about his new job last night. It ______ quite ______ , much better than his old job. 4. I wasn’t very well yesterday but I ______ today. 5. What beautiful flowers! They ______ too. 6. You ______. Have you been out in the rain?

Exercise 54. Choose the right word, adjective or adverb.

1. Drive careful / carefully! 2. Please shut the door quiet / quietly. 3. This soup tastes nice / nicely. 4. Tom cooks very well / good. 5. Don’t go up that ladder. It doesn’t look safe / safely. 6. We were relieved that he arrived safe / safely after his long journey. 7. Do you feel nervous / nervously before examinations? 8. Hurry up! You are always so slow / slowly. 9. He looked at me angry / angrily when I interrupted him. 10. The child’s skin feels smooth / smoothly. 11. Everything went smooth / smoothly. 12. The film ended bad / badly. 13. He answered nice / nicely. 14. Your cooking is good / well. 15. She looked nice / nicely. 16. John looked sad / sadly when I saw him. 17. John looked at me sad / sadly. 18. The water smells well / good. 19. The dinner smells good / well.

Exercise 55. Translate the words in brackets.

1. What beautiful roses! They (хорошо пахнут) too. 2. Jack read his new story to me. It (звучало интересно). I hope the editor will like it. 3. I can't eat it. It (ужасно на вкус) and there is too much salt in it. 4. I wasn't very well yesterday but today I (чувствую себя прекрасно). 5. Is it raining outside? You (выглядишь промокшим). 6. Janet (казалась расстроенной) yesterday. Do you know what had happened?

Exercise 56. Translate into English.

1. Он зло посмотрел на меня, когда я прервал (interrupt) его. 2. Пожалуйста, закрывай дверь тихо, ребенок спит. 3. Ты можешь быть хоть минутку спокойным? Я так устала. Посиди спокойно (quiet). 4. Том прекрасно себя ведет и хорошо готовит. 5. Мне это не нравится, все это дело выглядит небезопасным. 6. Все волнения были позади. Он прибыл живым и здоровым. 7. Поторопись! Ты такой медлительный. 8. Суп вкусный (прекрасный на вкус). 9. Веди машину осторожно. Кажется, дорога очень скользкая. 10. Она была печальна; она печально смотрела на меня.

Exercise 60. Which words or phrases in the second column explain the words or phrases in the first column? Remember that some adjectives change in meaning according to their position − before or after a noun.

Example: This elect body meets once a year. (before a noun = specially chosen)

The president elect takes over in May. (after a noun = who has been elected)

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 2350