2. Introduction
Most people know what an adjective is, but when it comes to
describing an adjective phrase, they get confused. Some are
mistaken and think that this type of phrase is a group of words
that has an adjective in it. Although this may be true, this is not
an effective phrase. This type of phrase is actually a group of
words that serves to describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence,
thus functioning as an adjective. You do not have to be and
English teacher or grammar buff to understand what an
adjective phrase is or how it works: in fact, we use these
phrases all of the time in writing and in spoken English without
thinking about them.
4. Many people wonder how to pick out
adjective phrases within sentences. The
trick to identifying one in a sentence is
to look at the first word of the group of
words. If the first word is an adverb or
preposition, there is a good chance that
the phrase is an adjective phrase. Ask
yourself, what is this phrase modifying?
Is it describing the noun? If the group of
words does in fact modify the noun or
subject of the clause or sentence, then
the phrase is in fact an adjective phrase.
6. An adjective phrase is formed out of
either an intensifier and an adjective,
or alternatively, more than one
adjective in a row. In the first case,
an example might be “very beautiful”
in the sentence, “The very beautiful
woman walked down the street.”
8. Many people are surprised to learn
that adjective phrases do not just
modify nouns: they can also modify
pronouns! Look at the following two
examples: “He is from Boston” and
“Tom is from Boston” both have an
adjective phrase, namely, “from
Boston.”
9. It does not matter if the noun is a
pronoun or not: the adjective phrase
still functions in the same way. If you
are looking for a more complex way
to modify a noun than just using a
simple adjective, try using this type
of phrase! Use many adjectives in a
row, use a phrase with a preposition,
or a phrase starting with an adverb to
modify the noun at hand.
10. Strings of Adjectives:
Why use one adjective when you could
be very descriptive and use several to
describe an object? A string of
adjectives can come together as an
adjective phrase in order to describe
a noun.
11. For example in the sentence, “Sally is
a nice girl,” there is one adjective,
namely, nice. However, in the
sentence, “Sally is a nice, intelligent,
beautiful, and kind girl,” an adjectival
phrase is employed in order to come
together and describe Sally.
13. The term adjectival phrase is sometimes used
instead of adjective phrase. However, there is
tendency to call a phrase an adjectival phrase in
such a case where that phrase is functioning
like an adjective phrase would, but does not
contain an actual adjective. For example, in Mr.
Clinton is a man of wealth, the prepositional
phrase of wealth modifies a man the way an
adjective would, and it could be reworded with
an adjective, e.g. Mr. Clinton is a wealthy man.
Similarly, that boy is friendless (the adjective
"friendless" modifies the noun "boy") and That
boy is without a friend (a prepositional phrase
where "without a friend" modifies "boy").
14. Similarly, the term adjectival phrase is commonly
used for any phrase in attributive position,
whether it is technically an adjective phrase,
noun phrase, or prepositional phrase. These
may be more precisely distinguished as phrasal
attributives or attributive phrases. This
definition is commonly used in English style
guides for writing, where the terms attributive
and adjective are frequently treated as
synonyms, because attributive phrases are
typically hyphenated, whereas predicative
phrases generally are not, despite both
modifying a noun.
16. The best way to understand this type
of phrase and how it functions is to
examine some examples of these
phrases in action. Let’s take a look at
an example with an adjective: “The
beautiful house” and “The house that
is beautiful” mean the same thing,
but the former has an adjective,
whereas the latter has an adjectival
phrase.
17. Another set of examples is, “the angry
dog” and “the dog that is acting very
angry.” The latter phrase uses the
phrase “that is acting very angry” to
modify the subject, which is the noun
“dog.” Thus, the latter example has
an adjectival phrase.
18. Some adjective phrases modify
nouns or noun phrases, Following
are some sentences with the
phrases underlined:
19. The very small kitten jumped at the
big dog.
The cost of the car was way too high.
The man covered with sweat, trudged
his way home.
21. We were saddened by the news of his
demise.
The brownies smell deliciously sweet.
I was delighted that he was chosen.
22. Adjective phrases can also modify
objects and will follow the word
they are modifying. Examples are:
23. She wanted to paint her room lemony
yellow.
My new kitten makes me very happy.
I sometimes pity people living in
large cities.
24. Adjective Phrase Examples:
An adjective phrase is a group of
words that describe a noun or
pronoun in a sentence. The adjective
phrase can be placed before, or after,
the noun or pronoun in the sentence.
25. Adjective Phrase Examples:
The movie was not too terribly long.
A person smarter than me needs to
figure this out.
The final exams were unbelievably
difficult.
This pie is very
delicious and extremely expensive.
She is rather fond of skiing.
26. Adjective Phrases in Literature:
It was cold, bleak, biting weather. -
Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol
He's an extraordinary looking man,
and yet I can really name nothing out
of the way. - Robert Louis Stevenson
in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde
27. As you can see from the examples, an
adjective phrase can be a very helpful
grammar tool to better describe the
subject of the sentence.
