Adjective Phrases

Adjective Phrases

Definition of adjective phrases is  a word group with an adjective as its head. This adjective may be accompanied by modifiers, determiners, and/or qualifiers.
Adjective phrases modify nouns. They may be attributive (appearing before the noun) or predicative (appearing after a linking verb), but not all adjectives can be used in both positions.

 See the examples.

- Prehistoric people lived in stone houses.

=> Prehistoric people lived in house built of stone (adjective phrase)

- Maya is a girl with a kind heart. (adjective phrase)

 

Sometimes a group of words can does the work of an adjective. Read the sentences given below:

a)    My grandfather was a wealthy man.
b)    My grandfather was a man of great wealth.

In sentence (a), the word wealthy modifies the noun man. It therefore does the work of an adjective. In sentence (b), the group of words of great wealth tells us what sort of a man my grandfather was. It qualifies the noun man just as an adjective does. A group of words which does the work of an adjective is called an adjective phrase.

More examples are given below:

The chief lived in a wooden house. (Adjective – wooden)
The chief lived in a house built of wood. (Adjective phrase – built of wood)
They belong to a hill tribe. (Adjective – hill)
They belong to a tribe dwelling in the hills. (adjective phrase – dwelling in the hills)

We move on to a specific basic English explanation. We have seen that sometimes a group of words does the work of an adjective, besides the single word of adjective itself.  just  want to remind you that I have posted related article about Adjective Clause and The differences of Adjective Clause and Adjective Phrase. To make it short, now examine the following pairs of sentences:

1.   (a) He is a kind man.

(b) He is a man with a kindly nature.

2.   (a) I love to see a smiling face.

(b) I love to see a face with a smile on it.

3.   (a) Jude Law is a brown-eyed actor.

(b) Jude Law is an actor with brown eyes.

In each of the above pairs of sentences, we have first a single word describing the person or thing denoted by the noun, and then a group of words describing the person or thing denoted by the same noun.

For instance, the group of words with a kindly nature tells us what short of man he is. It qualifies the noun man just as an Adjective does. It therefore does the work of an Adjective and is called an Adjective Phrase.

DEFINITION:

An Adjective Phrase is a group of words that does the work of an Adjective.

ADJECTIVES AND ADJECTIVE PHRASES STUDY:

NO	ADJECTIVES	ADJECTIVE PHRASES
1	A white man	A man with a white skin
2	A blank paper	A paper with no writing on it
3	The Italian style	The style of Italian
4	A sad face	A face with tears on it
5	A hill tribe	A tribe dwelling in the hills