英语单词短语词组“grammar/british-grammar/adjective-phrases-functions”的中文翻译、释义及用法解析-英汉词典

One of the main functions ofadjective phrases is that they go with nouns and change or add to their meaning.

Hair:blackhair,brownhair,straight blondehair,long redhair.

Adjective phrases before a noun are called attributive phrases.

	adjective phrase	noun
She speaks in a	very slow	voice.
We never cycle in	heavy	rain.
I’d love a cup of	hot	chocolate.

Adjective phrases before a noun occur after determiners.

	determiner	adjective phrase	noun
Sarah is	my	youngest	sister.
Where are	the	really big	bowls?
I know	some	very good	restaurants.

If the head of the noun phrase is one of the following pronouns, the adjective phrase occurs after the pronoun:

anyone	everyone	no one	someone
anybody	everybody	nobody	somebody
anything	everything	nothing	something
anywhere	everywhere	nowhere	somewhere

	noun phrase
	head	adjective phrase
There’s	nowhere	nice	to go for a walk here.
I have	nothing	good	to say about it as a holiday resort.
There’s	something	terribly sad	about saying goodbye, isn’t there?
Let’s go	somewhere	different.

If an attributive adjective needs a word or phrase to complete its meaning (a complement), either the whole adjective phrase or just its complement must follow the head noun.

Compare

Are they asimilarcolour?	adjective (in bold) with no complement
She was wearing a dresssimilarto the one that she wore when she first met her husband.	adjective (in bold) and complement (underlined) both after the noun head (dress)
I was living in asimilarapartmentto this one.	adjective (in bold) before the noun head (apartment); complement (underlined) after the noun head

Warning:

For a number of adjectives, the whole adjective phrase must follow the noun when a complement of the adjective is used. These includeclosed, eager, full, happy, keen, open, ready, responsible, (un)willing, worth.

	noun phrase	adjective phrase + complement
Who is	the person	responsible for security?
	Fans	keen to get a ticket	waited all night in the queue.
We have	a boat	ready to leave in an hour.

The second main function of an adjective phrase is to be a complement to a verb. It completes the meaning of verbs that describe what the subject is, does or experiences. These verbs includebe,seem,become, feel, smell, taste(linking verbs). When adjective phrases complement verbs, this is called their predicative function.

	subject	linking verb	adjective phrase
	I	felt	sad.
	This soup	smells	really wonderful.
She thought	the room	was	very strange.
	That coffee	tastes	too strong.

We also use adjective phrases to give more information about an object(underlined) so as to complete its meaning (object complement):

Sitting in traffic drivesmecrazy.

The fire has madethe roommuch warmer.

Money doesn’t always makeushappy.

Adjective phrases: functions

Adjective phrases with nouns

Adjective phrases with verbs (Brenda is happy)

Object complements