Adjectives that can change in meaning before a noun or after «be»
Some common adjectives can change their meaning according to their position
(early, faint, fine, heavy, ill, late, old, sick).
a) When old is used with words like friend, it can mean that a relationship has lasted for a long time. In this case, it can only be used attributively. An old friend is one you have known for a long time; if you say My friend’s quite old, you can only be talking about person’s age.
b)
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Sick means «ill» and also means «upset in the stomach»
Adjectives used after a noun
1.Some adjectives that describe size or age can come after a noun group consisting of a number or determiner and a noun that indicates the unit of measurement.
| deep | high | long | old | tall | thick | wide |
He was about six feet tall.
The water was several metres deep.
The baby is nine months old.
! Note that you do not say “two pounds heavy”, you say “two pounds in weight”.
2. A few adjectives are used alone after a noun.
| designate | galore | incarnate |
There are empty houses galore.
Adjectives before and after nouns with a change of meaning.
1.A few adjectives have a different meaning depending on whether they come in front of or after a noun.
| concerned | involved | present | proper | responsible | elect | adopted |
a) For example, “the concerned mother” means a mother who is worried, but “the mother concerned” means the mother who has been mentioned.
concerned parents – (worried) -заинтересованные (озабоченные) родители;
the individuals concerned – (connected with this) -заинтересованные лица;
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the involved people (connected with) – связанные с, замешанные в
It’s one of those incredibly involved stories.
The people involved are all doctors.
с) present follows the noun when it means ‘here’ or ‘there’ and it means “existing now’ when it is used in front of a noun.
Compare: the members present (=the ones who are there at the meeting)
The present members (= those who are members now)
I’m worried about the present situation.( теперешняя /настоящая ситуация)
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Of the 18 people present, I knew only one.( 18 присутствующих человек)
d) proper means ‘itself’ or ‘themselves’ when it follows the noun. Before the noun it means ‘real’, ‘genuine’. Compare:
After the introduction we started the meeting proper.
Snow don’s not very high, but it’s a proper mountain, not a hill.
e) responsible means “blamed for” when it follows the noun and “with a sense of
duty” when used in front of a noun.
Her parents were trying to act in a responsible manner.
We do not know the person responsible for his death.
f) elect means “specially chosen ” before a noun and “who has been elected” after
a noun.
The elect body meets once a year.
The president elect takes over in May.
g) the solution adopted means “the solution chosen”
an adopted child lives with people who are not his biological parents
2. Some adjectives can be used immediately after a noun. These include:
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It is the only treatment suitable. (or ... the only suitable treatment).
It is an offer available to club members only.
3. When adjectives ending in –able or –ible are postmodifed, they imply a temporary meaning:
e.g. the stars visible (i.e. the stars are visible at a time specified)
the visible stars (i.e. the stars can be seen)
4. Some attributive adjectives come immediately after the noun in a few fixed expressions. The commonest are: court martial (a military court); Secretary General; Astronomer Royal; God Almighty!
5. Participles sometimes come after nouns, depending on the exact meaning. Compare:
There’s a broken window in the kitchen.
The window broken yesterday ill have to be paid for.
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Here are some more expressions in which the participle must go after the noun:
the only place left
any person objecting
the success obtained in the first 6 months
the people taking part
al children wishing to complete
most of the people singing were women
Substantivized adjectives
Substantivized adjectives may fall into several groups, according to their meaning and the nominal features they possess.
Wholly substantivized adjectives (adjectives converted into nouns) have all the characteristics of nouns: the number, the case, the gender. They may be used with the indefinite or the definite articles.
A native, two natives, the native’s hut
1)
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a) social rank or position, military ranks, party, creed, gender, race, groups of people
belonging to certain times or epochs, etc.
(a native, a relative, a black, a white, a saint, a patient, a savage, a Liberal, a
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