Monday, June 21, 2021

Putting Adjectives AFTER a NOUN

In English, as we know, the adjective comes BEFORE the noun:

George has a black cat.

This can be compared to many other languages where the adjective comes AFTER the noun, such as Spanish:

George tiene un gato negro.  (un gato negro = "a cat black")

However, there are SOME adjectives in English that do come after a noun. Here are some examples:

He is the Attorney General. (general = adjective)

This is the best room available. (Shortened from 'the best room which is available')

Another interesting example is 'galore':

She has shoes galore. (lots of shoes).

We use galore in the way that we would use an adverb here, but it's an adjective. In fact, the word was first used as a noun in the 1800s, before it slowly started to become used as an adjective. Dictionary editors discussed whether the word should be classified as an adjective or adverb, but finally agreed it was clearly an adjective. Many words in English have interesting histories like this and are used in strange and unusual ways.

Reference: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-kind-of-word-is-galore

Exam Practice

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