ADJECTIVES

  • Adjectives name attributes of nouns.
  • Adjectives describe or express the properties or qualities or states of nouns.
  • Adjectives modify (adjectives are modifiers) nouns when used in the attributive position.  For example, “a big man”
  • Adjectives can be pre-modified (usually by intensifying adverbs, post-modified (usually by prepositional phrases or clauses), coordinated, and listed.

The + adjective

The 13 most common B2 adjectives found after the definite article are: actual, appropriate, current, entire, global, major, official, overall, potential, primary, royal, standard, ultimate A search in iWeb for: the _JJ 1 THE BEST 4698241 2 THE OTHER 3603343 3 THE NEW 3566930 4 THE ONLY 2604971 5 THE FOLLOWING 2598260 6 THE RIGHT …

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OPEN TO ( adjective + prepositional phrase )

We are interested in finding the most common noun phrases after ‘open to‘ that complete more abstract ideas such as willingness to consider something or something is likely to happen. In the English Vocabulary Profile: open to discussion/suggestions, etc. = C1 willing to consider a discussion/suggestions, etc. open to abuse/criticism, etc. = C2 likely to …

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adjective + ORDER

In this post, we search for the most common adjectives found before the noun ‘order‘.  For example: Now, that might sound pretty good, but ask yourself  what would happen  under our current economic and political order? TED A search in the NOW corpus for _J order_N 1 PUBLIC ORDER 37962 2 RESTRAINING ORDER 35066 3 STAY-AT-HOME ORDER 21381 4 NEW ORDER 20398 5 MIDDLE ORDER 16531 6 INTERIM …

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FUL adjective suffix

Here are the most common adjectives ending in -ful found in the NOW corpus: *Note, 60% of them are not included in the English Vocabulary Profile. The twelve most common adjectives that end with the suffix -ful all have positive meanings: 1 SUCCESSFUL 1589851 2 POWERFUL 1151163 3 BEAUTIFUL 1091675 4 WONDERFUL 595077 5 USEFUL …

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COME IN + adjective

In the English Vocabulary Profile, come in useful|handy are C2. A search in iWeb corpus for: COME IN _JJ . 1 COME IN HANDY. 9001 2 COMES IN HANDY. 4142 Huh, comes in handy on the cash register. listen   3 CAME IN HANDY. 660 4 COME IN USEFUL. 257 All these moves will come in useful in real life when she grows up. listen 5 COMES IN BLACK. 116 This structure …

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adjective + VALUES

In the English Vocabulary Profile: values = B2 the beliefs people have about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, which control their behaviour A search in NOW corpus for: _JJ values_N 1 DEMOCRATIC VALUES 11972 Give a full and detailed account of who supports you,  where your arms and supplies come from and that your aim is the overthrow of established democratic values. listen 2 SHARED VALUES 10229 3 MORAL VALUES 8609 4 CULTURAL VALUES …

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BE + of NOUN PHRASE

Why say “is of interest” instead of “is interesting“? ‘is of + noun‘ is more formal and in academic writing, we use the noun form of a word more often.  More importantly, ‘of+noun’ functions as a noun in this position.  Therefore, it can often collocate correctly with modifiers.  For example:  “greatest interest” is much more …

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twee

‘Twee‘ is unlisted in the English Vocabulary Profile.  Google Oxford defines it as: BRITISH excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental. adverb: affectedly in a way that is artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress. adjective: quaint attractively unusual or old-fashioned. adjective sentimental of or prompted by feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia. — A search for collocates …

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wild

A search for nouns collocating with ‘wild‘ in the NOW corpus: 1 CARD 41920 This most common collocate is unlisted in the English Vocabulary Profile.  A google definition of ‘wild card‘: a playing card that can have any value, suit, colour, or other property in a game at the discretion of the player holding it. …

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