Adjective Phrases: How They Work and Where They Go
An adjective phrase is a group of words built around a head adjective, working together as a single adjective. In she was remarkably patient with the children, the whole underlined stretch is one adjective phrase, and patient is its head.
The phrase is doing exactly what a lone adjective does – describing a noun or pronoun. It simply carries extra material with it.
The three parts
An adjective phrase has one obligatory part and two optional ones.
| Part | Role | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-modifier | Usually an adverb of degree | remarkably patient |
| Head | The adjective itself – always present | remarkably patient |
| Complement | Completes the adjective’s meaning | patient with the children |
The head can stand alone, which is why a single adjective is technically the shortest possible adjective phrase. Add a degree adverb and you get very tired. Add a complement and you get tired of waiting. Add both and you get utterly tired of waiting.
Complements are worth attention because certain adjectives demand a particular preposition and reject the others. Fond takes of. Interested takes in. Different takes from in careful writing. Afraid takes of. Getting the adjective right and the preposition wrong still produces an error, and these pairings have to be learned individually rather than derived from a rule.
Where the phrase can sit
A one-word adjective moves freely between the attributive slot and the predicate slot. A full adjective phrase does not.
Before the noun, the phrase must generally stay short and complement-free:
- Works: a very long meeting
- Fails: a long of three hours meeting
After a linking verb, the phrase can carry everything:
- The meeting was very long.
- The meeting was longer than anyone expected.
- She is fond of early starts.
After the noun is a third position, available when the phrase carries a complement and is doing the work of a reduced clause:
- A candidate eager to begin is easy to spot.
- Anyone unhappy with the result can appeal.
This last position is the one writers reach for least and the one that makes a sentence sound most controlled when used well, because it lets a heavy description attach to a noun without a who is or that was in the way.
Adjective phrase or adjective clause?
Both modify nouns, and both can follow the noun they modify. The difference is structural: a clause contains its own subject and verb; a phrase does not.
| Type | Example | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective phrase | the students eager to finish | no subject, no finite verb |
| Adjective clause | the students who were eager to finish | has who as subject and were as verb |
The two are often interchangeable, and the phrase is usually the better choice. The students who were eager to finish and the students eager to finish say the same thing; the second says it in three fewer words. Cutting a relative pronoun and its verb is one of the most reliable ways to tighten a sentence without losing meaning.
Worked examples
| Sentence | Adjective phrase | Head |
|---|---|---|
| The room felt unusually cold for September. | unusually cold for September | cold |
| A path narrow enough to worry me led down. | narrow enough to worry me | narrow |
| He seemed almost relieved. | almost relieved | relieved |
| Passengers unable to board were rebooked. | unable to board | unable |
| It was a surprisingly quiet street. | surprisingly quiet | quiet |
To find the phrase, find the adjective first, then take everything attached to it that would collapse without it. If removing the adjective leaves the surrounding words stranded, those words belong to the phrase.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
