形容詞的位置關系

有時候我們用一個以上形容詞來修飾名詞：

He was a nice intelligentyoung man.

She had a small round black wooden box.

有些形容詞給了一個大體的描述。我們可以用這些形容詞來描述幾乎所有名詞：

有些形容詞給了一個特殊的含義。我們只用這些形容詞來描述特定的名詞：

Food: tasty; delicious

Furniture, buildings: comfortable; uncomfortable

People, animals: clever; intelligent; friendly

我們經常在特殊概念前用一個普遍的概念：

Nice tasty soup.

A nasty uncomfortable armchair

A lovely intelligent animal

Usually we put an adjective that gives an opinion in front of an adjective that is descriptive:

通常我們放一個描述性形容詞在某個被描述的形容詞前面

a nice red dress; a silly old man; those horribleyellow curtains

We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:

我們經常將兩個形容詞放在一個名詞前面：

a handsome young man; a big black car; that horrible big dog

Sometimes we have three adjectives, but this is unusual:

有時候會用到三個形容詞，但這是不太尋常的：

a nice handsome young man;

a big black American car;

that horrible big fierce dog

It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.

Adjectives usually come in this order:

在英語中，當名詞有多個形容詞修飾時，就有它們的先后順序。下面的口訣可幫你記住這一先后順序，也是解題的關鍵。

限定描繪大長高，形狀年齡和新老；顏色國籍跟材料，作用類別往后靠；

其中，“限定詞”包括：冠詞、物主代詞、指示代詞、或數詞，它位于各類形容詞前。它本身分為三位，即：前、中、后。前位限定詞有all、half、both、分數和倍數；中位限定詞有冠詞、指示代詞、物主代詞等；后位限定詞有基數詞和序數詞，但序數詞位于基數詞前。如:both my hands、all half his income等。“描繪”性形容詞如：beautiful、bad、cold、great等。“大長高”表示大小、長短、高低等一些詞。表示“形狀”的詞如：round square等。“國籍”指一個國家或地區的詞。“材料”的詞如：wooden, woolen, stone,silk等。“作用類別”的詞如：medical, college，writing desk，police car等。

有些形容詞只用在系動詞后面：

一些最普通的以-ed結尾的形容詞通常只用在系動詞后面：

annoyed; finished; bored; pleased; thrilled

For example：Our teacher was ill.

My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.

The policeman seemed to be very annoyed

但我們不說：

We had an ill teacher.

When he heard the news he was a very glad uncle

He seemed to be a very annoyed policeman

有些形容詞只用在名詞前面：

我們可以說：

He lives in the eastern district.

There were countless problems with the new machinery.

但是不能說成：

The district he lives in is eastern

The problems with the new machinery were countless.