Attributive vs predicative Most adjectives can be used in both positions, e.g. It’s good food (attributive) and This food tastes good (predicative). However, a number of adjectives only occur as
premodifiers of nouns, e.g. an utter fool, the chief troublemaker, my former boss, a lone traveller. You cannot say ‘my boss is former’. These are called attributive adjectives.
And some only occur after verbs such as be, e.g. afraid, asleep, unwell, e.g. She’s unwell,
not ‘she’s an unwell person’.These are called predicative adjectives. (See the Website
Reference A4.1 and A4.2 for more adjectives used in these ways.)
Predicative adjectives tend to refer to situations that are not lasting, whereas
attributive adjectives refer to more permanent characteristics. This explains why you
cannot talk about ‘an unwell person’ or ‘an afraid person’; but you can say a sick person or a frightened person.
Sometimes an adjective which can be used in both positions may change its
meaning:
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Activity A4.1
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
Attributive: My old friend . . . (referring to the length of the friendship) vs
Predicative: My friend is old. (referring to someone’s age)
Attributive: My late husband . . . (he’s dead) vs
Predicative: My husband is late.
