Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

 

Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun: 

  

the blue sea	~ the sea is blue
the old man	~ the man is old
happy children	~ the children are happy

 

Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.  

Source: https://7esl.com/predicate-adjective/

Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions: 

the Governor General  
the Princess Royal  
times past 

We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun: 

something useful  
everyone present  
those responsible 

Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives: 

the shortest route possible  
the worst conditions imaginable  
the best hotel available 

Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive and the predicative positions. However, a small number of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For example, the adjective main (the main reason) can only occur in the attributive position (predicative: *the reason is main). Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child was afraid) can only occur predicatively (attributive: *an afraid child).  Source: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/adjectiv/attribut.htm 

Further reading:

•  https://guinlist.wordpress.com/tag/attributive-adjectives/
•  https://7esl.com/predicate-adjective/
• https://www.turtlediary.com/lesson/attributive-and-predicative-adjectives.html
  
• https://myenglishgrammar.com/lesson-3-adjectives/5-attributive-and-predicative-adjectives.html
  

Activities:

• https://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/adjectiv/attribut.htm
• https://worksheet.books4languages.com/english/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_embed&id=134