Editing Adjective (section)

==Types of use==
{{anchor|Attributive adjective|Predicative adjective|Substantive adjective|Form}}<!--Currently [[Attributive adjective]] and [[Predicative adjective]] redirect here. This anchor template allows them to link directly to the relevant section of this article.-->Depending on the language, an adjective can precede a corresponding noun on a prepositive basis or it can follow a corresponding noun on a postpositive basis. Structural, contextual, and style considerations can impinge on the pre-or post-position of an adjective in a given instance of its occurrence. In English, occurrences of adjectives generally can be classified into one of three categories:

* Within a [[noun phrase]], a ''prepositive adjective'' is antecedent to the head noun, which it modifies attributively.<ref name="Lexico2">See: "Attributive and predicative adjectives" at ''Lexico'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20200515060239/https://www.lexico.com/grammar/attributive-and-predicative-adjectives archived] 15 May 2020.</ref> For example, in "I put my ''happy kids'' into the car", ''happy'' occurs on an antecedent basis within the ''my happy kids'' [[noun phrase]] (''kids'' being its head), and is therefore a prepositive adjective.
* ''[[Postpositive adjective|Postpositive adjectives]]'' occur after the noun or pronoun they modify: within a noun phrase, immediately subsequent to the head noun or pronoun, which it modifies [[Attributive expression|attributively]], e.g. "The only ''room available'' cost twice what we expected"; in an adjacent [[Apposition|appositive]] phrase, e.g. "My ''kid, happy'' as a clam, was already in the back seat"; or linked to the noun or pronoun via a [[Copula (linguistics)|copular]], [[resultative]], depictive or other linking mechanism, as a [[predicative adjective]], e.g. "My ''kids'' are ''happy''", "I wiped the ''table clean''" and "''We'' danced ''naked'' in the rain"<ref name="Lexico2" /> (see [[Subject complement]], [[Object complement]]).
* ''[[Nominalized adjective|Nominalized adjectives]]'', which function as nouns. One way this happens is by [[Elision|eliding]] a noun from an adjective-noun noun phrase, whose remnant thus is a [[nominalization]]. In the sentence, "I read two books to them; he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy", ''happy'' is a nominalized adjective, short for "happy one" or "happy book". Another way this happens is in absolute phrases like "out with the old, in with the new", where "the old" means "that which is old" or "all that is old", and similarly with "the new". In such cases, the adjective may function as a [[mass noun]] (as in the preceding example). In English, it may also function as a plural [[count noun]] denoting a collective group, as in "The meek shall inherit the Earth", where "the meek" means "those who are meek" or "all who are meek".