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A postpositive adjective or postnominal adjective is an
adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...
that is placed after the
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
or
pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not ...
that it modifies, as in noun phrases such as '' attorney general'', '' queen regnant'', or ''all matters financial''. This contrasts with prepositive adjectives, which come before the noun or pronoun, as in noun phrases such as ''red rose'', ''lucky contestant'', or ''busy bees''. In some languages ( Spanish,
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
, Indonesian, etc.), the postpositive placement of adjectives is the normal
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
, but in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
it is largely confined to archaic and poetic uses (e.g. "Once upon a midnight ''dreary''", as opposed to "Once upon a ''dreary'' midnight") as well as phrases borrowed from
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
or
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
(e.g. ''
heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
'', '' aqua regia'') and certain fixed grammatical constructions (e.g. "Those ''anxious'' to leave soon exited").Rodney Huddleston, ''English Grammar: An Outline'', CUP 1988, p. 109. In
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
, postpositive position is independent of predicative position; a postpositive adjective may occur either in the subject or the predicate of a clause, and any adjective may be a predicate adjective if it follows a copular verb. For example: ''monsters unseen were said to lurk beyond the moor'' (postpositive attribute in subject of clause), but ''the children trembled in fear of monsters unseen'' (postpositive attribute in predicate of clause) and ''the monsters, if they existed, remained unseen'' (predicate adjective in postpositive position). Recognizing postpositive adjectives in English is important for determining the correct
plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...
for a compound expression. For example, because ''martial'' is a postpositive adjective in the phrase '' court-martial'', the plural is ''courts-martial'', the
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
being attached to the noun rather than the adjective. This pattern holds for most postpositive adjectives, with the few exceptions reflecting overriding linguistic processes such as rebracketing.


Occurrence in languages

In certain languages, including
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese,
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
,
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, Persian, Vietnamese, postpositive adjectives are the norm: it is normal for an
attributive adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...
to follow, rather than precede, the noun it modifies. The following example is from Italian, French and Spanish: * ''il cavallo bianco'', ''le cheval blanc'', ''el caballo blanco'', "the white horse" (literally "the horse white") In particular instances, however, such languages may also feature prepositive adjectives. In French, certain common adjectives, including ''grand'' ("big"), usually precede the noun, while in Italian and Spanish they can be prepositive or postpositive adjectives: * ''le grand cheval'', "the big horse" * ''il grande cavallo'', "the big horse", or ''il cavallo grande'', "the big horse" (literally "the horse big") * ''el gran caballo'', "the big horse", or ''el caballo grande'', "the big horse" (literally "the horse big") When an adjective can appear in both positions, the precise meaning may depend on the position. E.g. in French: * ''un grand homme'' - "a great man" * ''un homme grand'' - "a tall man" * ''une fille petite'' - "a small girl" * ''une petite fille'' - "a little girl" * ''un petit chien'' - "a little dog (of a small breed)" * ''un chien petit'' - "a small dog (for its breed)" Prepositive and postpositive adjectives may occur in the same phrase: * ''un bon vin blanc'', ''un buon vino bianco'', ''un buen vino blanco'', "a good white wine" In many other languages, including
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, prepositive adjectives are the norm (attributive adjectives normally come before the nouns they modify), and adjectives appear postpositively only in special situations, if at all.


In modern English


General uses


Compulsory

Adjectives must appear postpositively in English when they qualify almost all compound and some simple indefinite pronouns: ''some/any/no/every...thing/one/body/where'', those; Examples: ''We need someone strong''; ''those well-baked''; ''Going anywhere nice?''; ''Nothing important happened''; ''Everyone new was shocked''. All adjectives are used postpositively for qualifying them precisely. The user follows the set formula: : ''This'' can be replaced by ''that'' or ''so'', or, casually to evoke an affected air, ''yea''. Without the preposition the formula is even more intuitive in replies. Examples pointing: "Which of the greyhounds do you like?" "Dogs this big." "A dog that weighty would definitely fit the bill." "A dog that tall to match my friend's." Examples figuratively: "A dog so fast it could win at the track".


Optional

Generally to these scenarios: #When it is wished to modify adjectives using an adjective phrase in which the head adjective is not final. Such phrases are common in speaking and in writing save for the reflexive which is a bit stark but common in fiction. Examples: ''(noun/pronoun)...anxious to leave, proud/full of themselves''. Comparative forms are positioned before/after the noun, as in ''we need a box bigger than...''...''a bigger box than...''. Set compounds and near variations. ''technology easy-to-use''; ''easy-to-use technology''; ''fruit ripe for (the) picking''; ''ripe-for-picking fruit''. The postpositive holds more sway for many of the briefest and simplest of such phrases (e.g. ''in hand''). Examples: ''job in hand''; ''task underway''; a ''case in point'' #Followed by verbs in the infinitive form for some adjectives, mainly as to size, speed, emotions and probability. Examples: ''Officers ready to be deployed...Passengers happy to leave...Tourists sad to leave...Team ecstatic with their performance...Solutions likely to work...City large enough...Rocket fast enough''; can precede equally if compounded with hyphens. Example: ''We need numbers of ready-to-deploy officers.'' :: The optional positions apply to the debatable pronoun and near synonym pairs ''any way/anyhow, some way/somehow'', as well as to ''(in) no way, in every way''. Examples: ''It was in some way(s) good; it was good in some ways; it was good somehow; it was somehow good''. Certain adjectives are used fairly commonly in postpositive position. Present and
past participles In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
exhibit this behavior, as in ''all those entering should ...'', ''one of the men executed was ...'', but at will this can be considered to be a verbal rather than adjectival use (a kind of reduced relative clause). Similar behavior is displayed by many adjectives with the suffix ''-able'' or ''-ible'' (e.g. ''the best room available'', ''the only decision possible'', ''the worst choice imaginable'', ''the persons liable''). Certain other adjectives with a sense similar to those in the foregoing categories are customarily found postpositively (''all the people present'', ''the first payment due''). Their antonyms (absent and undue) and variations of due (overdue, post-due) can be placed in either position. These two words are among the least varied from the original Anglo-Norman and Old French terms, reflected in modern French, themselves all close to common Latin original forms. A third is used in locating places and in mainly dated use for complex objects: ''Sweden/the village/town/city proper...''operating on the heart proper'', it means "more narrowly defined", or "as more closely matches its character". Adjectives may undergo a change of meaning when used postpositively. Consider the following examples: #Every ''visible star'' is named after a famous astronomer. #Every ''star visible'' is named after a famous astronomer. The postpositive in the second sentence is expected to refer to the stars that are visible here and now; that is, it expresses a stage-level predicate. The prepositive in the first sentence may also have that sense, but it may also have an individual-level meaning, referring to an inherent property of the object (the stars that are visible in general). Quite a significant difference in meaning is found with the adjective ''responsible'': #Can you direct me to the ''responsible people''? #Can you direct me to the ''people responsible''? Used prepositively, ''can you direct me to the responsible people?'', it strongly connotes "dedicated" or "reliable", and by use of the heavily conditional "should be" it denotes that, otherwise, as in the second sentence, it denotes the far more commonly used meaning in the 21st century of "at fault" or "guilty" unless the qualifying word ''for'' is added.


Set phrases

There are many set phrases in English which feature postpositive adjectives. They are often loans or loan translations from foreign languages that commonly use postpositives, especially
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
(many legal terms come from Law French). Some examples appear below: *In culinary arts with foods, drinks, and recipes:
spaghetti bolognese Bolognese sauce (, ; known in Italian as ''ragù alla bolognese'', , ''ragù bolognese'', or simply ''ragù'') is a meat-based sauce in Italian cuisine, typical of the city of Bologna. It is customarily used to dress ''tagliatelle al ragù'' an ...
; chicken korma, satay, or supreme; whiskey sour *In Christianity and translations of similar Abrahamic religious concepts: Christ/love/life everlasting, the devil/evil incarnate, God Almighty *In law:'' actus reus'' and '' mens rea'', court-martial, fee simple, '' force majeure'', '' locus classicus'', malice aforethought (also ''malice prepense''), '' persona non grata'', *In obscure but irreplaceable phrases: battle royal,
body corporate In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...
, body politic, corporation sole, fee tail,
heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
,
heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...
, knight errant, letters patent, letters testamentary, to trip the light fantastic, time immemorial, treasure trove *In professional or honorary titles: bishop emeritus,
professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
, attorney general, consul general,
governor general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...
, postmaster general, surgeon general, Astronomer Royal, Princess Royal, airman basic, minister plenipotentiary,
minister-president A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...
, notary public,
poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
, president-elect, prime minister-designate,
prince regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illne ...
, sergeant major, queen consort, queen regnant, prince consort, directorate-general,
director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...
, etc. *In heraldry: dexter and sinister (as in bend dexter, bend sinister), and several referring to
attitude Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a propo ...
, as in eagle displayed, lion passant guardant, griffin
rampant In heraldry, the term attitude describes the ''position'' in which a figure (animal or human) is emblazoned as a charge, a supporter, or as a crest. The attitude of an heraldic figure always precedes any reference to the tincture of the figure ...
, phoenix rising, bird vigilant, etc. *In names of organizations: Alcoholics Anonymous, Amnesty International, ARCHIVE Global,
Church Universal and Triumphant The Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) is an international New Age religious organization founded in 1975 by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. It is an outgrowth (and is now the corporate parent) of The Summit Lighthouse, founded in 1958 by Prophet' ...
,
Generation Next Generation Next may refer to: * Generation Next (professional wrestling), a professional wrestling stable * ''Generation Next'' (album), the debut album from Aventura * Generation Next (comics), a Marvel Comics team and eponymous series * '' Gener ...
, Japan Airlines Domestic, JetBlue, Ruritan National, Situationist International,
Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisation ...
, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Weather Underground, Workers United *In hospital emergency codes: Code Amber, Code Black, Code Orange, Code Red * Regnal numbers and other appellations, usually including the definite article before the adjective:
Henry the Eighth Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...
, Elizabeth the Second,
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
, Ethelred the Unready, Nero Redivivus etc. Note also the generational titles ''Junior'' and ''Senior'' used to distinguish namesake parents and children. *Miscellaneous terms: '' agent provocateur'', ''
cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
'', '' femme fatale'', persons unknown,
pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...
, proof positive, times/centuries past


Set adjectives

Certain individual adjectives, or words of adjectival type, are typically placed after the noun. Their use is not limited to particular noun(s). Those beginning ''a'' before an old substantive word can be equally seen as adverbial modifiers (or nouns/pronouns), intuitively expected to be later (see
below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ...
). * '' à gogo'' — as in "fun and games à gogo" * '' ablaze'' — as in "buildings ablaze" * '' abreast'' — as in "two penguins abreast" * '' akimbo''— as in "arms akimbo" * '' aplenty'' — as in "food aplenty" * '' emeritus'' — as in "a bishop emeritus" * '' extraordinaire'' — as in "athlete extraordinaire" * '' galore'' — as in "roses and tulips galore" * '' incarnate'' — as in "demons incarnate" * '' junior/Jr.'' (when used as a name suffix) — as in " Martin Luther King Jr." * '' manqué''/'' manquée'' — as in "a hero manqué" * '' regnant'' — as in "the queen regnant" * '' redivivus'' — as in " Emperor Nero redivivus" * '' redux'' — as in "the Cold War redux" * '' senior/Sr.'' or (when used as a name suffix) — as in " Barack Obama Sr."


Archaic and poetic usage

Phrases with postpositive adjectives are sometimes used with archaic effect, as in ''things forgotten'', ''words unspoken'', ''dreams believed''. Phrases which reverse the normal word order are quite common in
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...
, usually to fit the meter or rhyme, as with "fiddlers three" (from '' Old King Cole'') or "forest primeval" (from '' Evangeline''), though
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
was less important in Early Modern English and earlier forms of English. Similar examples exist for possessive adjectives, as in "O Mistress Mine" (a song in Act II, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's '' Twelfth Night'').


Titles of works

Titles of books, films, poems, songs, etc. commonly feature nouns followed by postpositive adjectives. These are often present or past participles (see above), but other types of adjectives sometimes occur. Examples: '' Apocalypse Now Redux'', " Bad Moon Rising", '' Body Electric'', '' Brideshead Revisited'', '' Chicken Little'', ''
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo- journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by ...
'', '' A Dream Deferred'', ''
Hannibal Rising ''Hannibal Rising'' is a psychological horror novel by American author Thomas Harris, published in 2006. It is a prequel to his three previous books featuring his most famous character, the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The ...
'', ''
Hercules Unchained ''Hercules Unchained'' ( it, Ercole e la regina di Lidia , "Hercules and the Queen of Lydia") is a 1959 Italian-French epic fantasy feature film starring Steve Reeves and Sylva Koscina in a story about two warring brothers and Hercules' tribulati ...
'', '' House Beautiful'', '' Jupiter Ascending'', '' The Life Aquatic'', '' A Love Supreme'', '' The Matrix Reloaded'', '' Monsters Unleashed'', '' Orpheus Descending'', '' Paradise Lost'', '' Paradise Regained'', '' Prometheus Unbound'', "
The Road Not Taken "The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem by Robert Frost, first published in the August 1915 issue of '' The Atlantic Monthly'', and later published as the first poem in the collection '' Mountain Interval'' of 1916. Its central theme is th ...
", '' Sonic Unleashed'', ''
To a God Unknown ''To a God Unknown'' is a novel by John Steinbeck, first published in 1933. The book was Steinbeck's third novel (after '' Cup of Gold'' and '' The Pastures of Heaven''). Steinbeck found ''To a God Unknown'' extremely difficult to write; taking ...
'', ''
Tarzan Triumphant ''Tarzan Triumphant'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fifteenth in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine ''Blue Book'' from October, 1931 t ...
'', ''
Time Remembered Time Remembered is a modal jazz standard piece by jazz pianist Bill Evans. Jack Reilly says that the work is both influenced by the sixteenth century modal works of the polyphonist masters ( Palestrina, Byrd, Frescobaldi, etc.), and the oeuvre ...
'', ''
The World Unseen ''The World Unseen'' is a 2007 historical drama film, written and directed by Shamim Sarif, adapted from her own novel. The film is set in 1950s Cape Town, South Africa during the beginning of apartheid. The film stars Lisa Ray and Sheetal S ...
'', '' Enemy Mine''.


Other postpositive noun modifiers

Nouns may have other modifiers besides adjectives. Some kinds of modifiers tend to precede the noun, while others tend to come after. Determiners (including
article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: ...
s, possessives, demonstratives, etc.) come before the noun.
Noun adjunct In grammar, a noun adjunct, attributive noun, qualifying noun, noun (pre)modifier, or apposite noun is an optional noun that modifies another noun; functioning similarly to an adjective, it is, more specifically, a noun functioning as a pre-modif ...
s (nouns qualifying another noun) also generally come before the nouns they modify: in a phrase like ''book club'', the adjunct (modifier) ''book'' comes before the head (modified noun) ''club''. By contrast,
prepositional phrase An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or ci ...
s,
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s of location, etc., as well as
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
s, come after the nouns they modify: ''the elephant in the room''; ''all the people here''; ''the woman to whom you spoke''. (These remarks apply to English syntax; other languages may use different word order. In Chinese, for example, virtually all modifiers come before the noun, whereas in the Khmer language they follow the noun.) Sometimes a noun with a postpositive modifier comes to form a set phrase, similar in some ways to the set phrases with postpositive adjectives referred to above (in that, for example, the plural ending will normally attach to the noun, rather than at the end of the phrase). Some such phrases include: * With a noun followed by a prepositional phrase: ''mother-in-law'', etc.; ''editor-in-chief'', ''right of way'', ''president pro tempore'' (where ''pro tempore'' is a Latin prepositional phrase), ''fish filet deluxe'' (where ''de luxe'' is a French prepositional phrase) *With an
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
verb or a verb phrase: ''father-to-be'', ''bride-to-be'', etc.; '' Johnny-come-lately'' *With an adverbial particle from a
phrasal verb In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: ''turn down'', ''run into'' or ''sit up''), sometimes combined with a preposition (e ...
: ''passer-by'', ''hanger-on'' In some phrases, a noun adjunct appears postpositively (rather than in the usual prepositive position). Examples include
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, Knights Templar,
man Friday Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel ''Robinson Crusoe'' and its sequel '' The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe''. Robinson Crusoe names the man Friday, with whom he cannot at first communicate, because they fi ...
(or girl Friday, etc.), airman first class (also private first class, sergeant first class), as well as many names of foods and dishes, such as Bananas Foster,
beef Wellington Beef Wellington is a steak dish of English origin, made out of fillet steak coated with pâté (often pâté de foie gras) and duxelles, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked. Some recipes include wrapping the coated meat in a crêpe or pa ...
, broccoli raab,
Cherries Jubilee Cherries jubilee is a dessert dish made with cherries and liqueur (typically kirschwasser), which are flambéed tableside, and commonly served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream. The recipe is generally credited to Auguste Escoffier, who prepa ...
, Chicken Tetrazzini,
Crêpe Suzette A crêpe or crepe ( or , , Quebec French: ) is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, ...
,
Eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City. Origin and history There ...
, Oysters Rockefeller,
peach Melba Peach Melba (french: pêche Melba, pronounced ) is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian soprano ...
, steak tartare, and duck a l'orange. Identifying numbers (with or without the word ''number''), and sometimes letters, appear after the noun in many contexts. Examples are ''
Catch-22 ''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non- ...
''; warrant officer one, chief warrant officer two, etc.; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; '' Call of Duty Three'', '' Rocky Four'', '' Shrek the Third'', Generation Y. (For appellations such as "Henry the Fourth", often written "Henry IV", see above.) Other common cases where modifiers follow a head noun include: *Phrases like ''the
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among th ...
'' and '' the Sisters Rosensweig'' (although in ordinary cases the phrasing "the Brown brothers" is more common) *Names of military operations and equivalent, such as
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
,
Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
, etc. *Names of scientific projects and the like, such as
Project Daedalus Project Daedalus (named after Daedalus, the Greek mythological designer who crafted wings for human flight) was a study conducted between 1973 and 1978 by the British Interplanetary Society to design a plausible uncrewed interstellar probe.Pro ...
, Project Echo *The adjective "adjacent" is occasionally used postpositive to signify a conceptual and vague relation, such as "politics adjacent".


Plurals of expressions with postpositives

In the plural forms of expressions with postpositive adjectives or other postpositive modifiers, the pluralizing
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
(most commonly the suffix ''-s'' or ''-es'') is added after the noun, rather than after the entire phrase. For instance, the plural form of ''town proper'' is ''towns proper'', that of ''battle royal'' is ''battles royal'', that of ''attorney general'' is ''attorneys general'', that of ''bride-to-be'' is ''brides-to-be'', and that of ''passer-by'' is ''passers-by''. See also Plurals of French compounds. With some such expressions, there is a tendency (by way of
regularization Regularization may refer to: * Regularization (linguistics) * Regularization (mathematics) * Regularization (physics) * Regularization (solid modeling) * Regularization Law, an Israeli law intended to retroactively legalize settlements See also ...
) to add the plural suffix to the end of the whole expression. This is usually regarded by prescriptive grammarians as an error. Examples are *''queen consorts'' (where ''queens consort'' is considered the correct form) and *''court-martials'' (where the accepted plural is ''courts-martial'', although ''court-martials'' can be used as a third person present tense verb form). This rule does not necessarily apply to phrases with postpositives that have been rigidly fixed into names and titles. For example, an English speaker might say "Were there two separate Weather Undergrounds by the 1970s, or just one single organization?". Other phrases remain as they are because they intrinsically use a plural construction (and have no singular form), such as ''eggs Benedict'', ''nachos supreme'', ''Brothers Grimm'', ''Workers United''.


See also

* Plurals of compound nouns * Preposition and postposition


References


Sources

*


External links


Internet Grammar of English
at the
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

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The Onion (satire): "William Safire Orders Two Whoppers Junior"
{{lexical categories, state=collapsed Adjectives by type