Blog about English
Adjectives followed by infinitives, gerunds, clauses and prepositions.
Many adjectives are followed by specific grammatical patterns.
These patterns include infinitives, prepositional phrases, clauses and other complements.
Many adjectives are followed by a to-infinitive.
Examples include easy to understand, difficult to solve and happy to help.
Many adjectives require specific prepositions.
Examples include interested in, afraid of, proud of and responsible for.
Some adjectives are followed by a that-clause.
Examples include certain that, glad that and disappointed that.
Some adjectives introduce wh-clauses expressing uncertainty or knowledge.
Examples include unsure where to go and uncertain whether it is true.
English uses special adjective patterns with of and for before an infinitive.
Compare It was kind of her to help with It was difficult for him to understand.
Many adjective patterns use introductory it as the grammatical subject.
Examples include It is important to study and It was surprising that she agreed.
Adjectives may take different types of complements depending on their meaning.
The choice of complement is determined by the adjective rather than by a general grammatical rule.
Some adjectives change meaning depending on the complement that follows.
Compare happy to help, happy that you came and happy with the result.
Not every adjective can be followed by every complement type.
Learning common adjective patterns as collocations improves fluency and accuracy.
Modern grammar describes adjective complementation in terms of valency.
Different adjectives license different grammatical complements, much like verbs.
Use the complement pattern required by each adjective.
Common mistakes include using incorrect prepositions, omitting to before infinitives, confusing that-clauses with infinitives and using complements that the adjective does not allow.