[Grammar] Predicate adjectives

[Lauraton402996888]

Hello, everyone! May 4th, 2010

I am not a teacher or an ESL student, but I am a student learning about predicate adjectives for the first time. Why is the term predicate adjective used to describe these adjectives? Does the adjective always describe the subject of the sentence, as in the example I am tired? Why not just use the terms adjective phrase or verb phrase to describe either kind of phrase? Are there interactive gramar worksheets that discuss this topic that you would reccomend? Thank you for all your help and suggestions.

 

[Tdol]

The term is used because we have the term predicate. As most adjectives can be both attributive and predicative, it doesn't strike me as a particularly important distinction, but there are some adjectives that only occur in the attributive position, like elder and main.