SKILL 50: USE PREDICATE ADJECTIVES CORRECTLY
Certain adjectives appear only in the predicate of the sentence; that is, they appear after a linking verb such as be, and they cannot appear directly in front of the nouns that they describe.
• The snake on the rock was alive.
• The
In the first example, the predicate adjective “alive” is used correctly after the linking verb “was” to describe the subject “snake”. In the second example, the predicate adjective “alive” is used incorrectly in front of the noun “snake”. In this position, the adjective “live” should be used.
