Adjectives

Adjectives with prepositions.

1. When we use an adjective after a link verb, we can often use the

adjective on its own or followed by a prepositional phrase.
e.g. He was afraid.
He was afraid of his enemies.

2. Some adjectives cannot be used alone after a link verb. If they are

followed by a prepositional phrase, it must have a particular preposition:

aware of unaware of fond of
accustomed to unaccustomed to used to

e.g. I've always been terribly fond of you.

He is unaccustomed to the heat.

3. Some adjectives can be used alone, or followed by a particular

preposition. used alone, or with ‘of ’ to specify the cause of a feeling

afraid critical jealous suspicious ashamed envious proud terrified convinced frightened scared tired

They may feel jealous of your success.
I was terrified of her.

used alone, or with ‘of ’ to specify the person who has a quality

brave good polite thoughtful careless intelligent sensible unkind clever kind silly unreasonable generous nice stupid wrong

That was clever of you!
I turned the job down, which was stupid of me.

used alone or with ‘to’, usually referring to:

similarity: close equal identical related similar marriage: married engaged loyalty: dedicated devoted loya rank: junior senior

e.g.My problems are very similar to yours.

He was dedicated to his job.

used alone, or followed by 'with' to specify the cause of a feeling

bored displeased impatient pleased content dissatisfied impressed satisfied

e.g. I could never be bored with football.

He was pleased with her.
used alone or with ‘at’, usually referring to:

strong reactions: amazed astonished shocked surprised ability: bad excellent good hopeless useless

e.g. He was shocked at the hatred they had shown.

She had always been good at languages.
used alone, or with ‘for’ to specify the person or thing that quality
relates to

common essential possible unusual difficult important unnecessary usual easy necessary

e.g. It's difficult for young people on their own.

It was unusual for them to go away at the weekend.

4. Some adjectives can be used alone, or used with different prepositions.

used alone, with an impersonal subject and ‘of ’ and the subject of the
action, or with a personal subject and ‘to’ and the object of the action

cruel good nasty rude friendly kind nice unfriendly generous mean polite unkind

e.g. It was rude of him to leave so suddenly.

She was rude to him for no reason.

o used alone, with ‘about’ to specify a thing or ‘with’ to specify a

person

angry delighted fed up happy annoyed disappointed furious upset

e.g. She was still angry about the result.

They're getting pretty fed up with him.