2.308 Nouns with adjectives

When adjectives are used in qualifying clauses after nouns or pronouns they can be followed by

* prepositional phrases

• ...machinery capable of clearing rubble off the main roads.
• ...a warning to people eager for a quick cure.
• ...those responsible for the project.
• ...the vicious poverty cycle so common in single-parent families.

* 'to'-infinitive clauses

• ...the sort of weapons likely to be deployed against it.
• It has been directed against those least able to retaliate.

* adjuncts of time or place

• ...a concept inconceivable a hundred years earlier.
• For the facilities available here, I must ask for a fee.
• Unfortunately, the work visible in this location is a late-nineteenth-century restoration.

Note that you can use adjectives as qualifiers when they are preceded by adjuncts of time or measurement.

• ...those still alive.
• ...a small hill about 400 feet high.

Note also that a few adjectives, such as 'present' and 'responsible', can be used on their own after a noun or pronoun. The use of these adjectives is explained in paragraphs 2.62 to 2.66.