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A postpositive or postnominal adjective is an attributive adjective that is placed after the noun or pronoun that it modifies. This contrasts with prepositive adjectives, which come before the noun or pronoun. In some languages (such as French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian) the postpositive placement of adjectives is the normal syntax, but in English it is less usual, largely confined to archaic and poetic uses (as in ''They heard creatures unseen''), certain traditional phrases (such as ''heir apparent''), and certain particular grammatical constructions (as in ''those anxious to leave'').〔Rodney Huddleston, ''English Grammar: An Outline'', CUP 1988, p. 109.〕 Recognizing postpositive adjectives in English is important for determining the correct plural for a compound expression. For example, because ''martial'' is a postpositive adjective in the phrase ''court-martial'', the plural is ''courts-martial'', the ending being attached to the noun rather than the adjective. ==In languages where adjectives normally follow nouns== In certain languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Khmer, postpositive adjectives are the norm – that is to say, it is normal for an attributive adjective to follow, rather than precede, the noun it modifies. The following example is from French: * ''les chevaux blancs'', "the white horses", literally "the horses white" In particular instances, however, such languages may also feature prepositive adjectives. In French, certain common adjectives normally precede the noun; these include ''grand'' ("big"), as in: * ''les grands chevaux'', "the big horses" In many other languages, including English, German, Russian and Chinese, prepositive adjectives are the norm (attributive adjectives normally come before the nouns they modify), and adjectives appear postpositively only in special situations, if at all. The situations in which postpositive adjectives appear in English are described in the following sections. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「postpositive adjective」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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