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

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 ashamed convinced

critical envious frightened

jealous proud scared

suspicious terrified 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 careless clever generous

good intelligent kind nice

polite sensible silly stupid

thoughtful unkind unreasonable 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 loyal 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 content

displeased dissatisfied

impatient impressed

pleased 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 difficult easy

essential important necessary

possible unnecessary

unusual usual

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 friendly generous

good kind mean

nasty nice polite

rude unfriendly unkind

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

She was rude to him for no reason.

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

angry annoyed

delighted disappointed

fed up furious

happy upset

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

They're getting pretty fed up with him.

Adjectives with ‘to’-infinitive or ‘that’-clauses

1.    After link verbs, we often use adjectives that describe how someone feels about an action or situation. With some adjectives, we can add a ‘to’-infinitive clause or a ‘that’-clause to say what the action or situation is.

afraid anxious ashamed

disappointed frightened glad

happy pleased proud

sad surprised unhappy

If the subject is the same in both clauses, we usually use a ‘to’-infinitive clause. If the subject is different, we must use a ‘that’-clause.

e.g. I was happy to see them again.

He was happy that they were coming to the party.

We often use a ‘to’-infinitive clause when talking about future time in relation to the main clause.

e.g. I am afraid to go home.

He was anxious to leave before it got dark.

We often use a ‘that’-clause when talking about present or past time in relation to the main clause.

e.g. He was anxious that the passport was missing.

They were afraid that I might have talked to the police.

2. We often use ‘sorry’ with a ‘that’-clause. Note that ‘that’ is often omitted.

e.g. I'm very sorry that I can't join you.

I'm sorry I'm so late.

3. Some adjectives are not usually used alone, but have a ‘to’-infinitive clause after them to say what action or situation the adjective relates to.

able apt bound

due inclined liable

likely prepared ready

unlikely unwilling willing

e.g. They were unable to help her.

They were not likely to forget it.

I am willing to try.

I'm prepared to say I was wrong.