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When can we use adjectives after nouns? 形容词作定语：前置还是后置？

Episode 260422 / 22 Apr 2026

内容简介

形容词作定语时，该放在名词前还是名词后？为什么在表达 “没房间了” 时，通常用 “no room available” 这种后置结构，而不是 “no available room” 呢? 其实，形容词位置的变化不仅关乎语感是否自然，有时还会改变句子的含义。这是为什么呢？听节目，跟主持人步理和 Becca 一起学习形容词前置和后置的习惯和规律。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Buli
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。We are here to answer your questions about English language, culture and life. I'm Buli, and I'm with Becca, who is here to help me answer this week's question. Hi Becca, how are you doing today?

Becca
I'm good, thank you, Buli. I'm really looking forward to the weekend.

Buli
Oh yeah? Have you got any plans?

Becca
Well, I was going to stay at my favourite spa hotel with a friend. Unfortunately, there's no room available for us, so we'll go camping instead!

Buli
That's quite different to your original plan. I hope the weather will be nice for you.

Becca
Me too. How about you, Buli? Are you doing anything fun?

Buli
Nothing interesting. I will probably just relax at home. But I guess if it doesn't rain, I'll go for a walk somewhere nice. Talking about 'somewhere nice', let's hear the question we are going to answer in this episode.

Question
我发现英语里有一些形容词在修饰名词的时候需要后置。比如，宾馆前台说 “没有空房间了” 的时候好像更常用 “there are no room available” 而不是 “there are no available room”。我想知道还有哪些形容词在修饰名词的时候经常需要后置？有什么相关的规律吗？

Buli
So, our listener noticed that sometimes adjectives come after the noun, like 'no room available', instead of before, like 'no available room'.

Becca
It's a really interesting point. I guess both sound possible, but 'no room available' feels more natural to me.

Buli
So, maybe we can say that 'no room available' sounds better in everyday English?

Becca
Perhaps. There are definitely some adjectives that just tend to come after the noun, especially in certain situations. This often happens when we're talking about something that exists or is possible at that moment. Adjectives like 'available', 'present', 'responsible', and 'involved' are often used after the noun in these cases. For example, we say 'the people present' rather than 'the present people'.

Buli
Although 'the present people' could mean something different, like people in general nowadays.

从语法上来讲，形容词通常作名词的定语，经常位于名词前。但对于一些句式和语境来说，形容词后置的用法可能更加自然。比如，描述某样东西存在的事实或可能性的形容词 “available（可用的，有空的）”、“present（在场的，存在的）” 和 “involved（涉及的，参与的）”，就通常都位于名词后。

除此之外，当我们用定冠词 “the” 来修饰名词时，形容词位于名词前和名词后会表达出不同的含义。比如，“the people present” 的意思是 “目前出席的人，眼前的这些人”；但 “the present people” 的意思既可以是 “现在的、眼前的这群人”，也可以理解为 “当下的人类或整个社会里的人”。

Becca
That's true. Another example is 'the person responsible'. It sounds natural, but 'the responsible person' has a slightly different meaning. When we talk about 'the responsible person', it's more about personality than a specific role.

Buli
That's another good example. Thank you, Becca!

你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学制作的 “你问我答” 节目。在本期节目中，我们正在讨论在修饰名词时形容词什么时候要在名词前，什么时候要在名词后的问题。

总的来说，形容词作定语时应该前置还是后置的关键在于我们在句子中想要强调的重点。一般来说，当形容词位于名词后时，更加强调形容词本身提供的信息以及指向的对象；而形容词位于名词前时，强调的重点通常是名词所代表的事物本身。

Becca
Yes, it's almost like defining which person or thing we mean. We also see this structure after indefinite pronouns like 'something', 'anything', or 'nothing'.

Buli
Right, that's a really common pattern. 修饰 “something”、“anything” 和 “nothing” 等不定代词的形容词也通常位于它们之后。Becca，就好像你刚才问我 “周末想做点什么好玩的事情” 的时候，说的是 “are you doing anything fun”。

Becca
Yep! And you said, nothing interesting, but maybe you'll go somewhere nice. So, to summarise, adjectives usually come before the noun in English, but they come after in a few key situations like with indefinite pronouns, certain fixed expressions and when we want to add specific identifying information.

Buli
没错。在组织语言时我们一定要根据想要传达的意思和重点来决定形容词的位置。

Becca
Exactly! Remember, if you have a question that you'd like us to answer, you can email us too at: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Buli
你还可以通过微博向我们提问。我们的微博账号是 “BBC英语教学”。Bye!

Becca
Goodbye!

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