Regular adjectives are simple. They describe nouns and
usually come right before those nouns. Here are some examples:
Big
bus
Tiny mouse
Deep canyon
Pleasing person
All of these adjectives add detail to the noun that they are
describing.
There is a specific kind of regular adjective called a
predicate adjective. This type of adjective does exactly the same thing, but it
is located in a different place in the sentence. Predicate adjectives are located
after linking verbs. For example:
That boy is happy.
Here, "happy" is the adjective. It is describing
the boy, which is the noun. "Is" is the linking verb. Notice the
predicate adjective comes after the linking verb. Predicate adjectives always
follow linking verbs, so if there is no linking verb, there is no predicate
adjective.
Predicate adjectives are important to writing because they emphasize
the adjective in the sentence. With regular adjectives, little emphasis is
given to the adjective. Consider the example sentence from above; the entire
sentence is about the boy being happy.