A adjective place after the word described is a delayed adjective. A delayed adjective may be a single word or the first word in an adjective phrase. An adjective phrase begins with an adjective and then continues the description.

Commas punctuate a delayed adjective--one comma if it occurs at the end of the sentence, two if earlier in the sentence.

Sentences can contain single or multiple delayed adjectives.

Single delayed adjective: People under the helicopter ducked down, afraid, as if they were being visited by a plague or a god.

--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Multiple delayed adjectives: Each snowflake was different, Sister Zoe said, like a person, irreplaceable and beautiful.

--Julia Alvarez, "Snow"

Delayed adjective phrase: A dog came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together.

Practice 1: Matching

Match the delayed adjectives with the sentences. Write out each sentences, inserting and underlining the delayed adjectives

1. Milk, ^, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

Toni Morrison, Beloved

c. sticky and sour on her dress

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, ^.

George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

e. powerless to move move and yet powerless to die

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, ^.

Edward Abbey, "Aravaipa Canyon"

d. transparent but obscure

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, ^.

Paul Roberts, Understanding English

a. scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth

5. I am an enthusiastic laudress, ^, but a terrible house keeper.

Nancy Mairs, Plaintext

b. capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes into five subtly differentiated piles

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the delayed adjectives. Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts of imitate the model. Finally write your own imitation of the model and identify the delayed adjectives.

Model: They ate like men, ravenous and intent

Toni Morrison, Beloved

ravenous and intent - men

a. They sang like angels.

b. The angel were pure.

c. And the angel were sweet

They sang like angels, pure and sweet.

Own Sentence: They danced like warriors, brutal and unclean.

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate
In the model, identify the delayed adjective, Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any delayed adjectives.

Model: He forgot that his Lesser Warders were watching, afraid to interfere.

--Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

afraid to interfere - Lesser Warders

a. She knew something

b. What we knew is how her sister were feeling.

c. Her sisters were happy to help.

She knew what we knew is how her sisters were feeling, happy to help.

Own Sentence: I remembered that they were listening, eager to learn.