Collins Cobuild English Grammar

The fish was about eight feet long.

It measures approximately 26 inches wide x 25 inches long.

…a square area measuring 900 metres on each side.

It weighs fifty or more kilos.

The use of adjectives after linking verbs is explained in paragraphs 3.132 to 3.137.

adjectives after measurements

2.253  When measurement nouns that give the size of something are used after a linking verb, they are often followed by an adjective that makes it clear exactly what the measurement refers to

He was about six feet tall.

The spears were about six foot long.

…a room 2 metres wide.

The water was fifteen feet deep.

…a layer of stone four metres thick.

Here is a list of the adjectives that follow measurement nouns indicating size:

broad

deep

high

long

tall

thick

wide

Note that you do not say two pounds heavy but two pounds in weight instead.

phrases beginning with in after measurements

2.254  Similarly, some measurement nouns can be followed by prepositional phrases beginning with in.

…a block of ice one cubic foot in size.

I put on nearly a stone in weight.

They are thirty centimetres in length.

…deposits measuring up to a kilometre in thickness.

It was close to ten feet in height.

Here is a list of phrases beginning with in used after measurements:

in area

in breadth

in depth

in distance

in height

in length

in size

in thickness

in volume

in weight

in width

measurement nouns used as modifiers

2.255  Measurement nouns can also be used as modifiers in front of a noun when you want to describe things in terms of their measurements.

…a 5 foot 9 inch bed.

…70 foot high mounds of dust.

…12 x 12 inch tiles.

…a five-pound bag of lentils.

Note that the measurement noun is singular.

USAGE NOTE

2.256  If you want to describe fully the size of an object or area, you can give its dimensions; that is, you give measurements of its length and width, or length, width, and depth. When you give the dimensions of an object, you separate the figures using and, by, or the multiplication sign x.

…planks of wood about three inches thick and two feet wide.

The island measures about 25 miles by 12 miles.

Lake Nyasa is 450 miles long by about 50 miles wide.

The box measures approximately 26 inches wide x 25 inches deep x 16 inches high.

If you are talking about a square object or area, you give the length of each side followed by the word square.

Each family has only one room eight or ten feet square.

The site measures roughly 35 feet square.

Square is used in front of units of length when expressing area. Cubic is used in front of units of length when expressing volume.

…a farm covering 300 square miles.

The brain of the first ape-men was about the same size as that of a gorilla, around 500 cubic centimetres.

You express temperature in degrees, using either degrees centigrade, or degrees Fahrenheit. Note that in everyday language the metric term centigrade is used to indicate temperature, whereas in scientific language the term Celsius is used which refers to exactly the same scale of measurement.

2.257  You talk about the speed of something by saying how far it can travel in a particular unit of time. To do this, you use a noun such as mile or kilometre, followed by per, a, or an, and a time noun.

The car could do only forty-five miles per hour.

Wind speeds at the airport were 160 kilometres per hour.

Warships move at about 500 miles per day.

Talking about age

2.258  When you want to say how old someone is, you have a choice of ways in which to do it. You can be exact or approximate. Similarly, when you want to say how old something is, you can use different ways, some exact, and some approximate.

talking about exact age

2.259  When you want to talk about a person’s exact age, you can do so by using

be followed by a number, and sometimes years old after the number

I was nineteen, and he was twenty-one.

I’m only 63.

She is twenty-five years old.

I am forty years old.

of (or less commonly aged) and a number after a noun

…a child of six.

…two little boys aged about nine and eleven.

a compound adjective, usually hyphenated, consisting of a number, followed by a singular noun referring to a period of time, followed by old

…a twenty-two-year-old student.

…a five-month-old baby.

…a pretty 350-year-old cottage.

…a violation of a six-year-old agreement.

a compound noun consisting of a number followed by -year-old

The servant was a pale little fourteen-year-old who looked hardly more than ten.

All the six-year-olds are taught by one teacher.

…Melvin Kalkhoven, a tall, thin thirty-five-year-old.

talking about approximate age

2.260  When you want to talk about a person’s age in an approximate way, you can do so by using

in, followed by a possessive determiner, followed by a plural noun referring to a particular range of years such as twenties and teens

He was in his sixties.

I didn’t mature till I was in my forties.

…the groups who are now in their thirties.