How to use 'Enough' | Learn English (2024)

The word enough can be used as an adjective, an adverb or with a noun. It can even be used as a pronoun.

Enough with an adjective
She wasn't tall enough to become a flight attendant.
This piece of writing isn’t good enough.

Enough with an adverb
You have not been concentrating enough in class
He couldn't run fast enough to catch the bus.
Notice the position of enough. It comes after adjectives and adverbs.

Enough with nouns
We don't have enough wine for everyone.
Has he got enough time to come to the meeting?
We have enough people to form two teams.
Enough comes before nouns.

Enough of
We can only use enough of with an article, my/your/his etc. this/that i.e. a determiner.
I haven't read enough of his writing to tell if he is any good.
She had enough of their arguing. That’s why she moved out.

Enough can be used without a noun
I've already eaten too much. That's enough thanks.
No more workouts. That’s enough for today.

Enough used with an adjective and a noun
When we use enough with an adjective and a noun two positions are possible but the meaning changes.
We haven’t got enough large glasses. We have large glasses but we need more
We haven’t got large enough glasses. None of the glasses are as large as we need

Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school

Choose the right word/phrase for these sentences:

• 1) You are not ___ to see the film.
  

  enough old
  old enough

• 2) I think I've had ___ that pie. I'm going to burst.
  

  enough
  enough of

• 3) That wardrobe is not ___ for all your clothes.
  

  big enough
  enough big

• 4) Did I speak ___ for you to understand?
  

  clearly enough
  enough clearly

• 5) They can't ___ that music. It's become really popular.
  

  get enough
  get enough of

• 6) There are ___ boxes for us to store everything.
  

  big enough
  enough big

• 7) We were not ___ to beat them. They were the better team.
  

  good enough
  well enough

• 8) Are you sure you're ___ to go to work? You still look ill.
  

  good enough
  well enough

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