+01 424 645 5957

+39 347 378 8169

+01 424 645 5957

+39 347 378 8169

Adjectives as Nouns‎ & Vice Versa

Parts Of Speech

Rich get Richer, Poor get Prison

Say it like it is.

Adjectives‏‎ normally tell us more about nouns e.g.

{adjective} + {noun}

rich + people

poor + men

Adjectives as Nouns

However, we can also use an adjective as a noun by using this pattern:

the + {adjective}

We use this to talk about a group of people:

The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

We can also use it to talk about an abstract idea:

the new, the old, the infinite

Nouns as Adjectives

We can also put two nouns together. When we do this, the first noun acts like an adjective and gives us more information about the second noun:

{noun} + {noun}

computer + programs

record + players

In these examples above, computer and record are both nouns but they work like adjectives, giving us more information and describing the second noun.

So, you can see here that adjectives can sometimes work as nouns and nouns can sometimes work as adjectives!

Related Articles

ICAL TEFL Resources

The ICAL TEFL site has thousands of pages of free TEFL resources for teachers and students. These include: The TEFL ICAL Grammar Guide. Country Guides for teaching around the world. How to find TEFL jobs. How to teach English. TEFL Lesson Plans....

read more

6 Tips to Make your ESL Classes More Effective

Teaching is undeniably a challenging job, in fact many consider it one of the most difficult careers you could choose. Nevertheless, being a teacher is an enriching experience. Through quality education and effective teaching methodologies,...

read more

0 Comments