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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / February 2004A noun as an adjective?
"In English we use many nouns as adjectives. Car, for example, is a noun. But we talk about car dealers, car lots, car problems, and car payments. In those cases car is being used as an adjective". What do you think of that statement that I just saw in an other forum? Is "car" really being used as an adjective? Thanks. M.R. > "In English we use many nouns as adjectives. Car, for example, is a noun. > But we talk about car dealers, car lots, car problems, and car payments. In > those cases car is being used as an adjective". > > What do you think of that statement that I just saw in an other forum? Is > "car" really being used as an adjective? It's one way of looking at it. You'll find that depending on the first language (or languages) of your students that some ways of approaching or analysing sentences are more useful with one language group and others with another language group. Regards, Einde O'Callaghan > "In English we use many nouns as adjectives. Car, for example, is a noun. > But we talk about car dealers, car lots, car problems, and car payments. In [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Thanks. > M.R. No. They're compound nouns. English has many - police officer, school teacher, hockey/soccer/poker player, bus/car/truck driver, e.g. The noun's function is to name. The adjective's function is to modify. Professional soccer player as opposed to amateur soccer player. Honest police officer as opposed to corrupt police officer. Compound nouns, eh? I would argue that adjectives answer the following questions: Which one? What kind? How many? (number/quantity) Whose? In that case "car" tells us which kind of salesman. So adjective. Of course the rule of hyphenation may come into play? > > "In English we use many nouns as adjectives. Car, for example, is a noun. > > But we talk about car dealers, car lots, car problems, and car payments. In [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Honest police officer as opposed to corrupt police officer. > Compound nouns, eh? I would argue that adjectives answer the following > questions: [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > In that case "car" tells us which kind of salesman. So adjective. Of > course the rule of hyphenation may come into play? Nope. 'Car' tells you what item he sells. Not what kind of salesman he is. A noun names a person, place or thing. An adjective adds qualification/modification. Consider: He's a car salesman as opposed to he's a good/bad salesman. > > > "In English we use many nouns as adjectives. Car, for example, is a > noun. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > > > Honest police officer as opposed to corrupt police officer. > > Compound nouns, eh? I would argue that adjectives answer the following > > questions: [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Consider: He's a car salesman as opposed to he's a > good/bad salesman. John is right here. One quick 'rule of thumb' for checking things like this is to invert the phrase to make a simple statement. This will work with adjectives, and not with compound nouns: Good Salesman - The salesman is good Strong Salesman - The salesman is strong x Car Salesman - The salesman is car x It doesn't work - the two parts of the compound noun do not operate correctly when separated |
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