Nominal Adjectives What is a nominal adjective?
We know that adjectives are words that modify (or
describe) nouns, such as the word red in “the red jacket,”
or the word beautiful in “that girl is beautiful.”
Nominal adjectives, on the other hand, are
adjectives that perform the function of a noun in a sentence.
They are preceded by the word the and can be found as
the subject or the object of a sentence or
clause. For example:
- “The elderly are a great source of
wisdom.”
- “The French have amazing
restaurants.”
- “The opposite of up is down.”
- “The best is yet to come.”
In the examples above, the nominal adjectives do not modify any other
noun—they’re acting as nouns themselves. Specifically, they are performing the
function of the subject of the sentences, but, as we mentioned, they can also
function as objects. For example:
- “We should treat the elderly with
respect.”
- “This law protects the innocent.”
- “We all want the best for her.”
Uses of Nominal Adjectives
Nominal adjectives perform several different functions. Some nominal
adjectives are used to refer to a group of people who all share a certain
characteristic, which can be a physical or non-physical characteristic. Other
nominal adjectives refer to a characteristic of an individual person or thing.
We’ll look at each type of nominal adjective separately.
Collective adjectives are nominal adjectives that are used to refer
to groups of people. Sometimes they refer to a shared physical
characteristic, such as the blind, the deaf, the short, or the
tall. Other times, they refer to non-physical characteristics, like the
hardworking, the intelligent, the poor, or the rich.
In each of these cases, the nominal adjective takes the place of a
lengthier description, such as “all the people who are rich,” or “all
the intelligent people.”
Collective adjectives can also refer to some nationalities, such as the
Chinese, the English, or the French.
If you’d like to learn more about collective adjectives, they are covered in greater depth in their own section.
Comparative and superlative forms
Adjectives in their comparative or superlative form
can also be nominal adjectives. Comparative adjectives are those that end in “-er” or are preceded by the word more,
as in stronger, taller, cleverer, more beautiful, etc. They
are used to compare two things. Have a look at these examples of nominal
adjectives in comparative form:
- “His brother is the taller, but he
is the cleverer.”
- “They gave the prize to the more beautiful of
the two.”
- “Of the two cars, we chose the more
expensive.”
Superlative adjectives are those that end in “-est” or are preceded by the word most,
such as strongest, tallest, most beautiful, most clever, etc.
They compare three or more things, and they can function as nominal adjectives
in the same way that comparatives can. For example:
- “Dan is the strongest.”
- “I want the best for you.”
- “Whenever we have a job to do, you give me the
most difficult.”
Other adjectives
Most of the time, nominal adjectives are collective, comparative, and
superlative adjectives. However, just about any adjective can be made nominal.
They can make sentences shorter and more concise by avoiding repetitive use of
a noun. Here are some instances in which nominal adjectives might be
preferable:
- “I liked the red car but we bought the blue.”
(nominal
adjective)
- instead of
- “I like the red car but we bought the blue
car.”
(standard adjective)
·
Speaker A: “Which color did
you like best?”
·
Speaker B: “I thought
the blue was the prettiest.” (nominal adjective)
·
instead of
·
Speaker B: “I thought the
blue color was the prettiest.”
(standard
adjective)
·
“You’ve heard the good news,
now I’ll tell you the bad.”
·
instead of
·
“You’ve heard the good news,
now I’ll tell you the bad news.”
Other options
You may have noticed that a lot of these examples could be worded
differently. For example, when using collective adjectives, we can just as
easily say “French people” instead of “the French,” or “poor people” instead of
“the poor.”
With comparative and superlative forms, we can add a noun to provide more
emphasis or clarity. For example, we could say “He was the
stronger man of the two” instead of “he was the
stronger” or “I want the best thing for you”
instead of “I want the best for you.”
Often, we can also replace a noun with the pronoun one instead
of using a nominal adjective. For example, “you take the green t-shirt, I’ll
take the blue one” instead of “you take the green t-shirt,
I’ll take the blue.”
In many cases, these options are less formal than using a nominal
adjective.
Quiz
1. Nominal adjectives take the
place of a _______ in a sentence.
a) verb b) person c) adjective d) noun
2. Which of the
following cannot function as a nominal adjective?
a) poor b) red c)
shirt d) French
3. Nominal adjectives are
preceded by the word ________.
a) the b) one c) those d) noun
4. In the sentence “You rent
the green car, I’ll rent the red,” which word (or words) is the nominal
adjective?
a) Only green b) Green and red c) Only red d) car
5. Which of the following
sentences does not include an example of a nominal adjective?
a) “I’m sure you’ve chosen the best.”
b) “I wish I had bought the red.”
c) “The elderly deserve respect.” d) “You really know how to find the best music.”
c) “The elderly deserve respect.” d) “You really know how to find the best music.”