Adjectives as nouns

ADJECTIVES AS NOUNS

1. NATIONALITIES

2. SPECIFIC GROUPS OF PEOPLE

3. ONE, ONES

1. To talk about nationalities we have different possibilities:

A. You can use THE + ADJ: The English are reserved.

B. Or ADJ + PEOPLE: English people are reserved.

C. Special noun: Spaniards love bullfights.

A. THE + ADJ:

• You can use THE + ADJ with nationality adjectives that end in –sh,

-ch, -ss, or –es:

 The French are romantic.

 The English love tea.

 The Swiss are very punctual.

 The Chinese work a lot.

Nationality words which end in –an and some others , add –s to the

adjective (they’re also nouns):

 The Argentinians talk a lot.

 The Italians are good fun.

 The Greeks love their history.

 The Thais are shy.

B. ADJ + PEOPLE:

 With any nationality you can use the ADJECTIVE + PEOPLE, without

the article:

 English people are reserved.

 French people are romantic.

 Greek people love their history.

 Argentinian people talk a lot.

C. SPECIAL NOUN :

 Some nationalities have a special noun which is different from the

adjective. In these cases you can either use the options mentioned

before:

 THE + ADJ

 ADJ + PEOPLE

   OR  THE + NOUN

EXAMPLES :

Spain                                 The Spaniards

Sweden                              The Swedes

Scotland                             The Scots

Denmark                            The Danes

Finland                               The Finns

Turkey                                The Turks

Poland                                The Poles

 To talk about ONE person you can use A + NOUN, (if there’s noun), if

not, or if you want specify the gender, you must use the ADJ + WOMAN, BOY, etc.

 A Pole

 An Italian

 A Greek

 A French boy

 A Japanese girl

They’re are usually written as two words but occasionally you can

also find them as one word.

 A Frenchman

 An Englishman

2. You can use THE + ADJ to talk about specific groups of people in society. These expressions are always plural.

 The poor are poorer now than before.

 The rich are fewer and fewer.

 The unemployed have no choices.

 The young don’t like having rules.

3. When you don’t want to repeat a noun after an adjective because it is already clear what we’re talking about, we use ADJ + ONE or ONES (plural). This structure is very common in spoken English.

  Would you like a big ice-cream or a small one?

  A: Do you prefer teaching younger or older children?

     B: The younger ones are easier to teach, I’d say.