Can Nouns Be Adjectives?

In the English language, words are organized by their function (how they are used). A part of speech is a group of words that are used in a certain way. All words in the English language are divided into eight different parts of speech:

nouns (cat, house, boy, flower, etc.)
pronouns (he, she, I, you, etc.)
adjectives (nice, cool, good, bad, etc.)
verbs (go, jump, sleep, eat, etc.)
adverbs (fast, slowly, well, nicely, etc.)
prepositions (in, on, under, behind, above, etc.)
conjunctions (and, but, or, etc.)
interjections (Hey! Ouch! Yay! Wow! etc.)

In the English language, many words are used in more than one way. Some words can function as several different parts of speech. In this lesson, we will answer the question: “Can nouns be adjectives?”.

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing.

Examples: hat, man, school, New York, Kelly, child, car.

car

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An adjective is a word that describes a person, place, or thing.

Examples: strong, purple, American, tiny, original, wooden, pink.

So, adjectives are used to describe nouns. An adjective can be placed before or after the noun it describes.

Examples:

strong man or the man is strong
purple hat or the hat is purple
American school
tiny child

kid

In English, many words can function as more than one part of speech. Sometimes, nouns can function as adjectives to describe other nouns. In that case, the first noun acts as an adjective.

Attributive Nouns

Nouns that describe other nouns are called attributive nouns. Attributive means “joined directly to a noun in order to describe it.”

join

Examples:

noun as adjective (attributive noun)	noun	sentence
war	story	We read a war story in class.
news	reporter	The news reporter looked at the camera.
bath	room	Where is the bathroom?
car	accident	They were involved in a car accident last week.

We can write attributive nouns and the real noun in several different ways.

separate words: peanut butter
hyphenated words: ice-cream
one word: sunflower

Using Multiple Attributive Nouns

Just like adjectives, you can use more than one attributive noun to describe a noun. Do not use commas to separate the attributive nouns.

Examples:

research committee meeting
summer baseball team coaches

Attributive Nouns with Adjectives

When an attributive noun is used with a real adjective, the adjective always comes first.

Examples:

expensive dog food
empty coffee cup
healthy bean soup

Practice

1) Which of the following words are nouns? Circle them.

wow, eat, he, nice, boy, she, on, I, money, under, you, cool, cat, fast, in, sleep, tree, above, sun, slowly, and, but, house, nicely, well, or, good, dog, bad, go, behind, jump, flower.

2) Which of the following words are adjectives? Circle them.

pink, wow, eat, he, nice, boy, she, on, short, I, money, under, you, cool, cat, tall, in, sleep, tree, above, sun, yellow, slowly, and, but, house, nicely, dry, or, good, dog, bad, go, behind, jump, flower.

3) Complete each sentence using one of these attributive nouns.

dog
history
bicycle
ice
foot
coat

She put three ____________ cubes in her glass before filling it with water.
We need a ____________ house for our new puppy.
Hang your jacket on the ____________ rack.
I kicked the ____________ ball down the field.
You can ride down the ____________ path to school.
I forgot my ____________ book at school.

book

Answers

1) Which of the following words are nouns? (in bold)

wow, eat, he, nice, boy, she, on, I, money, under, you, cool, cat, fast, in, sleep, tree, above, sun, slowly, and, but, house, nicely, well, or, good, dog, bad, go, behind, jump, flower.

2) Which of the following words are adjectives? (in bold)

3) Complete each sentence using one of these attributive nouns.