Noun As An Adjective
As you have probably already learned a noun is a person, place or thing, while an adjective is a word used to describe the noun:
| Adjective | Noun |
| blue | sweater |
| fast | car |
| old | bread |
However, sometimes a noun is used to describe another noun, and when this happens the first noun is acting as an adjective. In most cases the combination of the words can also be referred to as a compound noun. For example:
| Noun as Adjective | Noun |
| cashmere | sweater |
| car | collection |
| banana | bread |
Order of Adjective and Subject
As long as you remember the simple rule that first noun is the adjective, you will know which one is the subject. Here are a few examples:
- a hat box is a box for hats
- a TV show is a show for TV
- a love letter is a letter about love
- a pocket knife is a knife sized for a pocket
- an art display is a display of art
- a Christmas show is a show celebrating Christmas
Adjective Noun Is Singular
Similar to the use of adjectives, a noun being used as an adjective remains in the singular form and does not vary.
| Right | Wrong | |
| Love story | Love stories | NOT loves story or loves stories |
| Container ship | Container ships | NOT containers ship, containers ships |
| Car hood | Car hoods | NOT cars hood or cars hoods |
| Care package | Care packages | NOT cares package or cares packages |
Only the noun acting as a noun accepts the plural form.
Some nouns appear to be in a plural, but we address them as singular (for example the news). When these nouns act as adjectives they do not change. For example:
- an economics report, four economics reports
- one news article, three news articles
- a gymnastics athlete, two gymnastics athletes
Exceptions:
Some nouns are used in the plural form when they are used as adjectives. Some examples include sports, clothes, accounts, etc.
- clothes dryer, clothes department
- sports arena, sports magazines
- accounts payable, accounts receivable
- customs officers, customs forms
Writing A Noun As Adjective
When we use the noun as an adjective there are several ways we can write it. Again, these are also known as compound nouns so they have the same structure.
- two separate words (banana bread)
- two hyphenated words (world-class)
- one word (shoelace)
Unfortunately, there is no easy way of knowing which of the three ways is best. There are even words that you can write in more than one way (for example world class, world-class).
Pronouncing A Noun As Adjective
In pronouncing the noun as an adjective we usually stress the first word:
- world-class
- year-end
- nightcap
Number Of Nouns As Adjectives
In the same way, we can have many adjectives together, we can also have more than one “noun as adjective” together. For example, film sales forecast refers to the features of editing a film.
| Noun as Adjective | Noun as Adjective | Noun |
| forecast | ||
| sales | forecast | |
| Film | sales | forecast |
Senior school newspaper editor: this refers to the person who is highly ranked and is the editor of a newspaper in a school.
| Noun as Adjective | Noun as Adjective | Noun as Adjective | Noun |
| editor | |||
| newspaper | editor | ||
| school | newspaper | editor | |
| Senior | school | newspaper | editor |
Note: In Senior school newspaper editor you should be able to spot another “noun as adjective.” Look at newspaper, this word is made up of two nouns, news + paper.
National highway patrol: this is the group of officers who help keep our highways safe.
| Noun as Adjective | Noun as Adjective | Noun |
| patrol | ||
| highway | patrol | |
| national | highway | patrol |
It is common to read many nouns stringed together in newspapers in order to convey a headline without using too much space. For example, Moon Landing Expensive Endeavor.
In order to make it easier to read these kinds of headlines try reading from right to left.
Also, you can use an adjective in the same structure that you would use a “noun as adjective”:
- full refrigerator drawer
- corrupt government official
- impressive Hollywood production
- reliable roof repairman
- stellar volleyball coach
