Adjectives are useful words that describe nouns and pronouns. Words like High And slow And sweet.
An attribute noun is a noun that modifies another noun—like ‘single’ in the phrase ‘single bar’.
However, sometimes we find the words we’ve been taught are nouns that do the same job:
One business meeting
study papers
ONE apartment build
One Single bar
In each of these words, the italicized word is defined in the dictionary only as a noun, but it’s there, modifying another noun. That’s what adjectives do, right?
Yes Yes. But some nouns do it too. These are called “attribute nouns.” properties here means “joined directly with a noun to describe it.”
So what distinguishes attributive nouns from adjectives? The classification can be complicated, but here are two general rules:
1. An attributive noun can only modify a noun when it is preceded by it: It’s a business meeting, not a meeting that is business.
2. Attributive nouns do not have a comparative, but many adjectives do: One building may be taller or more impressive than another, but it cannot be more apartments than another.
Although attributive nouns can come in pairs (or triples), they are not separated by commas:
experience summer baseball tournament staff
new labor safety Rule
Finally, if an attributive noun is used with a real adjective, the adjective always comes first:
along study paper
local Single bar
Attributive nouns do some of the same work as adjectives, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t nouns. Think of them as nouns that have learned to multitask.
DISCOVER MORE: Adjectives that look like nouns
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
