Adjectives as nouns

Laura Galindo. Adapted from New English File. Upper-Intermediate. Oxford.

Adjectives as nouns
Na#onali#es: 1. You can use the with the na9onality adjec9ves which end in sh, -ch, -ss, -ese. Dont add s to these words. The English are famous for drinking tea. The Dutch make wonderful cheeses. The Chinese invented paper.

Adjectives as nouns
Na#onali#es: 2. Na9onality words which end in an and a few others, e.g. Greek and Thai, are both adjec9ves and nouns. To talk about the people from the country use a plural noun ending in s. The ArgenFnians invented the tango. The Greeks are very extrovert.

Adjectives as nouns
Na#onali#es: 3. Some na9onali9es have a special noun for the people which is dierent from the adjec9ve, e.g. Polish=adjec9ve, Pole=noun. To talk about the people you can either use the + adjec9ve OR the + plural noun. The Polish play a lot of basketball. The Poles play a lot of basketball.

Adjectives as nouns
Na#onali#es: 4. With any na9onality you can also use the adjec9ve + people. French people are very proud of their cuisine.

Adjectives as nouns
Na#onali#es: 5. To talk about one person of the country you cant use a / an + adjec9ve alone. Instead use: 1. a Japanese man / woman / person 2. a Greek / an Italian (these words are also nouns) 3. a Turk, a Pole

Adjectives as nouns
Specic groups of people: 1. You can use the + some adjec9ves to talk about specic groups in society.

The poor are geSng poorer and the rich are geSng richer.

Adjectives as nouns
Specic groups of people: 2. When we dont want to repeat a noun aSer an adjec9ve and it is already clear what we are talking about, we use the adjec9ve + one (singular) OR adjec9ve + ones (plural) Two ice creams, big ones please.