 Adjectives as nouns Adjective order

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 – ese:  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 + ADJADJ + PEOPLE ORTHE + NOUN  Spain-The SpaniardsSweden -The Swedes  Scotland -The ScotsDenmark -The Danes  Finland- The FinnsTurkey- 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 + MAN,WOMAN, BOY, etc.  A PoleAn 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.

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

Underline the correct word(s). Example:In some towns there isn’t enough entertainment for young / the young.  The Frenches / French enjoy good food.  My brother has short dark / dark short hair.  He wore a striped new blue / new blue striped T- shirt and jeans to the party.  The Italian / Italians have a great sense of style. Example:In some towns there isn’t enough entertainment for young / the young.  The Frenches / French enjoy good food.  My brother has short dark / dark short hair.  He wore a striped new blue / new blue striped T- shirt and jeans to the party.  The Italian / Italians have a great sense of style.

 Poor / The poor in many countries rely on charity to survive.  I bought some little silver lovely / lovely little silver earrings in Paris.  He was so / such cold that he couldn’t feel his toes.  I can’t believe you drove such a / such long way to visit her.  Poor / The poor in many countries rely on charity to survive.  I bought some little silver lovely / lovely little silver earrings in Paris.  He was so / such cold that he couldn’t feel his toes.  I can’t believe you drove such a / such long way to visit her.