| MODIFYING NOUN — NOUN |
|---|
The same meaning can be expressed with a noun placed before the noun. |
| PRE POSITION MODIFIER |
|
May I have a soup spoon. (a spoon for soup) |
Ring the door bell. (a bell for a door) |
It is a picnic table. (a table for a picnic) |
He rides a mountain bike. (a bike for mountains) |
He is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent. |
*He is a Kyoto man. (a Kyotan, Kyoto-ite?)
|
| NOUN + MODIFYING PHRASE OR CLAUSE |
|---|
A noun can be modified by a phrase or clause placed after the noun. |
| POST POSITION MODIFIER |
|
May I have a spoon that is for soup. (Cls) |
Ring the bell that is next to the door. (Cls) |
It is a table for picnics. (PP) |
He rides a bike that was designed for the mountains. (Cls) |
He is an agent from the Internal Revenue Service. a tax man (PP) |
He is a man from Kyoto. (PP + proper noun) |
*Yellow highlighted words are examples of incorrect usage.
See Nationalities for specific terms.
| PLURAL NOUN MODIFIER |
|---|
Infrequently, a plural noun modify a noun. |
It is a sports magazine / car. (Indicates variety) |
We attended a jobs fair. (Indicates variety) |
The measle¹ outbreak made several children sick. |
*We went to a vegetables market. |
| SINGULAR NOUN MODIFIER |
|---|
More commonly, a singular noun modifies a noun. |
I bought a sport-utility vehicle. (other "sport" words) |
I have a job interview today. |
|
We went to a vegetable market. |
*Yellow highlighted words are examples of incorrect usage.
¹Related page Irreg Agreement (Words ending in -s that are singular in agreement)
| NOUN MODIFIER |
|---|
A hyphen is not used when one noun is a modifier to another noun . |
| NO HYPHEN |
He applied for a director position. |
The train station is closed. train (n.) modifies station (n.) |
Lake Tahoe is on the Nevada border. Nevada (n.) modifies border (n.) |
| FOR CLARITY (noun → noun–noun) |
We bought two foot stools. two (det.) modifies foot (n.) which modifies stools (n.) |
| DOUBLE-NOUN MODIFIER |
|---|
Two modifiers are linked with a hyphen to indicate relationship: (1) to link two words of equal importance, (2) to link two words modifying a noun that follows. |
| FOR EQUAL IMPORTANCE (noun–noun → noun) |
He applied for a producer-director position. |
The Menlo-Atherton train station is closed. |
Lake Tahoe is on the California-Nevada border. |
| FOR CLARITY (noun–noun → noun) |
We bought two-foot stools. See Hyphens.
|
*In linguistic description, two is a determiner "two chairs", or a noun "They came in twos." (CaGEL 5.7.6)
See Hyphens for details.
(Advanced)
| TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR | LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
In traditional grammar, the examples above are described as "a noun used as adjectives". "When a noun is used as an adjective, it is in its singular form…. When a noun used as a modifier is combined with a number expression, the noun is singular and a hyphen is used." Nouns as Adjectives (Azar 7-3) |
Current linguistic analysis describes the examples above as "nouns used as attributive modifiers". That is to say, a "noun" cannot be an "adjective" (a grammatical class) but it can be a "modifier" (a grammatical function). Because it occurs before the noun it modifies, it is called a "pre-head modifier" (the noun being the head of the noun phrase). "Attributive nouns fail to qualify as adjectives by virtue of the grading and adverbial dependents criteria. They don't take very or too or the analytic comparative marker more as modifier." — Nouns as Attributive Modifiers (CaGEL 16.2.4.1) |
Categories: NP –noun phrase; N – noun; VP – verb phrase; V – verb; Det – determiner; PP – prepositional phrase; P – preposition; AdvP – adverb phrase; Adv – adverb; AdjP– adjective phrase; Adj – adjective ;
Cls – clause