Adjectives used as nouns

A few adjectives can be used as if they were nouns (e.g. after a an)

6 Adjectives

and can sometimes have a plural The listener mentally supplies the missing noun

/'ve got my medicalon Thursday (= medical examination)

Don't be such a silly!(= a silly fool)

There s something the matter with the electricsin my car (= the

electrical system) Other words which are both adjectives and nouns are e g a black/blacks a red/reds a white/whites

6.12.2 'The' + adjective: e.g. 'the young'[> App 9]

Adjectives like the following are used after the never after a/an to represent a group as a whole e g the blind the deaf the living/the dead the rich/the poor the young/the old the unemployed. So the deaf means a group of people who are all deaf.

Andrew was sent to a special school for the deafThese adjectives are followed by a plural verb

You can always judge a society by the way the old arecared for. We can never use these adjectives on their own to refer to a single individual (Not * he is a young * * they are youngs *) If we wish to refer to single individuals, we must use an adjective + noun [> 6.6]

He s a young manwith a lot of ambition They are young men Some of these adjectives may be modified e g the extremely poor the idle rich the super rich the young at heart Sometimes after e g both the can be dropped [> 3.28.6]

Both young and old enjoyed themselves at the party

The reference can be general or abstract in e g the supernatural to unexpected the unheard of the unknown So the unknown means that thing or those things which are not known

Scott s march to the South Pole was a journey into the unknownThese are followed by a singular verb

The unknown is always something to be feared For the former the latter [> 4.11] For nationality adjectives used without nouns [> 3.19.2 App 49]