318. “It is…” + Noun and Another Verb

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A noun is sometimes right after forward-referring “it is”, sometimes wrong and sometimes an option

FEATURES OF THIS STRUCTURE

There are various types of sentence that can start with It is… (see 190. Special Uses of “it”). They can be broadly divided into those where it refers to something obvious from previous words or the speech situation, and those where it refers forward to something mentioned later in its own sentence.

Here, the focus is on the second of these it types. What it refers forward to is a verb-based statement at the sentence end – the true subject of is:

(a) It is a challenge to maintain food supplies.

The underlined verb-based statement here is not in the starting position that is more typical of subjects because it is quite wordy, a feature that English speakers do not like at the start of a sentence. Such wordiness is typical of verb-based statements in general. The starting it is a “dummy” subject, needed to fill the space left by the transferred true subject (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”).

The wording between this kind of It… and the later verb-based statement (is a challenge above) occasionally comprises a verb + object (e.g. makes sense), but is more typically a verb + complement. The verb BE (= is above) is by far the commonest complement-taking verb, but not the only one, possible alternatives including BECOME, REMAIN and SEEM. The complement is able, like complements in general, to be either a noun or a verb. As the above title indicates, it is noun complements that are of particular interest here.

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THE POTENTIAL FOR ERROR

The use of noun complements in the relevant kind of It is… sentence is complicated in two major respects. Firstly, there is the question of when a noun is able to be used. In some cases, it is the only means of expressing a particular meaning (e.g. It is a pity…); sometimes, it is not a possible means at all of doing so (e.g. It is strange…); and sometimes it is replaceable by a similarly-spelt adjective (e.g. It is a challenge/ challenging…).

The second complication is the variability of the wording directly after the noun complement, where the verb-based statement begins. In sentence (a) after challenge, there is a to verb (to maintain). Other nouns, however, may be followed by an -ing verb or by that (with an ordinary subject + verb), or by a question word.

The common feature of all these latter wording variations is that they mark the verb-based statement as a specification or identification of the general noun idea just before them. For example, to maintain… in (a) gives the exact nature of a challenge (see 117. Restating Generalizations More Specifically).

The usability of each variation depends on the choice of complement noun before it. Challenge allows to… but not that…; fact requires the reverse. Yet predicting the right choice is hampered by not just this variability but also the fact that some nouns combine with a following verb in a different way when they are outside the complement position. Placing the challenge, for example, at the start of a sentence before a specifying statement requires of -ing instead of to (The challenge of maintaining…); whereas the fact in this position still requires that.

As usual, the best way to acquire such a complicated area of knowledge is by communicating in English as much as possible. However, additional help may come from knowing some general noun meanings that seem to be associated with each option, and it is these that I wish to explore here.

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NOUN USAGE AFTER “IT IS”

It is not possible here to list all of the nouns that could follow the relevant kind of It is…, but a fairly extensive list may give some idea of what is possible:

NOUN ONLY

an achievement (to)
a bonus (to/that)
a conundrum (that/ wh-)
a disincentive (to/that)
a duty (to)
an experience (to)
a fact (that)
a failure (to)
a good question (wh-)
a joy (to)
a moot point (wh-)
a pity (that)
a priority (to)
a relief (to/that)
a requirement (to/that)
a shame (to/that)
a struggle (to)
common sense (to/that)
fun (to)
hard work (to)
standard practice (to)
time (to)

Most of these nouns owe their use, it seems, to the fact that they have no similarly-spelt adjective that could replace them without a clear meaning change. Some do actually have a similarly-spelt adjective (e.g. time/ timely, a joy/ joyous), but only one with a noticeably different meaning.

The meanings of the nouns perhaps form some distinct categories. A “good/bad” category includes bonus, failure, fun, joy, pity, pleasure, relief, shame, struggle and hard work. “Necessity” includes duty, priority and requirement. “Factual” might describe fact, common sense and standard practice. “Asking” includes conundrum, moot point and question.

NOUN OR ADJECTIVE

an advantage/ advantageous (to/that)
a burden/ burdensome (to/that)
a certainty/ certain (that)
a challenge/ challenging (to)
a consolation/ consoling (to/that)
a crime/ criminal (to/that )
a disappointment/ disappointing (that)
a disaster/ disastrous (that)
a help/ helpful (to/that)
a mystery/ mysterious (that)
a necessity/ necessary (to/that)
a novelty/ novel (to/that)
a possibility/ possible (that)
a probability/ probable (that)
#a problem/ problematic (that)
a puzzle/ puzzling (that)
a shock/ shocking (to/that)
a surprise/ surprising (to/that)
a trial/ trying (to)
the custom/ customary (to/that)
the fashion/ fashionable (to/that)
the truth/ true (that)

Pairs like these seem more numerous than nouns in the first list, which lack a derived adjective of similar-meaning. However, it should not be concluded that any adjective whose meaning and spelling exist in a corresponding noun can be replaced by it – there are plenty of such adjectives that must always be used. Often, their corresponding noun will be uncountable. Consider this:

(b) It is enjoyable to visit new places.

It would not be correct here to say an enjoyment to…. What would be possible, however, is an enjoyable experience. Other adjectives that have a noun of similar spelling and meaning without being replaceable by it include acceptable, appealing, typical, difficult, easy, futile, normal, premature, satisfying and painful.

However, some adjectives that cannot be replaced by their similarly-spelt noun after it is can actually be changed in this way in a sentence type that is practically a paraphrase of an it is sentence, namely one starting with there is. This is the case, for example, with appealing (corresponding noun = appeal). Appealing in the position of enjoyable in (b) would become appeal in a sentence like the following:

(c) There is appeal in visiting new places.

For more on this kind of correspondence, see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences, #6.

The meaning categories represented in the second list are similar to those in the first.

For further aspects of noun/ adjective alternation, see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds, #1.

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WORD CHOICES AFTER THE NOUN

Most of the above nouns, it is clear, need their following verb to be introduced with to. This may be because of the kind of meaning that the verb expresses: something to be done by either the speaker or addressee or both. Consider this:

(d) It is a requirement to sign in on arrival.

Very typically, such a sentence will be telling the addressee to carry out the mentioned action. If to is replaced by that, by contrast, this would not be the case:

(e) It is a requirement that dogs are kept on a lead.

Similarly, the first sentence below refers to an action by the speaker, while the second does not:

(f) It is a relief to have completed the task.

(g) It is a relief that the bank have received payment.

Two alternatives to to and that are -ing and question words. Replacing to with -ing seems possible after “good/bad” nouns. In sentence (f), for example, to have could easily be the rare auxiliary gerund having.

The choice between to and -ing in such situations depends on how the action is viewed (what grammarians call “aspect”): to… presents actions as brief, while -ing presents them as extended – the same contrast that is possible after some adjectives outside it sentences ( see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it), and after some verbs (see 148. Infinitive Verbs without “to”, #2).

Replacement of that by a question word (how, when, who etc.) is sometimes necessary when the noun before is a question-implying one like a puzzle (see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #8):

(h) It is a puzzle why nobody is around.

For more on such sentences, see 219. Wording next to Indirect Questions, #2.

313. Adverbs Linked Closely to a Noun

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Most adverbs cannot associate with a noun, but a few can

ADVERB ROLES IN ENGLISH SENTENCES

Adverbs are usually said to modify, or refine, a particular type of information in a sentence. In contrast to adjectives, which typically refine noun or pronoun information, adverbs are mostly associated with a verb or an adjective or another adverb or an entire statement. Elsewhere within this blog, it is suggested that adverbs can also modify the meaning of a preposition (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition).

In view of all this, a reasonable generalization would seem to be that adverbs can add information about practically anything in a sentence except nouns or their equivalents. Yet, as the above title indicates, that is not the case. In this post I wish to examine how adverbs can say something about a noun. Not every adverb has this capability, but that is not really surprising when the same thing could be said about every other adverb capability (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #2).

The total number of adverbs that can add information about a noun is not large, but it is perhaps greater than one would expect (and greater than implied by the rare illustrations that I have found in grammar books). My specific objectives here are to identify as many of the possibilities as possible, and to illustrate them copiously.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF NOUN-FOCUSSED ADVERBS

Noun-focussed adverbs tend, not surprisingly, to be located just before their noun. The problem is that adverbs before a noun are not always closely associated with it. Consider this:

(a) Obviously, water is not an infinite resource.

The adverb obviously here is saying something about the message of the entire sentence rather than just about water. This is recognizable from the fact that it can occupy a grammatical position elsewhere in the sentence, such as just before the verb is, without a change of meaning. The comma after obviously is also a clue, since sentence-starting adverbs with a following comma tend in general to be sentence-related (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

Here is an example of a starting adverb that does link only with the noun after it:

(b) Quite a mess was left behind.

The close association of quite here with a mess is easier to see if the entire phrase is placed in the object position after a suitable verb:

(c) Workers left quite a mess behind.

If quite was being used here in the ordinary adverb way, its position between the verb and its object a mess would probably not be correct because ordinary adverbs are in general unlikely to be correct there (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #3). However, quite fits naturally into this position.

Contrast the use of quite in (c) with that of the manner adverb deliberately. That would have to go at the start or end of the sentence, or just before the verb left.

Slightly trickier to judge are adverbs before a noun in the “complement” position after a verb like BE. In the following example, could clearly be considered noun-focussed?

(d) The scale of the project was clearly a challenge.

There is no punctuation rule that could give assistance here, and meaning does not help: clearly appears to be as plausibly modifying the verb was as the complement a challenge.

A way forward in this case, perhaps, is to see how the sentence reads with the adverb placed before rather than after BE: …clearly was a challenge above. The change is obviously not a problem with clearly, but with quite it seems more of one:

(e) ?The scale of the project quite was a challenge.

Another problematic sentence type is where a starting adverb + noun are followed by a comma:

(f) Clearly a challenge, the scale of the project had to be reduced.

However, I take such sentence starts to be just a modified form of the complement usage shown in (d). This is because being can be added before the adverb without affecting the grammaticality or meaning of the sentence.

Sometimes, an adverb precedes a noun within a preposition phrase, e.g. in especially the sea. I discount this usage too, the reason being that the adverb can usually be repositioned before the preposition without a meaning change, thus suggesting that the modification is of the whole phrase rather than just the noun within it.

Finally, various adverbs can precede a noun placed directly after another noun within an “apposition” construction (see 77. Apposition, #1):

(g) The next planet out from the sun, obviously Mars, may provide evidence of alien life.

I would not take obviously here to be focussed on just the noun Mars. Again, it seems to be a variant of the complement usage since which could comfortably go before it, with is placed either before or after.

However, the adverb namely seems different – less natural-sounding with which is – and will be included. Other adverbs that seem like it are especially notably, particularly and specifically.

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MEANINGS OF NOUN-FOCUSSED ADVERBS

1. Degree Adverbs

Degree adverbs typically modify adjectives or other adverbs (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much). The main ones that seem able to modify a noun (usually a countable one with a) are quite and rather. Quite with nouns seems the more widely usable. Its meaning varies less than with adjectives and adverbs (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 3, #2), being more typically “completely” than “moderately”. Rather, by contrast, does mean “moderately”, but it tends to be restricted to negative-sounding nouns like a fool, or a mess in sentence (c) above.

Some grammar books also mention back-referring such (= “at the recognised high level”), as in:

(h) Nobody could accept such a (radical) suggestion.

An adverb (as opposed to adjective) nature of such in this use is perhaps hinted at by the frequent implication of a following adjective that, like radical, conveys the main description of the noun.

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2. Inclusion Adverbs

Two fundamental inclusion meanings are “excluding all others” – most typically expressed by only (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”) – and “surprisingly included” – usually shown by even. Both words easily meet the sentence-position requirements. They may begin like this:

(i) Only/Even children may use this facility.

The adverbs are associated here with the noun children, not with the later use this facility: the sentence is not naming the single or extra thing that children may do. The noun association can be present even with the adverbs after rather than before their noun.

If children were in the object position (e.g. after We accept…), the placement of only/even before it would not sound strange (though placement after it would again be possible too).

Of the various synonyms of only, just and solely seem usable like it, whereas exclusively and purely do not. To me, these latter sound unlikely at the start of a sentence and unusual just before an object. They seem to fit much better before prepositions and conjunctions (exclusively in summer, purely when the sun shines).

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3. Highlighters

Especially, notably and particularly say that their noun deserves more attention than others in the same class (see 54. Sentence Lists 1: incidental). Their use with nouns seems mostly to be in apposition constructions, where there is another noun just before:

(j) Some parts of the solar system, especially Mars, may provide evidence of alien life.

Usage outside of apposition constructions, for example with a sentence-starting noun like children in (i), seems possible with especially and particularly, but rare and usually with the noun before rather than after them (Children especially…). A possible reason for the rarity may be a danger of a double meaning – difficulty deciding whether the adverb modifies the noun or the whole sentence. One way to more clearly show linkage with a starting noun is to use in particular (without commas) after it instead.

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4. Precision Adverbs

Various adverbs are usable before a quantity noun to show how exact it is, as in exactly a kilogram, approximately a litre and easily a megabyte. Other relevant adverbs include almost, at least, nearly, perhaps, practically, precisely, probably, roughly and virtually (see 95. Making Statements More Uncertain 1, #1).

However, all the adverbs in this category may be less definitely noun modifiers than the kinds in preceding sections. It is arguable that they actually modify not the noun after them but the article a(n) before it. They are not usable if the same nouns are made plural, with a(n) absent. Plural nouns after them usually need a number in between (e.g. almost 3 kg.). Given that a(n) is sometimes an alternative to the number one (see 263. Uses of “One” and “Ones”, #2), it is difficult not to conclude that this meaning is what the adverbs are modifying.

The standard negative adverb not, which similarly modifies nouns only when they have a(n) (e.g. Not a word was spoken), may be discounted for the same reasons (see 310. Aspects of Negation, #1).

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5. Name Indicators

The adverbs namely and specifically can introduce a name-informing noun placed along with them between two commas or equivalent as the second half of an apposition construction:

(k) One era of the dinosaurs, namely / specifically the Cretaceous, was the time of Tyrannosaurus.

Namely is always usable in such sentences, whereas specifically is only possible when the noun before it is indefinite, usually with a(n) or one (see the end of 206. Ways of Conveying a Name).

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6. Superficiality Adverbs

Apparently, ostensibly, seemingly and superficially placed before a pronoun with any- (anybody, anyone, anything) or every- or no- can be understood as modifying it:

(l)  The villagers had apparently nothing to do.

This usage seems possible with the pronoun used as either a subject or an object or an object of a preposition.

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7. Negatives

The adverbs barely, hardly and scarcely seem as questionably able as not to modify a noun (see #4 above). However, they do seem more able to modify pronouns with any-:

(m) Hardly anyone disputes the need for action.

308. Complexities of “Whole”

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“Whole” can be confusing because of its similarity to “all” and its variable noun/adjective status

TOPIC OVERVIEW

Whole is a familiar word with surprising complexities, some of which cause error among inexperienced users of English. As it is also common in professional writing, I wish here to examine it in detail. Key points include its pronunciation, grammatical class variation, meaning subtleties, usage after a(n) and the, usage before of, and its occurrence within fixed phrases. The post finishes with a practice exercise.

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PRONUNCIATION AND BASIC MEANING

I expect most readers will know that the “w” at the start of whole is not pronounced (see 155. Silent Consonants, #8). Perhaps less well known is the closeness of the pronunciation of whole to that of all. Apart from the /h/ at the start of whole, both have a similar-sounding vowel before a final /l/. In Southern British English, the vowel in whole is variably pronounced /ɒ/ or /əυ/, while that in all is /ɔ/ – a difference mainly of length.

This pronunciation similarity can be a particular problem for speakers of languages, such as French, that do not usually allow the /h/ sound at the start of words. In listening especially, the /h/ of whole is not likely to be very noticeable, leaving similarities of pronunciation that, combined with the meaning similarity, may easily cause whole and all to be confused. One common resultant error is a belief that *the all is possible (instead of all the), this having been the way the whole was interpreted in listening (see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly).

Meaning-wise, whole carries, of course, the idea of completeness or totality. On top of that, and distinguishing it from all (see 169. “All”, “Each” and “Every”), it usually conveys one of three possible messages. One is a very strong indication that all rather than some of something is being talked about:

(a) The whole enterprise took three days.

This very clearly associates three days with all of the enterprise rather than any part of it. Quite often, there will be preceding information about some or all of the parts (for example, a description of the first day’s activity above), so that whole is making a contrast with it, and hence even more clearly indicating a change of focus.

Whole could be called “emphatic” in this use because the same meaning would actually be still understandable without it. However, in speech, whole would not normally be pronounced in an emphatic way.

The second main use of whole is to suggest in an emphatic way the idea of “more than expected”:

(b) The awful noise went on for a whole day.

This says that a day was a very long time to suffer from the awful noise. Normally in such sentences, the pronunciation of both whole and its partner noun (day above) would be emphatic (see 125. Stress and Emphasis).

Thirdly, whole can mean “over-arching” or “covering all other possibilities”. Used like this, it typically goes between the… and, most often, either idea (= proposal), plan, point, purpose or reason. There is often a suggestion that the addressee has failed to recognise the idea (etc.) as the key one (But that’s the whole idea!).

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GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

1. Word Class Variation

Whole is mostly used as a noun or adjective. It is a noun when not directly followed by a noun or noun phrase e.g.:

(c) A whole is often greater than its parts.

By far the most common noun use is before of, e.g. the whole of the world.

As an adjective, whole usually describes a directly-following noun or noun phrase (e.g. the whole world, a whole new science), or the pronoun one (a whole one), or a noun located before and separated by a link verb like BE (e.g. the fossil was whole).

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2. Combination with a Following Noun

Most noun types can follow the whole of:

*SINGULAR COUNTABLE WITH a(n): the whole of an afternoon
*SINGULAR COUNTABLE WITH the: the whole of the afternoon
*PLURAL COUNTABLE: the whole of afternoons
*PLURAL COUNTABLE WITH the: the whole of the afternoons
PROPER: the whole of France
*PROPER WITH the: the whole of the United States
UNCOUNTABLE TYPE A: the whole of childhood
UNCOUNTABLE TYPE B: all luggage
*UNCOUNTABLE WITH the: the whole of the childhood/luggage

For information about which proper nouns usually follow the, see 47. Article Errors with Proper Nouns.

Uncountable nouns that I call “type A” seem usually to represent something with a fairly clear boundary. Childhood, for example, is bounded by a quite definite number of years. “Type B” nouns lack this feature. This difference is important above only where uncountable nouns lack the (through having “generic” meaning), since it leads to type B nouns typically following all rather than the whole of.

Other examples of type A uncountable nouns – easily usable like childhood after the whole of – are humanity and business. Other examples of type B uncountable nouns are love and air. Practice in recognising the two types of uncountable noun, and hence where the whole of is possible, is offered in an exercise below.

The combinations marked * above can alternatively drop the whole of and place just whole directly before the final noun:

the whole of an afternoon → a whole afternoon
the whole of the afternoon → the whole afternoon
the whole of afternoons → whole afternoons
the whole of the afternoons → the whole afternoons
the whole of the United States → the whole United States
the whole of the luggage → the whole luggage

Note the absence from this list of proper nouns that normally lack the, such as France.  They must keep the whole of. Usage with just the whole (e.g. *the whole France) is a common error. One other noun with this requirement is humanity – *the whole humanity should be avoided.

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FIXED EXPRESSIONS AND DERIVATIVES

Two important preposition phrases are on the whole and as a whole. Each is unusual in not allowing a choice between adverbial and adjectival use (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2). On the whole is always adverbial. It might be expected to mean “wholly” (see 85. Preposition Phrases and Corresponding Adverbs), but it in fact means “generally”. As a whole is purely adjectival, needing a noun just before it to link with:

(d) Fuel price changes affect economies as a whole.

Elsewhere, whole has special meanings associated with one or more particular expressions. In whole milk and wholemeal, it suggests that nothing has been removed from a commodity that very often does have something removed from it: fat in the former case, wheat germ in the latter. In the whole story, where the meaning of story is “explanation” rather than “narrative”, whole suggests inclusion of everything regardless of inconvenience, so that not the whole story implies omission of information, often in order to deceive.

A whole before various singular “collective” nouns (suggesting multiplicity), such as collection, crowd, group, myriad, range, variety and informal lot, makes the multiplicity sound greater. These nouns are often followed by of – e.g. a whole range of objections – while a whole lot is also possible before comparative adjectives or adverbs, e.g. a whole lot better, a whole lot more quickly (see 194 Adverbs that Say How Much, #4).

Another common combination is the whole (of the) time used to show that an extended event or situation is happening throughout the occurrence of another one (see 225. Simultaneous Occurrence, #3). It may or may not be combined with a following subject + verb linked by a visible or understood when:

(e) Solar panels produce electricity the whole time (when) the sun is shining.

Also notable is a whole new before a noun to emphasise that the noun idea is not just a replacement of an old one but also completely different from it. Common partner nouns include approach, ball game (= situation), meaning, method, set, understanding and way.

Finally, whole occurs within a small number of compound words like wholemeal above. Food described as wholesome is health-promoting. Whole-hearted describing a person or behaviour suggests total, unreserved belief or commitment. Wholesale is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb referring to goods sold in large quantities to other sellers, usually very cheaply.

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PRACTICE USING “the whole of”

Some of the uncountable nouns in the list below can follow the whole of and some cannot (usually needing all instead). Can you separate the two groups? Answers are given after.

destruction, freedom, health, history, humanity, information, justice, life, logic, love, manufacturing, nature, paper, politics, research, science, silence, society, storage, suffering, time, truth, vegetation, water, work, yesterday.

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Answers

Nouns allowing the whole of are underlined:

destruction, freedom, health, history, humanity, information, justice, life, logic, love, manufacturing, nature, paper, politics, research, science, silence, society, storage, suffering, time, truth, vegetation, water, work, yesterday.

Note that logic after the whole of refers to the subject known as logic, not logic itself; while nature means “the natural world”, not “type”.

287. Speech and Thought Nouns

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There are surprisingly many nouns that can replace a speech or thought verb next to indirect speech

DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE

Some speech and thought nouns indicate a way of speaking / thinking, some represent the result, and very many can mean either. The first type are relatively rare, an example being summarization. The second type are quite numerous, with such examples as advice, emphasis, praise, question, summary and view. The third type is illustrated by assertion: its uncountable use means the action of asserting, while the countable use means the resultant words (see 280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns).

A typical, though certainly not exclusive, way of using speech and thought nouns is alongside indirect speech (see 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text). Of course, this position is most commonly occupied by speech and thought verbs (see 150. Verb Choices with Reported Speech), and sometimes even by adjectives (see 300. Adjective Indicators of Indirect Speech). Indeed, speech and thought verbs are so frequent with indirect speech that English language courses often concentrate exclusively on them.

The use of speech and thought verbs with indirect speech certainly deserves attention, given the numerous language problems that they can cause (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs and 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs). Yet the use of speech and thought nouns with indirect speech is common and challenging enough to deserve some attention too. Like the verbs, they function in a variety of ways, and are not all the same in their grammatical requirements. It is these aspects that the present post is about.

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VERB CORRESPONDENCES

A useful way to identify speech and thought nouns is to seek derivations from speech and thought verbs. Many, but not all, speech and thought verbs have a derived noun:

COMMON VERB-DERIVED SPEECH NOUNS

acceptance, acknowledgement, advice, agreement, allegation, analysis, appeal, appreciation, argument, assertion, assessment, assumption, call, citation, claim, clarification, command, comparison, complaint,  concern, conclusion, confirmation, contention, contrast, criticism, declaration, demand, denial, definition, description, demonstration, discussion, dismissal, distinction, emphasis, encouragement, enquiry, evaluation, explanation, focus, forecast, guess, identification, illustration, implication, indication, instruction, introduction, invitation, judgement, mention, note, observation, opposition, outline, perception, persuasion, plea, point, portrayal, praise, prediction, preference, presumption, promise, pronouncement, proof, proposal, query, quotation, recognition, recommendation, reference, refusal, refutation, rejection, repetition, report, request, speculation, speech, statement, suggestion, summary, support, survey, thanks, threat, warning, wording

Speech verbs with no apparent derived noun include ASK, BESEECH, BEG, HIGHLIGHT, HOLD, MAINTAIN, QUESTION, SAY, SHOW, TELL, URGE, WONDER and WRITE. To express their meaning in noun positions, they need to be in the gerund (-ing) form:

(a) Solar observations induced questioning of ancient astronomy.

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COMMON VERB-DERIVED THOUGHT NOUNS

acceptance, appreciation, assumption, belief, concept, conception, conclusion, conviction, determination (= discovery), discovery, doubt, feeling (= belief), guess, imagination, inference, intention, judgement, knowledge, perception, realization, recognition, study, thought, understanding, view, viewpoint, wish

The borderline between “thought” and other mental experiences like emotions and urges is sometimes hazy, but hopefully these examples give some idea of what is meant. Most of them (exceptions underlined) can also refer to speech. A thought verb with no apparent derived noun is SEE (= understand), though insight is quite similar in meaning.

In addition to the above lists, there are some speech and thought nouns that have no corresponding verb:

SPEECH / THOUGHT NOUNS WITH NO CORRESPONDING VERB

attitude, awareness, faith, insight, idea, ignorance, issue, news, purpose, question, uncertainty, words

Some of these do have a related verb, but not one with the same meaning. For example, the verb QUESTION means not “ask a question” but “interrogate” or “doubt” (see 218. Tricky Word Contrasts 8, #2); IGNORE means not “be unaware” but “refuse to acknowledge”; and WORD means not “speak” but “phrase”.

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USAGE

A place where speech/ thought nouns seem more likely than speech / thought verbs to accompany indirect speech is in sentences saying something additional to the indirect speech. Some nouns link with indirect speech in the typical way of verbs, some do not.

1. With Familiar Indirect Speech Forms

(b) Columbus was motivated by BELIEF that the world was spherical.

(c) The QUESTION of how life began is not resolved.

(d) The INSTRUCTION (for …) to reconsider is unreasonable.

Here, (b) has an indirect statement beginning with the conjunction that, (c) a question starting with how, and (d) an urging statement (“command”) involving a to verb. 

Indirect statements after a speech / thought noun cannot always start with that. This is hardly surprising, given the similar constraint on speech / thought verbs (see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs). In most cases, that-allowing nouns correspond to that-allowing verbs, though a rare exception is criticism, its usability with that not being shared by CRITICISE (see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar 1, #g).

Other that nouns derived like belief from a verb include acceptance, advice, agreement, argument, claim, complaint, conclusion, criticism, denial, demonstration, feeling, guess, implication, inference, insistence, judgement, knowledge, mention, observation, perception, point, prediction, preference, proposal, recognition, recommendation, speculation, statement, suggestion, understanding and warning.

In addition, that can follow a few nouns not derived from a verb, including awareness, attitude, faith, idea, issue and words.

Verb-derived nouns that cannot have that include call, citation, comparison, contrast, definition, description, discussion, dismissal, distinction, emphasis, encouragement, enquiry, introduction, invitation, opposition, outline, persuasion, portrayal, praise, query, reference, refusal, rejection, speech, support, survey, thanks and uncertainty. Other that-rejecting nouns include purpose and question. For ways of using all these nouns, see below.

In sentences (c) and (d), an important feature is the need for a preposition before the indirect question / command. The question in (c) follows the preposition of meaning “which is” (see 160. Uses of “of”, #4); other indirect questions may follow an object-indicating of (e.g. explanation of…: see 31. Prepositions after Action Nouns 1). Exceptionally, the preposition may be a different one altogether. The main clue that a pre-question preposition is object-indicating seems to be derivation of the speech / thought noun from a verb (for numerous examples, see 219. Wording next to Indirect Questions, #2).

Nouns that can, like question in (c), introduce a familiar-type indirect question usually indicate asking, explaining or knowing, as verbs do before indirect questions. Further examples (exceptional prepositions in brackets) are clarification, discovery, enquiry (into), examination, explanation, ignorance, investigation (of/into), issue, matter, proof, recognition and study.

Before the indirect command in (d), the added preposition is for. This is the standard for with nouns that are the subject of a to (infinitive) verb (to reconsider above). However, exceptions sometimes occur, e.g. instructions to (someone) to do (something).

Nouns that can, like instruction in (d), introduce a familiar-type urging statement include advice, call, command, directive, plea and request (see the end of 239. Noun Phrases Made with a “to” Verb).

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2. With a Preposition Statement

When a speech / thought noun cannot introduce an indirect statement with that, a preposition is likely to be the alternative:

(e)  DEFINITIONS of poverty can be controversial.

(f) The FOCUS in this chapter is on poverty.

The preposition of seems to be the normal statement-reporting alternative to that. The reason for on in (f) is that the noun focus is derived from a prepositional verb (FOCUS ON), the rule being that nouns made from such verbs keep the same preposition (see 31. Prepositions after Action Nouns 1, #1). Other nouns with an unusual preposition for this reason are commitment (to), reference (to) and speech (about). Because to is a preposition here, any following verb needs -ing (see 35. Verbs Followed by “to -ing”).

Noun-form reports like those after the prepositions above are often not fully informative. In (e), for example, poverty after definitions of… indicates that the definitions involve poverty but not what they say about it. Yet suc h reports do not have to give only partial information. Very often there will be some way of saying more. There are various possibilities. After definition(s), an addition can start with as or in terms of:

(g) Definitions of poverty in terms of relative wealth are controversial.

This reports the definitions in more detail, yet still incompletely. As enables complete reporting after definition(s).

Usually, the of…as… combination is only able to report BE statements – a typical form taken by definitions (see 286. Repeating in Different Words, #1). An example of a speech noun that would probably not report a BE statement, and hence not allow as, is discussion. The lengthy, complicated nature of discussions means that in terms of would be a more practical means than as of giving extra detail about a noun-form report.

Preposition reporting, besides being the main option with speech / thought nouns that do not allow that, is often found with nouns that do allow it:

(h) Sim’s ACCEPTANCE of the need to change is welcome.

With that, this would probably be …acceptance that things need to change….

Some that-allowing nouns have of as their preposition alternative to that, others have about, concerning or regarding, and a few can have either depending on meaning. Other nouns that, like acceptance, tend to have of include awareness, criticism, denial, mention, perception, recognition, recommendation, refusal and suggestion.

Nouns that usually have about or similar as their preposition alternative to that include advice, agreement, argument, belief (= “credence”), claim, concern, feeling, information, point and speculation.

Nouns that allow either option, but with different meanings include complaint, idea, knowledge, ignorance, news, proposal, report, statement, suggestion, thoughts, understanding and view (see 134. Words with a Variable Preposition, #2).

Occasionally, an altogether different preposition is possible or necessary after a that-allowing speech / thought noun. Insistence needs on. Emphasis allows either on or of (this perhaps being part of the reason why on is so often incorrectly added after the verb EMPHASISE – see 42. Unnecessary Prepositions). Preference and support need for, praise allows of or for, while attitude and claim need to (e.g. attitude to books, claim to the throne).

Note the difference between belief about… and belief in…: the former means “credence”, the latter “faith” (like the prepositional verb BELIEVE IN).

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3. With a “to” Verb

Although linkage to a following to (infinitive) verb is most associated with urging nouns, as illustrated above in sentence (d), some statement ones allow it too, often as an alternative to that:

(i) Caesar’s PROMISE to maintain peace was not kept.

Here, to maintain equates to that he would maintain. Other statement nouns that allow to include claim, desire, determination, hope, pledge, proposal, threat, undertaking, vow and wish. Usually, a following to verb represents an action by the person making the statement, while that… introduces some other action (though see 281. Words with Unexpected Grammar 4, #f).

Mirroring these statement nouns, there are some urging nouns that sometimes have that instead of to. The choice seems a fairly free one (see the end of 239. Noun Phrases Made with a “to” Verb).

280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns

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Nouns resembling a verb in spelling and meaning can often mean something else instead

FUNDAMENTAL FEATURES OF ACTION NOUNS

“Action noun” is my term for a noun that resembles a particular verb in both spelling and meaning. Examples are movement, spelt substantially like the verb MOVE and able to mean “moving”, and carriage, similar obviously to CARRY and able to mean “carrying” (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns).

“Alternative meanings” in the above title refers to the fact that many action nouns, but not all, can mean something that is not an action as well as something that is. This fact is indicated more than once elsewhere in this blog, particularly in 14. Action Outcomes, which shows how the same noun sometimes represents the outcome of an action rather than the action itself, and 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #4, where prepositions are shown to differ when the noun is not expressing an action.

However, there is no systematic exposition of which action nouns can have a meaning that is not an action, and how the non-action usage differs. It is this objective that the present post pursues. In doing so, it complements the post 249. Action Noun Endings, which presents an exhaustive list of action nouns, but is more concerned with their forms than their meanings.

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ACTION NOUNS WITH STATIVE MEANING

A slight problem associated with the concept of action nouns is the existence of nouns derived from “stative” verbs – the kind that express a state rather than an action. They are by no means rare in English: to say that verbs are mostly “doing words” is to grossly misrepresent their nature (see 21. Active Verbs with Non-Active Meanings).

Some verbs have an almost exclusively stative meaning. Examples are KNOW, EXIST and REMAIN, along with verbs naming a property, such as COST, LAST, MEASURE and WEIGH (see the end of 163. Ways of Naming Properties). Many other verbs can express either an action or a state. For example, SUPPORT can indicate not just the momentary provision or initiation of support but also its ongoing presence. Similar verbs include RECOGNISE, JOIN, EXPRESS and STAND (see 66. Types of Passive Verb Meaning). See also CONFUSE in 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3, #3.

What is striking about nouns derived from stative verbs is that, just like nouns derived from action-indicating (“dynamic”) verbs, they include both nouns whose meaning is almost the same as that of the related verb and nouns that are more distantly connected. They therefore seem relevant enough to this discussion to be included. They will be classified as “action” nouns if they have the same characteristic that identifies nouns with an action meaning: ability to be paraphrased in a particular context by the -ing (gerund) form of the related verb. To illustrate this characteristic in action nouns derived from dynamic verbs, compare the following two uses of introduction:

(a) Introduction of the topic will take about 15 minutes.

(b) The introduction is full of spelling mistakes.

In (a), introduction is easily replaced by the gerund introducing (without of) but in (b) it is not. Only the use in (a) is an action noun.

In the same way, some uses of the noun knowledge, derived from stative KNOW, are replaceable by the gerund knowing and some are not:

(c) Knowledge of (= knowing) a language can improve job prospects.

(d) Much knowledge is stored in libraries.

I would classify knowledge as an “action” noun in (c) but not in (d).

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ALTERNATIVES TO THE ACTION MEANING

Before considering the alternative meanings that many action nouns can express, it is useful to have an appreciation of both action nouns that only express an action and verb-derived nouns that only express an alternative to an action. An example of a noun in the first group is emergence:

(e) The emergence of railways resulted from growing use of coal.

Here, as in practically every other context, emergence only means the action of emerging (beware of confusing it with the stative emergency – see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #3). Other action nouns that seem to be like this include abstinence, break-out, collapse, dependence, discrimination, neutralization, pursuit, return, storage and summarization (those underlined are typically countable). There are also many nouns ending in -al, such as betrayal, disposal, removal and survival.

Examples of verb-derived nouns that do not express an action are a store (whose associated action is expressed by storage), advice, ailment, deceit, difference, edition, hypothesis, photograph, position, proposition, recovery, remainder and summary. Advice always means “advisory message(s)” rather than “action of advising”, while a hypothesis is a result of hypothesizing rather than the action itself. For details of edition, see 197. The Language of Bibliographies, #3. For more on proposition, see 317. Tricky Word Contrasts 13, #3.

The main types of alternative meaning that action nouns can express could be called “action outcomes” and “activity locations”.

1. Action Outcomes

An action outcome is a concrete or abstract consequence of the action. Advice and hypothesis have this meaning despite not also being able to express the action creating it.

Nouns that can express either the action or its outcome are very numerous, examples being apology, blockage, composition, creation, cutback, discovery, enclosure, fall, growth, infection, injury, insurance, marriage, possession, prediction, receipt and utterance. It usually happens that the action meaning is expressed by uncountable usage of the noun while the outcome meaning is shown by the countable usage (see 14. Action Outcomes).

However, there are some important exceptions. For example, nouns indicating an increase or decrease, such as fall in the list above plus increase, rise, drop and downturn, are always countable. This can make the action/outcome distinction harder to see, though the -ing-equivalence test still works. The outcome meaning of a fall could perhaps be described as a reduced quantity or a downward slope on a graph. For more increase/ decrease verbs, see 115. Surveying Numerical Data, #2.

There is a further way of recognising nouns that need to be countable when expressing an action: they tend to be either spelt the same as their related verb (like fall) or made by combining the two halves of a two-word verb into a single word (like downturn). For lists of nouns of both types, see 249. Action Noun Endings.

One other kind of exception to the variable countability trend is nouns that can only be uncountable, even when expressing an action outcome. Examples are destruction, information, legislation, punctuation and research. To be used like countable nouns, they need to be linked with a countable partner noun: a piece of legislation/ research, an area of destruction, a research project, a punctuation mark (see 180. Nouns that Count the Uncountable).

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2. Activity Locations

An activity location is an object, place or situation that involves a particular action. For example, a carriage is an object involving the action of carriage (= carrying), and a competition is a situation where competition takes place. Once again, it usually happens that the action meaning is expressed by uncountable usage of the noun while the location meaning is shown by the countable usage (see 19. Activity Locations).

The difference between an action outcome and an activity location is more clear-cut in some cases than others. A carriage is obviously only ever an activity location, and not a result of carriage, but many nouns derived from speech verbs, such as explanation, introduction and suggestion (see 287. Speech and Thought Nouns), could perhaps be as easily considered a result of the corresponding action as a place involving it.

Other action nouns adapted to express an activity location include an approach (= area before an entry or way of doing something), an assembly (= people gathered together for special business), an election (= vote-casting event), a contact (= an acquaintance known well enough to be contactable), an entrance (= place of entry), a fight (= boxing match), motivation (= desire: see 276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11, #3), photography (= all aspects of photographs), a residence (= home), a speech (= formal spoken monologue) and a use (= way of being used).

For more examples, see 19. Activity Locations and 214. Test your Command of Grammar 2, #21.

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3. Action Subtypes

Some nouns that typically express an action when uncountable and something else when countable can alternatively when countable express a slightly different kind of action from the uncountably-expressed one. This combines the idea of action with that of “type”. Take the noun injury. Uncountably, it always means “the action of injuring”. Countably, it typically means “injured body part”. The other possible countable meaning is “type of injuring action”, as in this sentence:

(f) Doctors had not seen such a gradual injury before.

Similarly, a marriage, which typically means “marital partnership” can be made to mean “type of marital ceremony”:

(g) The couple formalised their partnership with an extravagant church marriage.

With some nouns, the subtype meaning seems to be the predominant countable one. This is the case, for example, with birth and death. Used uncountably, these nouns tend to mean the general concept of being born or dying:

(h) Birth can be a drawn-out process.

By contrast, the countable forms births and deaths refer to specific occurrences of people being born or dying. This kind of contrast may actually be possible with all of the nouns that I listed earlier as only able to express an action – nouns like emergence, discrimination and pursuit. The implication was that they could not be countable, but in fact, they probably can with this subtype meaning.The subtype meaning is indeed possible with many more nouns than just action ones. For a general overview, see 23. Subtypes.

276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11

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Some word pairs are easily confused because of close similarities in spelling and/or meaning

THE PROBLEM OF TRICKY WORD CONTRASTS

Most users of English have encountered vocabulary items that are easily confused because they resemble each other in spelling and/or meaning. A well-known example – often explained in English language coursebooks – is IMPLY (= convey a message through words that do not say it) versus INFER (= understand a message from words that do not say it). The problem is that such pairs are numerous in English, and many are rarely highlighted so that they are likely to remain unrecognised, or at least not fully differentiated.

It is these rarely-considered confusion sources, especially ones likely to occur in professional writing, that are the focus of the present post, just as they are of various others with a similar title (there is a complete list on the page in this blog entitled Posts on Specific Words). Further posts about vocabulary confusions include 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words,  44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs,  94. Essay Instruction Words,  211. General Words for People and 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”.

For some grammar contrasts, see 100. What is a Grammar Error?,  133 Confusions of Similar Structures 1 and 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. For some pronunciation ones, see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly.

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LIST OF CONTRASTS

1. REJECT – REFUTE

The meaning similarity between these verbs is the idea of non-acceptance. REFUTE always links this idea with opinions or arguments, whereas REJECT can link it with numerous other things as well, such as food, people, behaviours and offers. Here, I want to concentrate on the difference when each verb is linked with an opinion or argument.

In this situation, the active form of both verbs usually has a subject referring to a human being and an object representing the problematic argument or opinion. The object must always be visible, usually as a noun or pronoun or (after REJECT) an -ing verb. It cannot be a statement beginning with that (see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs).

The object nouns of both verbs are typically derived from speech or thought verbs, mostly the kind that imply an opinion (see 107. The Language of Opinions). Common ones include accusation, argument, belief, claim, hypothesis, idea and suggestion. All may be expanded with a following that statement (e.g. rejects/ refutes the idea that…).

The meaning difference with a belief object is the type of non-acceptance conveyed. REJECT expresses nothing more than non-acceptance, whereas REFUTE means “characterise as unacceptable by means of an argument”. The argument (evidence for an alternative point or questioning of the refuted one: see 168. Ways of Arguing 2) is often not mentioned, but can be added if necessary with by saying… or similar.

One consequence of this difference is that only REJECT can be used after I or we to express disagreement (see 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing Formal Contexts, #4). Its very use can bring about its own action (see 238. Using a Verb to Perform its Action). In everyday life, people reject more often than they refute, but unfortunately the meaning of REJECT is increasingly being expressed with REFUTE.

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2. Mentality – Attitude

Both of these nouns broadly mean “way of thinking”, but the ways are not the same. A mentality is a general disposition or inclination of the mind, liable to influence someone’s entire thinking or a particular range of their beliefs, feelings and behaviours. Attitudes, on the other hand, are feelings about individual things.

The common way of specifying a particular mentality is with a preceding noun or adjective. For example, a football mentality means the general way of thinking that typifies footballers, and a caring mentality indicates a general belief in, and attraction to, caring behaviour. On the other hand, attitudes are often specified with a following to + noun, e.g. an attitude to football or attitudes to war. A preceding adjective can be added (e.g. a negative attitude to war), but it would characterise rather than specify.

Mentality very often seems to appear in discussions of unsocial or even criminal behaviour, with the result that it can sometimes by itself convey a degree of negativity. In other words, it is a word with a slightly “negative connotation” (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #2). A more neutral synonym might be mindset.

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3. Motive – Motivation

A motive is a personal need or want that causes someone to plan or carry out a particular act. Common needs/ wants that have this effect are financial gain, career advancement and romantic attachment. These could also be called “reasons”, but motives is more precise because reasons has a much wider meaning (see 306. Ways of Giving a Reason). 

Motives are also similar to aims and purposes (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #5). They differ, perhaps, in arising more typically than aims and purposes do from their possessor’s own want or need. In other words, while all motives can also be viewed as aims or purposes, the reverse may not always be true. Moreover, purposes (but not aims) often seem to be actions that enable a motive to be accomplished. For example, someone could go to a racecourse with the purpose of placing a bet, their motive being financial gain.

Motivation, on the other hand, is a mostly uncountable noun with two different meanings. One is similar to that of motivating (= causing to be motivated). This is an “action noun” meaning, usable in the various ways considered within this blog in 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns.

The other meaning is, like that of a motive, a personal need that prompts people to do something. What distinguishes it is that the consequential deed tends to be difficult and spread over a longer time period, so that perseverance is required. Thus, it is often not just doing something that motivation in this sense prompts but keeping doing it. It comes close to being a tool, a recipe for success. A well-known activity associated with this meaning is language learning.

When motivation means a feeling rather than event, it is an example of what I have elsewhere called an “activity location” (see 19. Noun Countability Clues 2). It is unusual in being uncountable with this kind of meaning, but not unique (see 280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns).

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4. Information – Propaganda

These words stand, of course, for types of communication. One difference is that information can be conveyed consciously or unconsciously while propaganda is typically conscious. Here, though, I wish to consider the difference when information is conscious. There is a tendency to associate propaganda with misinformation and falsehood, but these are not a necessary part of its meaning, as it can deal with truths just as information does. The real difference lies in why the communication occurs.

Information may have no clear purpose – it may just be for the addressee(s) to use as they see fit. Alternatively, it may be offered to a small or large audience to clarify a truth or to assist an everyday behaviour like using a subway or obtaining a credit card. It can also support a point of view, but not usually on behalf of an organized group.

Propaganda, on the other hand, is usually produced by an organized group and aimed at a large number of people. Typically, it uses facts or opinions to influence people’s behaviour, affiliation or ideology. As an example, at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic BBC reporters were often filmed in British hospital intensive care units near patients who were clearly suffering greatly from the disease. The purpose was seemingly not just to inform the public about the nature of the disease – something that could have been done verbally – but also to convince sceptics that the disease really did exist and needed to be taken seriously.

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5. DECIDE ON (doing) – DECIDE (to do)

To decide is to choose from multiple possibilities. On after DECIDE implies that each of various mentioned possibilities has been given some conscious consideration. The chosen possibility follows on in the form of either a noun or an -ing verb (“gerund”). Without on, by contrast, only a following to verb (infinitive) can follow the “choose” use of DECIDE (see 302. Verbs with a Partner Infinitive, #4), and no other possibilities need to be explicit.

When DECIDE is combined with on, it is a “prepositional” verb. For more about it and other verbs that can be used with and without a preposition, see 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs.

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6. Enormousness – Enormity

These uncountable nouns are both derived from the adjective enormous meaning extremely large (see 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives). Enormousness just means “huge size”. It can be linked with not just physical objects and dimensions – e.g. the enormousness of the universe / distance – but also abstract ideas like idea, problem, project  or task.

Enormity, on the other hand, combines the ideas of hugeness and evil (either wickedness or disaster). It is typically combined with a following of + the (or possessive adjective, e.g. their) + noun specifying the evil, such as corruption, crimes, damage, deceit, depravity, disaster, mistakes, murder and suffering.

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7. LOOK AFTER – TAKE CARE OF

These two “prepositional” verbs – one of the kind containing a noun (care) – are able between them to express three different meanings. A meaning that they both commonly express is “cater for the needs of (someone)”. It might be said, for example, that workers in a care home look after or take care of the residents, meaning that they give help with basic needs like putting on clothes, showering and cooking.

A second meaning of LOOK AFTER is “supervise” (= ensure that someone vulnerable – for example a child – avoids danger or bad behaviour). In American English, TAKE CARE OF is commonly used with this meaning too, but in British English LOOK AFTER is more often preferred.

A third possible meaning of TAKE CARE OF is “deal with”. It can be used with a need as its object, such as financial matters, or a problem, such as complaints. It is this meaning that is illustrated in the cartoon above.

273. Verb-Object Collocations

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Custom and logic cause some objects of a verb to be more typical than others

DEFINITION AND EXTENT

Although a verb’s ability to have an object is a grammatical property, the actual objects that it has are more dictated by logic or custom. Thus, logic would normally rule out colours as an object of MEASURE, while custom causes an effort to be common after MAKE but not after DO (see 141. Ways of Using MAKE).

Some possible verb-object combinations are more common than others. Those that occur with noticeable regularity are often categorised as “collocations” (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #5). A major subgroup of verb-object collocations that this blog examines in detail elsewhere involves object nouns spelled like verbs (see 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”). Further frequent combinations are presented in posts on common small verbs: HAVE, GO, DO, GIVE, TAKE,  COME and SEE.

Here I wish to present other verb-object collocations that are common in English. Some are best identified by starting with a noun and examining the verbs it is likely to accompany as an object, while others are more easily found by starting with a verb. In both cases, it is surprising how often the partner word comes easily to mind. Readers who find the same are likely to already have a good “feel” for English.

My preferred way of presenting verb-object partnerships first from nouns and then from verbs is by means of two quizzes. These are followed by a matching exercise.

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OBJECT-DETERMINED VERBS

If the noun benefits is made the object of a verb meaning “cause”, the verb is likely to be not CAUSE but BRING (see 277. Advantages & Disadvantages, #4).

Below is a quiz that presents nouns like benefits and invites you to imagine each as the object of various verbs, in order to identify any combinations that sound unlikely. The number of unlikely combinations each time is variable: it might be none, or one, or more than one. Answers are provided afterwards.

1. …doubts

CAST, EXPERIENCE, EXPRESS, HAVE, PROVIDE, RAISE, RECEIVE, SUFFER

2 …problems

ADDRESS, CAUSE, ENCOUNTER, EXPERIENCE, FACE, GIVE, HAVE, SOLVE, SUFFER, TACKLE, UNDERGO

3. …academic references

CHASE UP, CHECK, CONSULT, FOLLOW UP, INSPECT, LOOK UP

4. …a role

ASSUME, CONDUCT, FILL, HAVE, PERFORM, PLAY, TAKE

5. …a meeting

ARRANGE, ATTEND, CALL, CHAIR, CONVENE, CREATE, HAVE, HOLD, SET UP

6. …debate

CREATE, GENERATE, INITIATE, MAKE, RAISE, SPARK, START, TRIGGER

7. …a target

ACHIEVE, ESTABLISH, HAVE, GIVE, HIT, MEET, MISS, SET

8. …a law

DRAW UP, ENACT, ESTABLISH, INTRODUCE, LEGISLATE, MAKE, PASS, RATIFY, SET UP

9. …taxes

AVOID, COLLECT, EVADE, EXPAND, INCREASE, LEVY, PAY, RAISE, REDUCE, REFUND

10. …a message

CARRY, COMPOSE, CONVEY, RECEIVE, SEND, SIGNAL, TAKE, TRANSMIT, WRITE

11. …a theory

BUILD, COMPILE, CONSTRUCT, DEVELOP, DRAW ON, FIT, FORMULATE, PRESENT, PROPOSE, USE

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Answers

1. Doubts

Unlikely verbs: PROVIDE and RECEIVE. Doubts are usually communicated or felt. The first of these meanings is typically expressed with CAST, EXPRESS or RAISE, the latter with EXPERIENCE, HAVE or SUFFER. Uncountable doubt is also usable with all of these verbs except RAISE, and is additionally common in the phrase throw doubt on…..

2. Problems

Unlikely verb: UNDERGO. It typically has an action noun or -ing gerund as its object, e.g. examination, investigation, repairs and training (see 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”?, #6)

3. Academic References

Unlikely verb: INSPECT. Another meaning of a reference is “written support for someone’s job application”. This is most likely to accompany just CHASE UP, CHECK and FOLLOW UP.

4. A Role

Unlikely verb: CONDUCT. The most typical verb by far is PLAY.

5. A Meeting

Unlikely verb: CREATE. Holding a meeting is a more formal event than having one, suggesting an agenda and multiple participants. Have a meeting can mean “meet” or “be attending a meeting” or “be soon attending a meeting” (see 116: Rarer Uses of HAVE, #3 and #4).

6. Debate

Unlikely verbs: MAKE and RAISE.

7. A Target

Unlikely verb: GIVE.

8. A Law

Unlikely verbs: LEGISLATE and SET UP. LEGISLATE is an “intransitive” verb (see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive). As it means “pass a law”, there is no need to actually say law.

9. Taxes

Unlikely verb: EXPAND.

10. A Message

Unlikely verb: SIGNAL. The idea of a message is already present within the meaning of this verb.

11. A theory

Unlikely verb: COMPILE. The object of this verb is likely to be some kind of group, such as a catalogue, list or selection.

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VERB-DETERMINED OBJECTS

To identify combinations where the verb suggests the object rather than the reverse, this quiz is like the first, except that the lists are of suggested objects rather than verbs.

12. POSE…

complications, dangers, difficulties, issues, obstacles, problems, questions, threats

13. MOUNT…

a display, an exhibition, an investigation, an offensive, an operation, a procedure, a search, a ship, a show

14. LAUNCH…

an attack, a career, an initiative, an investigation, a publication, a policy, a product, a project, a rocket

15. TACKLE…

backlogs, issues, mysteries, operations, problems, questions, subjects, tasks

16. SPARK…

action, discussion, debate, enthusiasm, freedom, interest, questions, a response, suffering, sympathy

17. EXPOSE…

corruption, deceit, difficulties, flaws, lies, suffering, the truth, weaknesses, wrongdoing

18. EXERT…

authority, force, a hold, influence, power, pressure, strength, temperature

19. DRAW UP…

agreements, arrangements, documents, lists, plans, policies, procedures, processes, programmes

20. EXACT

…a calculation, concessions, gifts, payment, a price, punishment, a toll, taxes, retribution, vengeance

21. DEVOTE… (to…)

attention, effort, energy, importance, one’s life, a project, resources, space, time, writings

22. WREAK…

changes, damage, destruction, devastation, discoveries, havoc, revenge, a transformation

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Answers

12. POSE

Unlikely object: complications (more likely to follow CAUSE). The most typical objects are problems and questions.

13. MOUNT

Unlikely objects: a procedure (often paired with INITIATE) and a ship (often paired with BOARD or LAUNCH). Here, MOUNT means either “present” (a display, exhibition, show) or “stage”. A third meaning, not represented above, is “ascend” (stairs, a horse).

14. LAUNCH

Unlikely object: none. Most of the common objects of MOUNT are also usable after LAUNCH. MOUNT has the idea of start-to-finish supervision, while LAUNCH focuses more on initiation.

15. TACKLE

Unlikely object: operations. The “deal with” meaning of this word is derived from the sporting concept of trying to gain a ball from an opponent (see 137. Words that Reflect English Culture, #4). Most common objects name a source of difficulty.

16. SPARK

Unlikely objects: freedom and suffering. The objects of this figurative verb meaning “cause” tend to be positive outcomes, either events like discussion or emotions like enthusiasm.

17. EXPOSE

Unlikely object: none. Objects of this verb are typically hidden evils. Even the truth can fall into this category because it can represent truths that are repugnant as well as those that are inspiring. With the latter, REVEAL is more suitable than EXPOSE.

18. EXERT

Unlikely object: temperature. All of the other objects are personal attributes or powers that someone can use to pressurise others into giving something.

19. DRAW UP

Unlikely object: processes. This verb implies human planning, something not likely to be found in processes, which occur more naturally (see 210. Process Descriptions).

20. EXACT

Unlikely objects: a calculation and gifts. This verb has two common object types. One, often with a from phrase after the object, is desirable gains achieved through force. Gifts are ruled out here because they are usually made freely. The other object type, often with a following on phrase, is inflicted suffering of some kind. Calculations may involve suffering, but they are not usually inflicted.

21. DEVOTE

Unlikely object: importance (often paired with ATTACH or ATTRIBUTE: see 198. Indicating Importance, #2). Most of the common objects of DEVOTE are personal abilities or possessions that could also be objects of GIVE (see 244. Special Uses of GIVE, #5). DEVOTE implies more effort, or bestows a greater value on what is given.

Like GIVE, DEVOTE in the active form normally needs two nouns after it, one naming a recipient. However, its recipient noun must always be the second one (after to) – the two nouns cannot be reversed with to removed (see 126. Verbs with an Indirect Object, final section).

22. WREAK

Unlikely object: discoveries. Like INFLICT, this verb has the idea of forcing other people to experience something (expressed by the object) that is definitely or possibly undesirable. The people in question can be named or described with an on phrase after the object. The past simple tense and past participle of the verb are both wrought.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: MATCHING VERBS WITH THEIR PREDICTABLE OBJECT

Some verb-object combinations are close to being fixed expressions. The following exercise presents a number of examples all mixed together. The task is to separate them out. Answers are, as ever, given afterwards.

Answers

bear the brunt, beg the question, buck a trend, cast a shadow, contract an illness, court disaster, hike prices, repeal a law, stimulate demand, strike a balance, sue for peace, tip the balance.

260. Formal Written Uses of “Thing”

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The everyday word “thing” has various acceptable uses in formal writing

USABILITY OF “THING” IN FORMAL CONTEXTS

It is easy to believe that the noun thing is not suitable in formal writing. If it is not considered too vague – an easy escape from the effort of trying to find a more descriptive word – it can seem very informal, more associated with spoken than written English.

It is certainly true that spoken English has some very informal uses of thing that would be unlikely to occur in formal writing. It can, for example, follow an adjective to express an emotion about something, e.g. stupid thing! (showing anger), or even about someone, e.g. you poor thing (showing sympathy). The common introductory phrase The thing is, … directs attention to a central problem after preliminary discussion related to it. Things often means “personal possessions”.

Yet a quick computer search of formal writing extracts shows that thing is surprisingly common there too. The uses are not unique to this kind of English, but seem to mostly form a subset of those in spoken English. They again tend to do more than just refer to something whose exact name is unknown or forgotten. Moreover, a fair number are similarly able to occur in various fairly fixed and idiomatic phrases. They are thus very deserving of a post in this blog.

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SPECIAL SITUATIONS INVOLVING “THING”

Outside of fixed phrases, thing has a variety of uses.

1. Placing an Adjective in a Noun Position

(a) The important thing is to note the smell.

In some other languages, the underlined subject of is here could be expressed with just an adjective after a word meaning “the” (*The important is…). English does sometimes allow lone adjectives after the, but it is quite rare. Thing is one of various nouns that are commonly combined with an adjective to make it usable in a noun position. Other nouns – if the meaning so requires – include part (less formally, bit), person and point (see the end of 102. Adjectives with no Noun 2: Thing-Naming). One could also use what – what is (ADJ) is… – but a noun like thing prevents repetition of is.

Another way thing combines with adjectives is after BE or similar in place of the same adjective by itself, e.g. …is a good thing instead of …is good. This modification is grammatically possible because the position after verbs like BE – the so-called “complement” one – allows both noun and adjective expressions (see 220. Features of Complements).

The adjectives used with a…thing in the complement position often seem to represent a permanent rather than temporary quality. As a result, they seem less likely to be describing the speaker just at the time of speaking: whereas …is good implies “good for me now”, …is a good thing implies “inherently good”. Common alternatives to good include amazing, bad, different, frightening, interesting, puzzling, real, strange, surprising, terrible, the same and useful.

Not every noun is describable as a … thing in this way. There is a need for the noun’s meaning to be conceivable as a “thing”. This rules out such noun meanings as humans (where a possible replacement for thing is often person), materials (= stuff), locations (= place), and dates (= time). However, there are many abstract nouns that can be described as a…thing, such as justice or life.

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2. Replacing Something, Anything, Everything or Nothing

One situation where thing might be preferred to one of these words is when it has a special meaning:

(b) Some thing in the water is causing illness.

Here, something would just mean “an unidentified entity”, but separating the two words leaves some still meaning “unidentified” (see 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words, # 1), but makes thing mean “nasty entity”. For more examples like this, see the end of 26. One Word or Two?

Alternatively, using thing by itself often enables something to be said about the “thing” in question that could not be said if it was combined with some- etc.:

(c) One further thing can be said about efforts to find a vaccine.

(d) No single thing explains why some people learn languages better than others.

In (c), thing has the ability that something lacks to link with one in order either to emphasize “not more than one” or to signal that more detail follows (see 263. Uses of “One” and “Ones”). In (d), no…thing has the ability that nothing lacks to link with single meaning “lone”. Single thing is also common after every to emphasize “without exception”.

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3. Replacing Forward-Looking “What”

When the pronoun what is not a question word, it means “the thing which”. One of its uses is at the start of a sentence, representing an idea at the end that is being highlighted as the main information being conveyed (see 145. Highlighting with “What” Sentences):

(e) What (= The thing which) the world does not need is an economic crisis.

It is the fact that what includes the idea of “thing” in its meaning that again enables thing (+ visible or understood which) to be used instead.

When thing (which) is preferred to what, a major reason seems again to be a need to add description that could not grammatically accompany what. For example, the one thing (which) in (e) would emphasise the extreme nature of an economic crisis, a thing (which) would signal the existence of other “things”, and one thing (which) would imply that an economic crisis was being mentioned as a part of a list (see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists).

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4. Enabling Repetition of Something

In the following, thing is the best means of repeating something:

(e) If something is causing discomfort, and if that exact thing is taking time to be identified, then pain relief can be administered.

Here, many writers would feel unhappy about saying something again, but would find the standard alternative – the pronoun it – difficult to use because of the need to combine it with exact. The problem is overcome by saying that…thing instead.

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FIXED EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING “THING”

The dividing line between likely in formal writing and unlikely can sometimes be uncertain. One fixed expression that I would definitely rule out is things like that. Slightly more formal is things of that kind, but more formal still is suchlike.

Fixed thing expressions that seem fairly possible in formal writing include the following:

5. for one thing

This usually acts as a “connector” (see 259. Multi-Word Connectors). In other words, it shows how its sentence is related logically to the surrounding ones. The relation it shows is “reason for what has just been said”. It is thus a synonym of this is because, but what distinguishes it is a suggested existence of other reasons, which may or may not also be given (see 306. Ways of Giving a Reason, #4). Any that do follow are often introduced by for another (thing).

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6. …is the real thing

This says something is not a fake or copy. An occasional more formal equivalent is …is the genuine article.

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7. to make things worse

This is usually added parenthetically to a sentence near its start to warn that a bad addition to a bad situation is going to be mentioned. Things is similar in meaning to matters, and is sometimes replaced by it. For more on parenthetical to verbs, see the end of 183. Statements between Commas.

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8. …is a thing of the past

This means “does not exist now” or “is out of date”. Thing is pronoun-like, just representing the subject of is, while of the past has an adjective-like role. A few other nouns can replace the past, such as beauty and wonder.

 

9. no such thing

This is a more emphatic way of saying nothing of that kind. A common use is after there is… to deny the existence of something represented by a neighbouring noun. If this noun is mentioned next, there is normally as in between:

(f) There is no such thing as a unicorn.

Another common use is as the object of DO. This both expresses a refusal and implies that the refused request is outrageous.

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10. all things considered

This is a sentence-spanning adverbial expression similar in meaning to on balance. In other words, it says that an accompanying assertion is being made after weighing up multiple points supporting and opposing it:

(g) All things considered, the world is a better place now than 100 years ago.

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11. it is a good thing (that)…

This expression might be used as follows:

(h) It is a good thing that the company kept supplies in reserve.

The message in such sentences is more than just that something is (or was) good: usually the reason why will be apparent too, either through the situation where the words are uttered or through some subsequent explanatory words like …because demand is heavier than expected.

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12. thing(s) to do

Thing(s) is often used before the to (infinitive) form of DO and certain other common verbs (ASK, CONSIDER, HAVE, KNOW, SEE). Like most other nouns in this position, it is usually the object of the to verb, and this verb carries the idea of “can” or “must” (see 239. Nouns Combined with a “to” Verb).

The plural things usually implies a list. Perhaps a reason for using it rather than a more precise word like jobs or points is that some lists are too varied to fit exactly under headings like these. The singular thing often follows a superlative adjective like the best, the easiest, the main or the quickest.

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13. things are better if/when…

In this use, things means “the situation”. Better is not the only possible comparative adjective, common alternatives being different, easier and worse.

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14. of all things

This adjectival phrase often expresses surprise:

(i) Insulation of some Arctic houses is with ice of all things.

Here, of all things directly follows the noun it describes (ice). It could also start the sentence (with a following comma).

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15. is one thing, but…

This combination says that the idea after but is much more problematic than the one before:

(j) Going to the moon is one thing, but Mars is something else.

The second half of such sentences tends to be formulaic. Alternatives to the underlined words include …is quite another and …requires much more.

255. Nouns Made from Adjectives

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Some English nouns are made by changing an adjective spelling

WORD MAKING WITH ENDINGS IN ENGLISH

Words are created for many reasons and in many different ways. One way is by giving an existing word a new grammatical function. In English, for example, the verb GO is used as a noun in the expression have a go (see 176. Ways of Using GO, #8); and advanced, the participle of the verb ADVANCE, has become an adjective (with a slightly evolved meaning) in expressions like advanced grammar (see 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3, #2).

In these examples, the new grammatical usage is not accompanied by any change in the form of the word. Often, however, a new usage is signalled by a form change, typically in the spelling at the end of the word. For example, the verb TREAT becomes a noun through the addition of -ment (see 249. Action Noun Endings).

Most word-changing endings in English are associated with one or more particular word classes. Thus, -ment indicates a noun, while -al indicates either a noun or an adjective (see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes, #3). This is useful information, since it can assist both reading (as a pointer to meanings of newly-encountered words – see 177. How to Guess Meanings in a Text) and writing (offering a possible way to express a particular meaning). Hence, improving familiarity with common endings in English and the word class(es) they typically indicate can be a worthwhile language development activity.

In this blog, the above-mentioned posts on action noun endings (which make nouns from verbs) and multi-word suffixes are partly aimed at assisting this familiarity (along with 106. Word-Like Suffixes and 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb). Here, nouns made from adjectives are the main topic, but adjectives made from nouns are also briefly considered.

One area where this information can prove useful is indirect questions involving the idea of how + adjective, e.g. how useful / relevant is…. These are often (but not always) replaceable by the adjective’s related noun + of (the usefulness / relevance of…) – fewer words and more elegant-sounding (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). Another area is the construction of paraphrases in order to avoid “plagiarism” or poor style (see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds).

Also useful to know is the fact that an adjective and its related noun often work with other words in the same way. For example, happy and happiness both allow a following with; willing and willingness both allow a following to verb. There are, however, some problematic exceptions, notably possible / possibility (see 78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns).

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SPELLINGS OF ADJECTIVE-DERIVED NOUNS

A noun can be considered to have been made from an adjective if it contains a recognizable adjective spelling to which either no ending or a noun ending has been added, with or without a spelling modification. For example, the noun happiness is obviously the adjective happy combined with the noun ending -ness.

English has quite a variety of endings that can be added to an adjective to make a noun. However, there are plenty of adjectives that none of them can be added to. For example, healthy and massive become nouns not by adding a noun ending, but rather by removing an adjective one (health, mass). They are, in fact, adjectives made from nouns – a category briefly considered at the end of this post. Adjectives starting with un- often need to drop or change un-. For example, undoubted becomes no doubt, and unable becomes inability.

Here is a list of endings that can be considered to be making a noun from an adjective:

1. -ANCE

abundance, brilliance, defiance, distance, dominance, elegance, extravagance, ignorance, importance, observance, radiance, relevance, reliance, reluctance, repugnance, resistance

Adjectives that create nouns of this kind tend themselves to end with -ant – an ending from which some -cy nouns are also made.

Note that –ance does not always combine with an adjective: it is also a common way of making a verb into a noun (e.g. admit – admittance). Most -ance nouns are derived from only an adjective or only a verb, but a few (underlined above) can be linked with either.
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2. -ATION and -TION

abbreviation, corruption, dejection, desperation, determination, frustration, inclination, intention, relaxation, satisfaction, separation, variation

Like -ance, this ending can create nouns from verbs as well as from adjectives. Indeed, it does so much more commonly. The above nouns all express a state. Most of the adjectives end in -ed, exceptions being desperation (from desperate), corruption (corrupt) and intention (intent). Separation links with both separate and separated (= semi-divorced).
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3. -CY

accuracy, adequacy, buoyancy, constancy, currency, decency, delicacy, efficacy, frequency, hesitancy, immediacy, intricacy, (il)legitimacy, (il)literacy, militancy, numeracy, profligacy, solvency, sufficiency, transparency, vacancy

Adjectives that become nouns with this ending tend to be spelt with “-ate” or “-t(e)”.
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4. -ENCE

absence, ambivalence, convenience, dependence, diligence, effervescence, emergence, eminence, equivalence, evidence, expedience, indulgence, insolence, obedience, permanence, persistence, prescience, presence, prominence, prudence, residence, reticence, violence

As with -ance, underlining here shows the possibility of derivation from either a verb or an adjective. In the latter case, the adjective usually ends in -ent. However, not all -ent adjectives make -ence nouns: some, like frequent, make -cy nouns, and content needs -ment. For more on content, see 254. Tricky Word Contrasts 10, #1. For more on emergence, see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #3.
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5. -ILITY

acceptability, adaptability, capability, excitability, intelligibility, likeability, nobility, possibility, probability, reliability, remarkability, stability, suitability, susceptibility, viability, visibility

Most of these nouns are derived from adjectives ending in -able or -ible (= “able”). The underlined ones have a related verb with passive meaning: likeability, for example, means “ability to be liked” (see 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs).
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6. -ISM

atheism, capitalism, defeatism, environmentalism, fatalism, pacifism, radicalism, realism, socialism, vegetarianism

In most cases, this ideology-naming -ism ending corresponds to the adjective ending -ist – only vegetarianism and radicalism above do not. All of the corresponding adjective spellings are additionally usable as people nouns.
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7. -ITY

activity, actuality, ambiguity, clarity, curiosity, density, duality, enormity, (in)equality, eventuality, extremity, factuality, familiarity, formality, generosity, (in)humanity, immunity, individuality, inferiority, laxity, legality, majority, masculinity, mutuality, necessity, (ab)normality, obscurity, oddity, personality, plurality, potentiality, (im)practicality, rapidity, (ir)rationality, (un)reality, (ir)regularity, rigidity, (in)security, severity, (dis)similarity, stupidity, superiority, universality

Some of these, it will be seen, modify the spelling of the adjective (e.g. clear, dense, curious, enormous, generous, immune, necessary, secure, severe, unequal). A common adjective type that becomes a noun with -ity ends in -al. For more on security, see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #1.
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8. -MENT

amazement, amusement, bafflement, contentment, disappointment, embarrassment, employment, enlightenment, entitlement, excitement, involvement, puzzlement

All of these examples are derived from -ed adjectives, and hence ultimately from verbs (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). Like the adjectives, they convey the passive meaning of the verb and refer to a resultant state rather than an action. For example, amazement means “the state of being amazed”.

In most cases, the same noun can also express an action (e.g. “the act of amazing”), but must then be considered a verb-derived “action” noun rather than a noun derived from an adjective. The -ment ending is also found on many nouns that are solely derived from a verb (see 249. Action Noun Endings), so that it is easily thought of as more typically combining with verbs than with adjectives.
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9. -NESS

calmness, childishness, closeness, considerateness, decisiveness, enormousness, extensiveness, fullness, goodness, happiness, holiness, hopelessness, kindness, nastiness, nervousness, peevishness, pointedness, purposefulness, quickness, redness, responsiveness, restiveness, separateness, slowness, tastiness, tightness, tiredness, thankfulness, tirelessness, wholeness, willingness

This is perhaps the largest of all the categories. Many adjectives that become nouns with it have no adjective ending of their own. There are, however, some adjective endings that seem especially combinable with -ness, notably -y (happiness), -ish (peevishness), -ive (restiveness), -ful (thankfulness) and -less (hopelessness). For extensive lists of -ful and -less adjectives, see 106. Word-Like Suffixes.
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10. -SION

confusion, diffusion, division, precision

Diffusion and precision come from the -se adjectives diffuse (see 236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #4) and precise. The others come from -ed adjectives.

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11. -TH

breadth, depth, length, strength, truth, width.
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12. -TY

anxiety, certainty, difficulty, ferocity, loyalty, naivety, royalty, safety
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13. NO ENDING

alternative, double, elite, equivalent, future, human, hurt, level, north, opposite, past, potential, present, principal, specific, square, subordinate, suspect, upset, welcome

Nouns can be spelt the same as an adjective just as many are spelt the same as a verb. For example alternative, used as an adjective in alternative possibilities, is a noun in the obvious alternative (see 266. Indicating Alternatives).
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14. ODDITIES

falsehood, freedom, height, likelihood, marriage, pleasure, wisdom

Among these, falsehood, likelihood, freedom and wisdom are notable because the -hood and -dom endings are more typically added to nouns (e.g. childhood, parenthood, knighthood, kingdom). Marriage and pleasure correspond to the stative -ed adjectives married and pleased.

The above lists show that some adjectives have two related nouns with different meanings. For example, observant is related to observance (= duty fulfilment) or observation (= perception), and worthy is related to worth (= value) or worthiness (= suitability). Other pairs are:

complete – completeness / completion
enormous – enormousness / enormity (see 276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11, #6)
equivalent – equivalent / equivalence
human(e) – human / humanity
intricate – intricacy / intricateness
potential – potential / potentiality
selective – selection / selectiveness (see also attentive, suggestive)
separate – separateness / separation
special – specialness / speciality
tolerant – tolerance /toleration

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SPELLINGS OF NOUN-DERIVED ADJECTIVES

The following list and examples are offered for reference only. In concentrating on endings that can be added to a noun, they do not necessarily include every possible adjective ending. Moreover, most in the list are also found on adjectives not derived from a noun (e.g. -ic on frantic, -ly on early).

ABLE / -IBLE

Typically added to verbs, but some nouns too, e.g. contemptible, impressionable, knowledgeable

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-(I)AL

artificial, autumnal, behavio(u)ral, central, critical, doctrinal, essential, exceptional, facial, factual, fictional, industrial, informational, judgmental, logical, marginal, minimal, monumental, mystical, original, political, positional, presidential, professional, recreational, regional, residential, spacial, tactical

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-ARY

documentary, dietary, fragmentary, legendary, momentary, monetary, visionary

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-ATE (pronounced /ət/)

affectionate, extortionate, passionate

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-FUL

See 106. Word-Like Suffixes.

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-IC

cosmic, economic, emphatic, fantastic, formulaic, gigantic, graphic, historic, ironic, magnetic, manic, microscopic, panoramic, periodic, photographic, poetic, politic, scenic, strategic, synthetic, talismanic (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary)

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-ICAL

biological (and other adjectives made from an -ology noun), conical, cylindrical, economical, farcical, historical, hypothetical, mathematical, mythical, numerical, practical, spherical, theatrical, typical

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-ISH

childish, fiendish, hellish, impish, mannish

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-IVE

Typically added to verbs (see 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb, #2), but some nouns too, e.g. destructive, effective, festive, instinctive, massive, purposive, qualitative, quantitative, repetitive, responsive, successive

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-LESS

See 106. Word-Like Suffixes

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-LIKE

Usable with most nouns to indicate a similarity, e.g. child-like, spring-like (see 149. Saying how Things are Similar)

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-LY

daily, earthly, friendly, heavenly, homely, hourly, leisurely, manly, timely, womanly, worldly

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-OUS

dangerous, disastrous, frivolous, furious, glorious, harmonious, humorous, joyous, judicious, momentous, mountainous, numerous, poisonous, pompous, porous, rebellious, repetitious, righteous, scandalous, suspicious, victorious, wondrous

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-SOME

awesome, fearsome, handsome, irksome, lonesome, thanksome, troublesome

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-Y

angry, dirty, easy, fiddly, fiery, grainy, gritty, hasty, hilly, hungry, lengthy, meaty, messy, needy, noisy, predatory, rainy, risky, showy, smiley, speedy, squeaky, touchy, tricky, watery, wealthy, wintry, woody, worthy

253. Descriptive Wording after Nouns 2

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A noun can be described by various types of wording after it

THE STUDY OF POST-NOUN WORDING

This discussion is a continuation of one begun in the post before this, where post-noun wording in noun phrases (technically called “noun postmodification”) is said be of various types, and a start is made on describing and analysing them. Three types are considered there: infinitive verbs, preposition phrases and relative clauses. Here, the focus is on participles, adjectives and other nouns.

The aim of the study is to assist recognition of noun phrases, which is useful for both reading comprehension (see 15. Reading Obstacles 8) and grammatically accurate writing. Many of the points are also made elsewhere in this blog, but having them all together here may help their greater appreciation. For a similar discussion of adjective phrases, see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it.

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FURTHER TYPES OF NOUN POSTMODIFICATION

1. Participles

The verb forms that grammarians call participles are by definition noun-describing, and hence particularly likely to be in noun phrases. However, not all go after their noun – some must go before. Some are verbs with -ing, others are regular verbs with -ed (e.g. involved) or irregular ones in the “third” form (e.g. put, begun, known – see 97. Verb Form Confusions).

Participles after a noun can be alone or closely combined with their own object, complement or adverbial (their subject usually being the noun they are postmodifying). In the following proverb, the participle living is combined with an adverbial in phrase:

(a) People living in glass houses should not throw stones.

This means “Do not criticise if you yourself deserve criticism”. It will be seen that living follows directly after its noun people. This is common but not inevitable, since sometimes the same noun will have another postmodifier in between. It is even possible for a participle and its noun to be at opposite ends of a sentence, but this is not the focus here – it can be read about in 101. Add-On Participles.

With the exception of this last kind, postmodifying participles can generally be thought of as just abbreviated relative clauses: living in (a) means the same as who live. Replacement by a relative clause is practically always possible, though the reverse is less so (see 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun, #5).

The participle in (a) has -ing because it corresponds to an active, not passive, verb after who. The tense of live (present simple) is irrelevant here: living (despite being what some would call a “present” participle) could replace other tenses too, such as the past simple. For an -ed participle to be necessary, the corresponding verb after who would need to be passive. For example, who are accommodated used in (a) would be paraphrased with the participle accommodated.

The similarity between participles of this type and relative clauses even extends to the fact that two commas (or a comma and a full stop) sometimes have to be placed around the participle and any partner words of it (see 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun, #3).

Some participles are as usable before their noun as after. For example, remaining may go equally well before or after problems. Other participles, however, go always before or always after their noun. An easily-recognisable kind that must always go after has its own following words, in the manner of living in (a) (see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun, #3). Participles without such words are harder to judge. Their meaning can sometimes indicate where they go: those expressing a one-off event rather than a constant characteristic or condition tend to follow their noun. For example, emerging, a characteristic in emerging nations, is a one-off event in the colour emerging.

There is one situation where an -ing word after a noun may not be a postmodifying participle: when the noun is the object of a particular kind of verb:

(b) The magazine photographs people working in London.

There are two ways of understanding this. In one, working is a participle like those discussed above: equating to who work and classifying the photographed people. Crucially, it does not refer to anything photographed: the object of photographs is only people, not their work. In the other interpretation, however, working in London is the main part of what is photographed. Working means not “who work”, but “when they are working”.

In this second case, working is a noun-like gerund rather than adjective-like participle. As the main part of the object of photographs, it is not postmodifying people (see the end of 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”). As one might expect, this ability of the same combination to have different meanings sometimes causes misunderstanding (see 257. Structures with a Double Meaning 4, #2).

The gerund meaning is not possible after any verb – it is a special property of just some, not usually predictable. Other examples besides PHOTOGRAPH include DEPEND ON, ENTAIL, FIND, INVOLVE, LEAD TO, LIKE, NECESSITATE and SEE (see 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”).

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2. Adjectives

English adjectives are, of course, not normally placed directly after a noun they are describing, the two standard positions being either directly before it (difficult problems) or after it with a link verb like BE in between (…problems are difficult). One could say, in other words, that adjectives are rare postmodifiers. Most English courses highlight the few exceptional adjectives that do usually need to follow their noun, such as immemorial, present (= “in attendance”) and responsible (= “in charge”).

In this blog, the post 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun considers both adjectives that always occupy this position, like immemorial, and those that only do so in particular grammatical circumstances, such as when describing pronouns ending in -thing or -body (e.g. something beautiful), or when possessing their own postmodifiers (e.g. islands beautiful in the extreme). The possibility of circumstantial influences entails that practically any adjective can be placed directly after its noun in the right circumstances.

However, adjectives in this position are not always postmodifying. Here is an example of the main exceptional kind:

(c) Some language learners find grammar enjoyable.

The reason why the adjective enjoyable is not considered to be postmodifying the noun grammar here is a close link to the verb find. This is a verb whose meaning (= “consider”) necessitates mention of two types of information, one represented by grammar and one by enjoyable. If enjoyable was left out, the sentence would either feel incomplete or convey a different meaning of find.

More technically, find (= “consider”) is a verb that requires an “object complement” to describe its object (grammar), and enjoyable has that role. Object complements are classified as a major sentence element along with subjects, verbs and objects, and as such they cannot be part of a subject etc. – they cannot postmodify. For more about them, see 220. Features of Complements.

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3. Other Nouns

It is quite common in English to see two nouns acting together in a single noun position in a sentence. However, the second noun is not always postmodifying. It is never so if the nouns refer to two different things. They may be linked by and (e.g. nouns and adjectives are…) or just placed together, as in library books or the night sky. With and, both nouns are equal; without it, the second noun is the main one, modified by the first. In this blog there is plentiful information about this latter combination type in posts like 38. Nouns Used like Adjectives.

When two adjacent nouns refer to or describe the same thing, however, the second noun is often more like a postmodifier. Examples are the footballer Maradona and mammoths, an extinct species. As these show, sometimes there is a comma between the nouns, sometimes not. Technically, such combinations are called “apposition”. They are analysed in detail in this blog in 77. Apposition.

To say that the second of two nouns (or noun phrases) in apposition is a postmodifier is probably not strictly true. Certainly in some cases (for example where two alternative names are being given) the second noun is as central as the first. However, the second noun seems in many cases to be more describing than described, so that apposition does perhaps have some relevance to this discussion.

In some apposition constructions, the second half is a noun phrase based on a verb:

(d) There is little proof that Homer was a real person.

Here, the underlined words form an apposition construction with the preceding noun proof. They are easily mistaken for a relative clause (one of the postmodifying possibilities considered in the post before this). One indicator of the difference is the inability of that to be replaced by which – it is a conjunction here, not a pronoun. Another is that, unlike relative clauses, the phrase as a whole can be the object of a verb like proved (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”, #1).

Noun phrases beginning with that cannot be placed after every noun to make an apposition construction. Most possible preceding nouns represent speech or thought, e.g. argument, belief, claim, denial, expectation and suggestion. Their combination with that is thus a form of indirect statement (see 127. When to Use Indirect Speech). Other nouns that can precede that include advantage, evidence, likelihood, possibility and problem.

That is not the only word that can introduce a verb-based noun phrase after another noun. Most others are question words, creating indirect questions. Typical combinations are uncertainty when…, the question whether… and explanations why…. In many such cases, though, a preposition, typically of, is added before the question word, ruling out apposition (see 160. Uses of “of”, #4).

Question words used after a noun in this way are classified not as conjunctions like that, but mostly as adverbs (linking in an adverb-like way with the verb after them). They are further called “interrogative” in order to distinguish them from the same spellings used as so-called “relative adverbs”, as in the reason why…. Relative adverbs introduce not noun phrases but adjective ones, similar to those made by relative pronouns like who.

One way to tell the difference is to examine the meaning of the preceding noun: any expressing asking, explaining or knowing will probably indicate an interrogative adverb and hence an apposition construction. Interrogative adverbs should also not be paraphrasable with which: after reason, why can become for which but after explanation no which paraphrase is possible (see the end of 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words).