Sharing the same quality: adjectives as headwords

1.67 When you want to talk about groups of people who share the same characteristic or quality, you often choose an adjective rather than a noun as a headword.

You do this by using the appropriate adjective preceded by 'the'. For example, instead of saying 'poor people', you say 'the poor'.

...the help that's given to the blind.

No effort is made to cater for the needs of the elderly.

...the task of rescuing the injured.

...men and women who would join the sad ranks of the unemployed.

Working with the young is stimulating and full of surprises.

...providing care for the sick, the aged, the workless and the poor.

Note that you never add '-s' to the headword, even though it always refers to more than one person.

PRODUCTIVE FEATURE 1.68 Although some adjectives are commonly used in this way, in fact it is possible to use almost any adjective in this way. This is a productive feature of English. Productive features are explained in the introduction.

noun-verb agreement 1.69 When the adjective being used as headword is the subject of a verb, you use a plural form of the verb.

The rich have benefited much more than the poor.

being more specific 1.70 In order to refer to a more specific group of people, you can put a submodifier or another adjective in front of the headword. For more information about submodifiers, see paragraph 2.145 to 2.173.

In this anecdote, Ray shows his affection for the very old and the very young.

...the highly educated

...the urban poor.

If you mention two groups, you can sometimes omit 'the'.

...a study that compared the diets of rich and poor in several nations.

...to help break down the barriers between young and old.

With a few words such as 'unemployed' and 'dead', you can say how many people you are referring to by putting a number in front of them.

There are 3 million unemployed in this country.

qualities 1.71 When you want to refer to the quality of something rather than to the thing itself, you can use the appropriate adjective with 'the'.

Don't you think that you're wanting the impossible?

He is still exploring the limits of the possible.

This policy is a mixture of the old and the new.

colours 1.72 All colour adjectives can also be used as headwords.

... patches of blue.

...brilliant paintings in reds and greens and blues.

Clothing of a particular colour can be referred lo simply by using the colour adjective.

The men wore grey.

...the fat lady in black.

USAGE NOTE 1.73 Nationality adjectives which end in '-ch', '-sh', '-se', or '-ss' can be used in a similar way, unless there is a separate noun for the people. For example, French people are referred to as 'the French' but Polish people are referred to as 'the Poles'.

For many years the Japanese have dominated the market for Chinese porcelain.

Britons are the biggest consumers of chocolate after the Swiss and the Irish.

Nouns referring to males or females

1.74 English nouns are not masculine, feminine, or neuter in the way that nouns in some other languages are. For example, most names of jobs, such as 'teacher', 'doctor', and 'writer', are used for both men and women.

But some nouns refer only to males and others only to females.

For example, some nouns indicating people's family relationships, such as 'father', 'brother', and 'son', and some nouns indicating people's jobs, such as 'waiter' and 'policeman', can only be used to refer to males.

In the same way 'mother', 'sister', 'daughter', 'waitress', 'actress', and 'sportswoman' can only be used to refer to females.

'-ess' and '-woman' 1.75 Words that refer to women often end in '-ess', for example 'actress', 'waitress', and 'hostess'. Another ending is '-woman', as in 'policewoman' and 'needlewoman'.

...his wife Susannah, a former air stewardess.

A policewoman dragged me out of the crowd.

...Margaret Downes, who is this year's chairwoman of the examination committee.

'-man' and '-person' 1.76 Words ending in '-man' are either used to refer only to men or to both men and women. For example, a 'postman' is a man, but 'spokesman' can be a man or a woman.

Some people now use words ending in '-person', such as 'chairperson' and 'spokesperson', instead of words ending in '-man', in order to avoid appearing to refer specifically to a man.

USAGE NOTE 1.77 Most names of animals are used to refer to both male and female animals, for example 'cat', 'elephant', 'horse', 'monkey', and 'sheep'.

In some cases there are different words that refer specifically to male animals or female animals, for example a male horse is a 'stallion' and a female horse is a 'mare'.

In other cases the general name for the animal is also the specific word for males or females: 'dog' also refers more specifically to male dogs, 'duck' also refers more specifically to female ducks.

Many of these specific words are rarely used, or used mainly by people who have a special interest in animals, such as farmers or vets.

Here is a list of some common specific words for male and female animals:

stallion mare ~ bull cow ~ cock hen

~ dog bitch ~ drake duck ~ fox

vixen ~ gander goose ~ lion lioness ~

ram ewe ~ buck hind stag doe ~

tiger tigress ~ boar sow