Nominal Adjectives

A nominal adjective is an adjective that steps into the role of a noun. Preceded by the, it can serve as the subject or object of a sentence without an accompanying noun to lean on: The innocent deserve protection, I want the best for you. This construction condenses a longer phrase—the innocent stands for innocent people—and it is a hallmark of concise, mature English.

Nominal adjectives fall into three broad types. The first and most common is the Collective Adjective, which refers to a group defined by a shared characteristic: the poor, the elderly, the brave. These always take plural verb agreement. The second type is the nominalised comparative adjective, used when contrasting exactly two entities: the taller of the two brothers or the cheaper option. Here the adjective is singular and refers to a specific, countable referent implied by context. The third type is the nominalised superlative adjective: the strongest, the brightest, the most beautiful. Superlative nominals can refer to a person, a thing, or an abstract idea depending on what the speaker has in mind.

The boundary between nominal adjectives and ordinary adjectives is fluid. Almost any adjective can become nominal when the missing noun is obvious from context: Give me the blue one becomes Give me the blue in casual speech. However, explicit alternatives are often clearer, especially for learners. The blue one, the blue car, or the blue dress removes ambiguity and sounds more natural when the referent is not already established.

A subtle but important point: nominal adjectives that refer to people are plural in meaning but never take a plural ending. The rich are powerful is correct; the riches are powerful is not. For more on the group-referring subset, see Collective Adjectives. For how comparatives and superlatives form, refer to Comparative Adjectives and Superlative Adjectives.