[Grammar] How to call someone with an adjective?

[ronaldo1980]

Hello,

If you want to call someone with a noun, you can say, "Come in, student."

But how can I call someone with an adjective?

For example, I want to call someone with "coward," can I say, "I will beat you, you coward."
Or "I will beat you, coward." Or is there another way?

Thanks!

 

[Raymott]

'Coward' is a noun, just as 'student' is.
Why do want to call someone with an adjective? It's not done in English.

 

[ronaldo1980]

'Coward' is a noun, just as 'student' is.
Why do want to call someone with an adjective? It's not done in English.

What about beautiful?

Can I say, "I love you, you beautiful."?

 

[Raymott]

No you can't.
You can say, "I love you, Beautiful." That is a noun - a name that you are giving.
You can say, "I love you, you beautiful thing."
You can't call someone an adjective.

 

[emsr2d2]

Most adjectives don't work in this context but you could use "Come in, gorgeous" - ONLY to be used if you know the person extremely well; I would say only if that person is your partner (relationship partner, not business partner!)

By the same token, in BrE, you'll hear "Come in, beautiful" but not "you beautiful". If you want to use "you", you'd have to say something like "Come in, you beautiful lady/man/girl/boy". Again, you need to be very careful about who you direct such statements to.

 

[emsr2d2]

I take "Come in, beautiful" to be a shortening of "Come in, beautiful person" or similar, with "beautiful" retaining its adjective label. I agree that endearments like "darling/honey/love" are all nouns but none of them are used as adjectives in any context I can think of.

 

[Skrej]

This makes me think of the names of the seven dwarfs - Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, and Bashful.

Of course there was Doc, but his wasn't an adjective used as a name.

I'll often (although sarcastically and usually only with friends or children) address people by an adjective they're currently exhibiting. I guess the debate remains whether those are still adjectives or nouns, but I'll say things like "Hey, stupid", "C'mon stinky", or "Move it, speedy".

 

[GoesStation]

I'd say that English can sometimes convert an adjective into a noun. When you replace someone's name with an appropriate adjective, you've performed such a conversion.

 

[Tarheel]

I take "Come in, beautiful" to be a shortening of "Come in, beautiful person" or similar, with "beautiful" retaining its adjective label. I agree that endearments like "darling/honey/love" are all nouns but none of them are used as adjectives in any context I can think of.

The word "darling" is sometimes used as an adjective. Examples:

That's a darling pic.

Or

She's a darling little girl.

 

[jutfrank]

The way I understand it, the label is a name you're using (so functionally a noun) although the form may be adjectival.

English does this kind of thing all the time. Like when we say 'the French' or 'a homosexual'.

 

[bubbha]

Get in the shower, stinky.
Listen to me, stupid.

But in these cases, the adjectives become nouns (meaning "you stinky person" or "you stupid person"). Indeed, they function as names.

 

[jutfrank]

So if we agree that we're using names in cases like these, then shouldn't we capitalise them -- (as Raymott suggests in post #4)?

Listen to me, Stupid.
Hello, Beautiful.

I'm not sure it looks right. What do people think?

 

[Tarheel]

So if we agree that we're using names in cases like these, then shouldn't we capitalise them -- (as Raymott suggests in post #4)?

Listen to me, Stupid.
Hello, Beautiful.

I'm not sure it looks right. What do people think?

You are using them as names, so, yes. In fact, it removes all doubt as to their intended use.


P.S. You probably want to use exclamation marks with sentences like those.