Preliminary Lesson: Nouns and Adjectives (Latin in Layman's REVAMPED)

At heart, nouns are things like objects, people, animals, ideas, names, places, times, qualities, categories, groups and all sorts of other “things.” Basically, if you can touch it with your hand, then it’s probably a noun. Or if you can do the equivalent with your mind ─ that is, consider, conceive and contemplate it ─ if you can wrap your head around it, it’s a noun. Identifying nouns in English is not hard. Most have one or more of three characteristic features.

Test 1: is there a “the, a” in front of the word, or can you put “the, a” in front of it?

Test 2: is the word plural, or can it be made plural by adding -s? This is far and away the simplest and best test of a noun’s “nounness.”

Test 3: Can you replace the word in question with a pronoun like “he/him,” “she/her,” “they/them” or “it”?

Adjectives at heart are modifiers. To grammarians, “modifying” means “delimiting, restricting the possibilities of something.” So, for instance, if we’re standing in a big, crowded parking lot and I say “look at that car,” there are well over a hundred cars I could mean. But if I say “look at that yellow car,” the possibilities are far fewer, maybe only one.

One, can you put “the, a” in front of it? You’ll also need to add a noun, if you want it to make any sense.

Two, is there a noun (or pronoun) with it that it “modifies”? English tends to put the adjective first so look for a noun immediately (or soon) after the adjective. There are occasions, however, when the adjective comes after the noun, especially in sentences like “You are wise.” “Wise” is an adjective modifying “you.” This happens very often with the word “to be” which can show up in various forms: am, are, is, was, were, have been, and so on. So look for an adjective following the noun or pronoun it modifies when the two are being connected by the word “to be” in some form.

And, three, does the word serve the basic purpose that all adjectives serve? Does it tell you “what sort of” or “which” noun is meant?