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Gu-Hoon Kwon Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

Adjective or Preposition

Below is Mother Teresa's words.

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and start with the person nearest you.

Is the underlined nearest an adjective or a preposition? The form(-est) looks like an adjective, but it seems to work as a prepostitional phrase modifying "the person"
  

Top answer

I added the words that have been omitted. That makes the structure clearer. We often omit the relative pronoun and linking verb in short relative clauses.

— AlpheccaStars

  • I added the words that have been omitted.
  • That makes the structure clearer.
  • We often omit the relative pronoun and linking verb in short relative clauses.
  • Never worry about numbers.
  • Help one person at a time, and start with the person who is nearest to you.
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4 Answers
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I added the words that have been omitted. That makes the structure clearer.
We often omit the relative pronoun and linking verb in short relative clauses.

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and start with the person who is nearest to you.

Since the missing verb "be" is a linking verb, nearest is an adjective.
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Thanks for your kind explanation. Emotion: smile I have one more question. Is "to" you added between "nearest" and "you" omittable? The structure
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Gu-Hoon Kwons "to" you added between "nearest" and "you" omittable?
Yes. I just wanted to make its grammatical function clear.
Gu-Hoon KwonThe structure above(the person nearest you) is also grammatical?
Yes, and quite common.
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I appreciate your help! Emotion: smile
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