Are numbers nouns?

Question

Hi Everyone,I've never stopped to think about this, nor have I ever had to teach it, but are numbers, nouns?I know first, second, last and so on are adjectives, but what if we write this following sentence:'He got up at 7am.'Is the number '7' classed as a noun?Thanks,Miss wondering.

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

Cup cakeIs the number '7' classed as a noun?

In English, it seems to be:

sev·en, n.
1. a cardinal number, 6 plus 1.
2. a symbol for this number, as 7 or VII.
3. a set of this many persons or things.
4. a playing card with seven pips.
5. sevens, (used with a sing. v.) fan-tan (def. 1).
–adj.
6. amounting to seven in number.
RHUD

In my native language seven is a numeral, not a noun. There are all kinds of grammatical and other differences between languages.

CB

Anonymous · Answer

"seven noun 1 the number 7, or the quantity represented by it. 2 something having seven parts or members. 3a the age of 7 years.b the hour five hours before midday or midnight. 4 (in p, but treated as sing. or pl) a rugby game played with teams of seven players each. >> seven adj, sevenfold adj and adv. [Old English seofon]" (The New Penguin English Dictionary - 2000 edition.)

"seven determiner, n, **** (the number) 7" (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - 1987 edition.)

"seven determiner, n, **** (the number) 7" (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 1998 edition.)

"seven determiner, pronoun, n (the number) 7" (Cambridge International Dictionary of English - 1995 edition.)

"seven 1. adj. being one more than six 2. n. six plus one || the cardinal number representing this (7, VII) || seven o'clock || a playing card marked with seven spots [O.E. seofon] (The New Lexicon Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary Of The English Language - Canadian Edition - 1988.)

Cup cake · Answer

Thank you Cool Breeze.

The reason I asked was because I'd like to know how this fits into prepositions and the use of time.

For example,

'Jim left at 5pm.'

I thought that prepositions are always followed with an object. Is '5pm' considered an object here?

I'm a little confused with this.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Cup cake'Jim left at 5pm.' I thought that prepositions are always followed with an object. Is '5pm' considered an object here?I'm a little confused with this.

I don't know what '5pm' is considered in your example, nor do I know whether it's an object. I have never thought of it as an object in examples like yours. I taught English for about 35 years before I retired and I and none of my students ever got confused with things like this.

Why worry about the grammatical nature of '5pm'? Just bear in mind that if something happens at a certain hour, at is normally used before the time:

He arrived at 6 (o'clock).
Our train departs at a quarter to 10.
The bus will arrive at 2.20 pm / at 2:20 pm.

CB

Cup cake · Answer

Oh, that's good to know!

Thanks Cool Breeze.

It's why I love this site; it's full of REAL English teachers!

When I surf the Net, I see quite a number of mistakes. I think there are a lot of 'natives' wanting to give advice that isn't accurate.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Cup cakeThanks Cool Breeze.

You're welcome! Good grief! I just realised that I've been a member of EF for ten years. I stumbled upon this site when I was looking for conversation forums specialising in travel.

I'm sure I'll catch up with Mr Micawber one of these days.

Are numbers nouns?

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