'Bigoted liar' or 'Bigot liar'

Question

Is it 'bigoted liar' or 'bigot liar'? While describing a person negatively in this way do we use 'ing' form, 'ed' form or the base form of a word coming before a word showing disapproval?Thanks.

GPY · Accepted Answer

It should be "bigoted liar".

"ed" forms pre-modifying nouns are usually past participles performing an adjectival function, possibly blending into passive verbal. For example, "concerned parent" or "parked car". "bigoted" is slightly unusual because there is no verb "bigot", only the adjective "bigoted".

"ing" forms pre-modifying nouns are often present participles functioning as adjectives. For example "interesting topic" or "flying saucer". Sometimes they may be gerunds, e.g. "swimming lesson". There is no word "bigoting" so this does not apply in your case.

The "base form" of a past participle or present participle would presumably be understood to refer to the verb infinitive. It is not possible for a verb infinitive to modify a noun. For example, "park car" and "interest topic" are not possible in any relevant sense. The word "bigot", which you are presumably taking as the base form of "bigoted", is actually a noun. While it is possible for one noun to modify another (e.g. "committee member", "village green"), the combination "bigot liar" does not work.

Any available grammatical method of noun modification may be used when "describing a person negatively", depending on the actual words and phrases used. There is not one specific style for negative descriptions.

Anonymous · Answer

Since the words are different in meaning, you'd typically say this as:  He's a bigot and a liar.

'Bigoted liar' or 'Bigot liar'

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