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Immigrant Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
use of adjective as noun
Hi,
I'm translating a sentence from Spanish. In Spanish it's easy to transform an adjective into a noun by modifying it with a neutral article. I know that in some cases you can use adjectives as nouns in English, but I'm not sure whether I can do it here:
An eccentric poet with self-destructive tendencies, Cáceres sought in poetry a path toward the luminous.
Or do I need to say "luminousness"?
Thanks!
I'm translating a sentence from Spanish. In Spanish it's easy to transform an adjective into a noun by modifying it with a neutral article. I know that in some cases you can use adjectives as nouns in English, but I'm not sure whether I can do it here:
An eccentric poet with self-destructive tendencies, Cáceres sought in poetry a path toward the luminous.
Or do I need to say "luminousness"?
Thanks!
Top answer
I would use luminous here. luminousness is too awkward. If you are writing about poetry, you may as well be poetic yourself!
- I would use luminous here.
- luminousness is too awkward.
- If you are writing about poetry, you may as well be poetic yourself!
- On the the other hand it's difficult to understand what the luminous is.
- It must be something rather mystical.
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4 Answers
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I would use luminous here. luminousness is too awkward. If you are writing about poetry, you may as well be poetic yourself!
On the the other hand it's difficult to understand what the luminous is. It must be something rather mystical. Surely not what we call in English the light at the end of the tunnel.
On the the other hand it's difficult to understand what the luminous is. It must be something rather mystical. Surely not what we call in English the light at the end of the tunnel.
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Thanks a lot! I also found "luminousness" awkward. And thanks for correcting me as well!
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ImmigrantIn Spanish it's easy to transform an adjective into a noun by modifying it with a neutral article.Really? Can you show me an example please?
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lo justo, lo mejor, lo absurdo, lo gratis, lo dificil, lo curioso, lo demas, lo mismo, ...
the just / what is just; the best / what is best, the absurd / what's absurd, etc. ...
Set your Google preferences to Spanish and Google lo. There will be many other uses of lo, but after eliminating those, you should be able to find quite a few of these nominalized ad
the just / what is just; the best / what is best, the absurd / what's absurd, etc. ...
Set your Google preferences to Spanish and Google lo. There will be many other uses of lo, but after eliminating those, you should be able to find quite a few of these nominalized ad
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